Duck Volleyball Upsets No. 1 Penn State, 3-1

(STATE COLLEGE, Pa) - With its eighth straight season-opening win Friday night, the University of Oregon volleyball team (1-0) celebrated its first-ever win against a top-ranked team and halted four-time defending NCAA champion Penn State's 94-home match win streak.

Seventh-year head coach Jim Moore and the Ducks rallied from a 16-25 opening set loss to win the next three by scores of 25-21, 25-20, 25-22.

The Nittany Lions (0-1) succumbed to defeat at in Recreation Hall for the first time since the 2005 NCAA East Regional, a 3-1 decision to Tennessee, while its last regular season defeat came the year before to Ohio State, 3-2.

"It's a great win, but big picture it's only the first match of the season, and just one win," Oregon head coach Jim Moore said. "That said, it was an amazing effort by our players, who laid all their hearts on the line, and deserve to celebrate tonight. However, I can honestly say I'm worried about Minnesota tomorrow, and anything can happen, so we have to be ready for another challenge from another talented team."

Going back to 1982, the Ducks had lost their 18 previous showdowns with No. 1-ranked foes, but that all changed Friday in one of the most hostile environments in the sport and featured a rowdy crowd of 3,710, encouraged by a +100-person pep band.

For UO, junior outside hitters Alaina Bergsma and Katherine Fischer refused to be sidelined by minor bouts with dehydration and ended with a team-high 19 kills each, and hit .317 and .239, respectively.

"It sounds weird, but all the pressure was on them," Bergsma said. "They were number one and we're not ranked, and we're young with no seniors. The first set their crowd was a little intimidating, and we did feel a little pressure, but we eventually settled down and focused on ourselves. We took it one point at a time, and I kept thinking about how we weren't invited to the NCAA tournament last year, and let that fuel me. After a while, some of the other players started to believe, then knew we could actually win."

Sophomore setter Lauren Plum logged 48 assists, seven digs and one ace to lead the Ducks to a .277 hitting mark that included .417 and .341 set totals in the third and fourth stanzas.

On defense for UO, junior libero Haley Jacob and junior defensive specialist Kellie Kawasaki ended with 13 and 10 digs, while Bergsma just missed her first double-double for Oregon with nine digs.

Bergsma also led the points column (21) and added two blocks, and sophomore middle blocker Ariana Williams led the latter category (3).

For the Nittany Lions, last year's national champion after its 3-0 win over Pac-10 co-champion California, PSU utilized several new faces, including six freshman Friday night.

Returning Second-Team All-American and last year's Freshman of the Year Deja McClendon led the home squad in kills (15), hit .375 and came up with four blocks. Sophomore middle blocker Katie Slay aded 11 kills, a .533 hitting mark, six digs and three blocks.

In the team comparison, Penn State held edges in hitting (.308-.277), aces (5-4) and blocks (8.5-5.5), while Oregon owned advantages in kills (62-48), assists (57-46) and digs (53-43).

"We're going to be excited tonight, but we have to go back to work tomorrow and face another great team in Minnesota," Bergsma said.

Friday's match featured five members of Oregon's six player-newcomer class, including junior middle blocker Milica Krstojevic (3 kills, 2 blocks, .400), and the freshman quartet of outside hitters Liz Brenner (12 kills, .579, 4 digs) and Chloe Buckendahl ( 1 ace, 1 dig), middle blocker Savannah Paffen and defensive specialist Natalie Bookout Gonzalez.

Earlier Friday, returning NCAA semifinalist and No. 2 USC came back from an 0-2 deficit to beat No. 12 Minnesota, 3-2.

Looking ahead, the Ducks wrap up action in the Rockvale Outlets AVCA Showcase tournament Saturday at 3 p.m. Pacific Time and face the No. 12 Gophers. The match will be televised live by the Big Ten TV Network.

"We have two kids in Alaina and Katherine who were incredibly sick, yet pulled it out," Moore said. "I thought Katherine was going to shoot me when I said she have to sub out, so I said 'My bad' and left her in. Both her and Alaina were incredibly tough, and refused to bend, so we're going to get them home and get as much fluids in them as we can."

"Minnesota is a very, very good team, and excellent in ball control so we have our work cut out for us again tomorrow," Moore added. "Haley had a great match leading the players around in serve receive, and wasn't going to quit either. It was also the best collegiate match for Lauren Plum."

Later Friday night, the Ducks were also rewarded with a mention on ESPN SportCenter from show host and Duck alum Neil Everett for the team's record-breaking effort.

In NCAA sports records, only a trio of men's basketball streaks (Kentucky, 1943-55 [129]; St. Bonaventure, 1948-61 [99]; UCLA, 1970-76 [98]) outranked the Nittany Lions' now-ended home court run.