For Oregon volleyball, last year’s season will be tough to replicate. Thirty wins to finish second in the Pac-12 combined with an exciting run in the NCAA Volleyball championship where the Texas Longhorns were the only team between the Ducks and their first ever national title. Ninth-year head coach Jim Moore was asked how he and Oregon can follow up last year’s remarkable season.
“What do we do for an encore?” Moore said. “It’s a new season. We can’t think, worry, concentrate on what happened last year. It’s a whole new team, new group of people. Gotta move on.”
During the final rounds of the volleyball championship, the Ducks often found themselves down a game, which Moore said helped the team focus on the next play without dwelling on the past.
“I hope the thing that we carry from [last season] is that you have to take it one play at a time. It’s the next point, the next point, the next point, and I hope that’s what we learned.”
Junior outside hitter Liz Brenner speaks to the media about the upcoming season for Ducks volleyball at Media Day. (Nate Barrett/Emerald)
Moore and the Ducks lost AVCA National and Pac-12 player of the year Alaina Bergsma along with outside hitter Katherine Fischer, both of whom were critical to Oregon’s success last season. Moore said he’s prepared for change and believes in the personnel he has.
“We’re not going to get Alaina’s back row attacking,” said Moore. “We’re gonna try to do some different things with Martenne (Bettendorf) and Liz (Brenner) that I think will help. I think we’re still as versatile.”
One returning middle blocker on the roster, three freshman and one transfer were brought in to battle for the starting spot next to incumbent middle Ariana Williams.
“All of them are doing very well [and] improving tremendously,” said Moore of his new middles. “Kacey [Nady] went in and kind of tweaked her knee a tiny bit last Saturday [after] she put three straight balls on the floor. Serena [Warner] walked right in… and just hammered balls. So that competition is always good. Right now those two look like they’re going to battle it out for what would be the second middle spot, and we’ll just have to wait and see.” Nady is a freshman and Warner is a junior transfer from Ohio.
Junior outside hitter Brenner returns to the floor for the Ducks after bring selected as a second team All-American, and said the most challenging part of beginning a new season with hopes to repeat their success is getting the new team members to gel into the system.
“Last season was a lot of fun. We have a lot of great people back and we have a lot of new good people. It’s just a matter of getting everyone to work well together and getting the newbies in and knowing the system and getting to play good volleyball like we did last year.”
Brenner, reigning Pac-12 setter of the year and first team All-American Lauren Plum and senior Williams highlight the cast of returners for the Ducks, who open their season August 30 against Eastern Washington, part of the Oregon Classic Tournament.