At the end of Oregon’s women’s basketball game on Friday, Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” began blaring as if it were a message to the team who had just suffered a 99-77 loss to No. 9 Washington.

The loss started the Ducks’ conference play on a sour note, yet Oregon has a long way to go this season. Next weekend they will have to face No. 13 Stanford and Cal.

The Ducks sorely missed point guards Sabrina Ionescu (thumb) and Maite Cazorla (foot) who both didn’t suit up for the Ducks.

“I just wish we were a little healthier,” head coach Kelly Graves said before the game. “Now you’ve suddenly got a back court that hasn’t logged a lot of minutes.”

A year ago, Cazorla was the one responsible for shutting down Washington’s second-leading scorer Kelsey Plum. Her defensive play was missed as Plum racked up 44 points, 22 in each half, shooting 3-of-7 from 3-point range.

“When you lose two of your key ball handlers and playmakers, it makes things a little disjointed,” said Graves.

Both Oregon’s offensive and defensive play suffered, particularly the team’s 3-point shooting. Washington, which leads the Pac-12 in 3-pointers made, shot 10-of-21, including a 5-of-5 performance from Heather Corral.

Oregon, on the other hand, went 3-of-5. For a team that relies on 3-pointers, the Ducks weren’t attempting many shots from the 3-point range.

Before the game, Graves said that defensively the team was “going to have to be at our best.” Yet that did not happen.

“The bottom line is, we didn’t guard them,” Graves said. “At this level, you’ve got to guard a lot better than we did tonight.”

When playing a team as offensively gifted as Washington, which leads the Pac-12 in scoring offense and scoring margin, the Ducks couldn’t afford to give up any unnecessary points. Oregon committed too many fouls against their rivals, tallying 20 to Washington’s 13. Plum shot 13-of-15 of her free throw attempts.

The bright spot of the game for the Ducks was Ruthy Hebard, who led the team in points, finishing the game with 25 points, shooting 11-of-14 and 3-of-3 on free-throws.

Oregon has a day to rest and reflect before the Ducks finish their homestead against Washington State (5-8) on Sunday.

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Following a disappointing season in which the Ducks defense ranked third-worst nationwide, Oregon officially hired Jim Leavitt to replace Brady Hoke as defensive coordinator.

The new hire became official just over a week after the Ducks hired former South Florida coach Willie Taggart to replace Mark Helfrich as head coach.

In 2015, Leavitt left his position as the San Francisco 49ers linebackers coach to take the defensive coordinator job at Colorado. Before he arrived in Boulder, the Buffaloes ranked second to last in the Pac-12 in both scoring defense and total defense, allowing 6.55 yards per play and 39.0 points per game. Under Leavitt in 2016, the Buffaloes ranked second and third in the Pac-12 in those categories. Colorado ranked eighth nationally in yards per play allowed (4.69) and 18th in scoring defense (20.5).

Leavitt was also previously the defensive coordinator at Kansas State and the first head coach at South Florida from 1996–2009. He led the Bulls to their first-ever bowl game victory over East Carolina in 2006.

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After defeating Miami 3-1 the night before, Oregon saw its 21-9 season come to an end at the hands of No. 17 Michigan by the same score on Friday during the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Previously, the Ducks were 20-0 when leading in hitting percentage. This meant that to ensure their victory, they would have had to hit well. Oregon was ranked 15th nationally in the category.

However, Michigan is an aggressively offensive team, and Oregon wasn’t able to counteract that defensively. The Ducks only tallied nine blocks, led by Kacy Nady with five total, while Michigan tallied 15, efficiently shutting down Oregon’s leading offensive contributor Lindsey Vander Weide.

Oregon’s deep field of hitters, particularly Ronika Stone and Taylor Agost, who led the team in kills with 17 and 10 respectively, couldn’t make up for her lack of contribution. Vander Weide was kept at a .069 percentage with eight kills, far from her usual standard.

During the first set, uncharacteristic mistakes by the Ducks cost them valuable points. Twice they gave up points because of net violations. Late in the set, Lauren Page had the opportunity to put down an easy kill, but gave up an error instead. Though the Ducks only tallied two service errors, the two aces that they did serve were made from mistakes committed by the Wolverines.

With the score 22-19 in favor of the Ducks, Michigan scored two points in a row. Fearing that the momentum had shifted back to the Wolverines, coach Jim Moore called a timeout. Moore had no reason to fear as the Ducks pulled out a 25-23 win.

But after that, there was little celebration by Oregon. Though technically Michigan wasn’t playing in its home arena, the crowd was distinctly blue. Before the game, Michigan was 16-2 at home. Those two loses came from Nebraska and Wisconsin, the second and third ranked team nationally.

After the first set, Oregon shut down the crowd. But that changed in the second set.

The teams were tied at three at the beginning of the set, but it would be the last time they would be for the rest of the set. After that, it was all Michigan.

To break the tie, Michigan went on a five-point streak. Though Rasmussen broke up the streak with a kill, the Wolverines simply continued on another streak, this one for four points to take an early 8-3 lead. They never relinquished that lead and easily won the set 25-17.

Oregon needed to win the third set. If not, the Ducks would be forced to win two sets in a row to keep their season alive.

With an important 22-20 lead, Oregon needed to show urgency to finish the set. After giving up two kills to Kelly Murphy and Claire Kieffer-Wright, Moore called a timeout.

Though the timeout worked in a way as Stone put down a kill of her own, it did little to switch momentum solely back to the Ducks. Kieffer-Wright, who finished the game with team-leading 20 kills with a .720 percentage, tallied two kills to give Michigan the match point.

To give themselves a 2-1 lead going into the fourth set, the Wolverines’ block came up huge as Carly Skjodt blocked a potential kill from Jolie Rasmussen.

Knowing they had to come out strong in what turned out to be their final set of the season, the Ducks started with a four-point run. But with a 6-2 lead, Oregon began watching its Sweet 16 hopes diminish. Michigan went on a streak of its own, yielding six points.

Though the Ducks kept themselves in the game, Michigan was able to keep them at bay. To finish out the match, the Wolverines went on a four-point run with kills from Abby Cole and Ally Davis and two service aces, both from Skjodt, Carly.

Oregon finishes the season 21-10.

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After the first game this season, Oregon’s defense should have known they were in trouble.

It was a tune-up game against UC Davis, a Big Sky opponent which was coming off back-to-back 2-9 seasons. It was supposed to be an easy win, and it was; despite a slow start, the Ducks pulled out a 53-28 victory.

But if Oregon’s defense could allow such a small school to combine for 392 total yards and four rushing touchdowns, then how could it hope to stop Pac-12 schools and their far more talented offenses?

At the time, Oregon was ranked No. 25 in the nation. Now, for the first time in 12 years, the Ducks won’t participate in a bowl game as they finished with a 4-8 record. The defense is ranked second to last in the Pac-12 in almost all possible defensive categories: Total defense, scoring defense, pass defense and rush defense.

After a weak performance by the defense in 2015, head coach Mark Helfrich hired defensive coordinator Brady Hoke, who decided to switch from the 3-4 to a 4-3 scheme.

Because of the added linemen, the new system was supposed to help Oregon’s rushing defense. But, all season, various running backs made Oregon’s defense look incapable as they ran all over the Oregon front seven. In the Ducks’ loss to Oregon State, the Beavers ran for 310 yards and Ryan Nall accounted for 155 of them with four touchdowns. It was only his sixth career 100 yard game, and 105 of those yards were after contact.

“We’re a young team,” said freshman linebacker Troy Dye, who led the team in tackles this season with 91. “Young teams make mistakes.”

Oregon secondary coach John Neal also contributes the team’s lack of consistency to mistakes.

“It’s hard to even really blow up at the thing; it’s just, a guy makes a mistake,” Neal said before turning to a member of the media. “It would be like if you accidentally dropped your camera right there; what am I going to do yell at you?”

Because this year’s team was so young, the 4-3 scheme may be better executed next year when players have a full season of experience with the system under their belts.

“It’s a new system,” junior defensive lineman Mondeaux said. “Nothing is a quick fix. It’s gonna take some time for everyone to get it down.”

There have been moments this season where Oregon’s defense showed flashes of consistency, particularly in Oregon’s upset against Utah on Nov. 19. On 37 attempts, Utah rushed for 218 yards and two touchdowns, but Oregon’s defense held strong when it mattered most.

In that game, it was two underclassmen, Dye and redshirt sophomore Justin Hollins, who helped the team to victory. Each tallied a sack — Dye’s coming for a 10 yard loss— and nine tackles apiece.

“I think we just played together,” Dye said after the game. “Everyone trusted each other. That’s what it comes down to.”

Despite the poor season, Oregon hasn’t done anything in the past year to improve the Ducks’ future outlook. The easiest way to help the defense would be to recruit talented players; however, they have yet to pin down a five-star recruit. The only four-stars from the class of 2017 to sign with Oregon are cornerbacks Deommodore Lenoir and Jaylon Reed, and defensive end Langi Tuifua.

Regardless of how well these players performed during high school, chances are they won’t make an immediate impact on the team. If Oregon wants to look for new talent, it should look no further than the freshmen already on the team.

Gary Baker and Wayne Tei-Kirby have both stepped up for the Ducks this season, each playing in seven and nine conference games respectively. Baker tallied 14 tackles, while Tei-Kirby tallied 11 with two pass breakups.

“He’s surprisingly athletic and tough,” said Mondeaux about Baker. “He’s done a good job this year filling in a lot of different roles.”

Oregon could also look to Bryson Young, the former four-star recruit from Buchanan High School in Clovis, California. He was rated as the No. 3 defensive end in the state by Scout.com and garnered a 4-star rating from ESPN. Though he didn’t make much of an impact this season, he may next year with more playing time.

While they are likely a long ways away from returning to Pac-12 relevance on the defensive side of the ball, the Ducks have a star linebacker to build around in Dye and could make strides in the 4-3 scheme next season.

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Oregon’s final road trip of the regular season hasn’t worked out the way the Ducks wanted.

Before leaving for Los Angeles last week for a four-game road trip, they were 6-0 on the road. Since then, they have lost twice, once to No. 8 UCLA and the second to No. 12 Stanford.

But on Friday, the Ducks travelled to Corvallis to face Oregon State, a team that the Ducks had previously swept this season during the opening game of conference play. Their road luck changed as they defeated the Beavs 3-1.

The game didn’t start well for the Ducks. The Beavers tallied seven of their nine total blocks during the first set, while the Ducks had five. However, Oregon continued to block, adding six more throughout the game with Lauren Page leading the team with seven.

During the first set, both teams traded off multiple streaks that tallied at least three points. In fact, there were five of these streaks in the first set alone. In the end, OSU edged out Oregon 25-23.

Oregon then caught fire between the first and second sets.

The Ducks tallied 11 kills in the first set, but in the three that followed, they put down 16 kills with four players reaching more than 10 kills, led by Jolie Rasmussen with 12. Though the Ducks hit .051 in the first set, they hit above .350 in the subsequent sets.

After allowing the Beavers to take the first two points of the set, the Ducks went on a four-point streak filled with three kills, two from Ronika Stone and a service ace. The streak was only broken up when Lindsey Vander Weide’s serve went out of bounds, but the Ducks still weren’t done. They went on another streak, five points, and then another after that for four, giving them a 13-5 lead.

The early lead allowed Oregon to relax throughout the second set. Oregon State never regained the lead and the Ducks won 25-19.

The third set started the same way with Oregon State putting down the first couple of points before Oregon began stringing points together for an early lead, 11-4. Four times during the set, the Ducks were able to go on four-point streaks, one during which Taylor Agost had all four kills, and the visitors were easily able to defeat OSU 25-13.

In the fourth set, OSU took a lead. It was all Oregon as the team beat the Beavers 25-18.

Oregon will now wait for Sunday’s NCAA Tournament selection show for its postseason fate.

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For the past couple of years, the Civil War has brought the feeling of excitement to Eugene. This year, however, the game will be hosted in Corvallis, and Oregon students are too ready for this disappointing season to be done with to be excited.

Oregon has been the more dominant team since 2008 when the Ducks defeated the Beavers 65-38. Since then, the Ducks have won for eight straight years,matching the longest winning streak in the history of the rivalry.

Now more than ever, Oregon State may be more motivated to end its losing streak put the final nail in the coffin that has been a disastrous 2016 season for Oregon.

Offensive line coach Steve Greatwood is still looking forward to the matchup.

“The whole atmosphere of the game is always very special to me,” Greatwood said. “Whether we make a bowl or not, it’s always the last go-around with your kids and your seniors. I just have special memories of that.”

When asked what his favorite Civil War memory is, Greatwood thought of two: one from his time as a coach and the other from his time as a Duck player.

“Probably [2010 when] we beat them to go to the national championship to play Auburn,” Greatwood said. “And then the ‘94 game when we had to come from behind to beat them to go to the ‘95 Rose Bowl. Those two were both very special.”

Defensive lineman Henry Mondeaux is also excited for the match-up, but for a different reason. The Jesuit High School graduate used to play against Oregon State’s standout running back Ryan Nall often during high school when Nall attended Central Catholic.

“He’s one of the best backs we’ll go against this year, so it will be a real challenge,” Mondeaux said.

Oregon hasn’t had much luck this season at stopping elite running backs. In its loss against Stanford, Christian McCaffery ran all over the Ducks’ defensive line, racking up 147 yards and three touchdowns. Before that, in a blowout loss against Washington, Myles Gaskin ran for 202 yards and a touchdown.

Right now, the Ducks are playing for pride. For the first time since 2004, they failed to qualify for a bowl game. Last week, though, they managed to pull off an intense upset, defeating Utah 30-28.

The Oregon defense, which has been atrocious this season, played noticeably better in the win. The Ducks kept Utah to only 67 plays and 453 yards, 150 of which came from running back Joe Williams. Utah was also only 5-for-12 on third down conversions.

Mondeaux believes Oregon will be able to bring that same type of strong performance and energy against the Beavers.

“We’ve got guys that are motivated to play in this game, and we’re going to take it on the same way we do every game,” Mondeaux said. “I think we could use the positive energy from last week to the end of this week.”

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— The Oregon women’s cross country team surprised the track and field world this weekend by winning the NCAA Championship title, despite only being ranked 12th in the nation before the race. Freshman Katie Rainsberger led the way, finishing 4th overall, the best finish ever by an Oregon freshman. Edward Cheserek also shocked the nation by placing third in the men’s race, breaking his streak of three consecutive NCAA titles.

— In other cross country news, elite prep-runner Kate Murphy, who competed in the semifinals of the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials this summer, officially signed with Oregon to compete in the 2017 season.

— After coming in at No. 4 on the AP Top 25 Poll last week, the highest spot in school history, a loss to Baylor caused the men’s basketball team to fall to No. 13 this week. Another loss, this one to Georgetown during the first round of the Maui Invitational, may cause the Ducks to drop even further in the next poll.

— Sabrina Ionescu was honored with the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award following her performance during Oregon’s 77-62 defeat of CSU Bakersfield. She tallied her first double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

— Despite recent off-field troubles, the Oregon football team pulled off a stunning upset and topped No. 11 Utah 30-28 on Saturday. Darren Carrington, one of the aforementioned players with off-field troubles, caught a game-winning pass from Justin Herbert with his foot barely in bounds. The loss most likely ended Utah’s Pac-12 South title hopes.

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For the first time since 2004, Oregon is going into the Civil War against Oregon State knowing that this will be the final game of its season. For the past couple of years, Oregon has played well after the regular season due to Pac-12 championship games and bowl games.

Yet this season hasn’t worked out as planned, and Oregon is officially eliminated from bowl contention with a game left to play.

The Ducks haven’t lost the Civil War in eight years, but the Beavers have shortened the talent gap between the two teams, and Oregon State has as good of a chance as ever to win this Saturday.

Oregon offense vs. Oregon State defense

Ranked first in the Pac-12 in rushing offense, Oregon has the chance to run all over Oregon State’s defense, which is ranked 10th in rushing defense. Oregon’s running game has combined for 30 touchdowns, the most in the Pac-12. Running backs Royce Freeman and Tony Brooks-James have the most with nine and eight, respectively.

For the past couple of weeks, Freeman hasn’t been performing up to his usual standard; however, he had his most effective game in weeks during Oregon’s win against Utah last Saturday, with 20 carries for 129 yards. Freeman still hasn’t tallied a touchdown since the Washington State loss, though, and Oregon’s lone rushing touchdown against Utah was from quarterback Justin Herbert.

Herbert may be the key to Oregon’s success. The Beavers’ passing defense ranks fourth in the Pac-12, the same as Oregon’s passing offense. Where Oregon State struggles is its inability to force interceptions, tallying only seven; tied for last in the Pac-12 with Arizona. Luckily for the Ducks, Herbert has only thrown four interceptions in the eight games he has played, and the Ducks’ passing game is the third most efficient in the Pac-12.

What the Beavers are talented at is breaking up passes and causing fumbles. While Oregon has only forced two fumbles all year, Oregon State has forced 12, led by Devin Chappell with six.

Oregon State offense vs. Oregon defense

Oregon State’s offense relies on running the ball and rarely throwing it. This is because, like Oregon, the Beavers have had some quarterback issues. After starter Darell Garretson and backup Conor Blount both were injured in Oregon State’s loss against Utah, Oregon State has been using third-string quarterback Marcus McMaryion.

Since then, McMaryion has thrown 88-for-150 with five interceptions and nine touchdowns. He is coming off his best game last week against Arizona, where he threw 16-of-19 for 265 yards and five touchdowns.

Still, expect Oregon State to primarily use running back Ryan Nall, who ranks seventh in the Pac-12 in rushing yards. He could run all over Oregon’s defensive line, which has been consistently bad this season to the point where a freshman linebacker leads the Ducks in tackles.

However, if Oregon’s defense can perform the way it did against Utah, the Ducks should be able to win their ninth Civil War in a row.

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With a surprising 30-28 win against No. 11 Utah under their belt, the Ducks now turn their attention to their final game of the 2016 season — Saturday’s Civil War at Oregon State.

Even though Oregon has defeated Oregon State for eight straight years, the Beavers not a team that should be underestimated. After losing five games in a row, the Beavers steamrolled Arizona 42-17 last Saturday.

“We got our hands full with what they do,” Oregon secondary coach John Neal said. “They got a lot of different weapons.”

Oregon State’s main offensive weapon is sophomore running back Ryan Nall. He currently ranks seventh in the Pac-12 with 796 yards and nine touchdowns.

“I don’t think the kid has any weaknesses,” Neal said. “He’s one of those guys that if you underestimate, you’re dumb because he can really run.”

Neal sees a lot of similarities between Oregon State and Utah. Both teams are defensively-minded with an emphasis on running the ball. Utes running back Joe Williams ran for 149 yards on 23 carries, and Nall runs with a similar downhill style.

“Utah’s a defensive football program; their offense is based on ball control and running the clock down and possessions,” Neal said. “I see the same thing [with Oregon State].”

Oregon State head coach Gary Andersen was previously the defensive coordinator at Utah. Andersen spent three years with the Utes from 2005-2008, before he became the head coach at Oregon State in 2015. One year of his tenure at Utah overlapped with that of current Utes’ head coach Kyle Whittingham.

Because of that, Andersen has been greatly influenced by the same Utah strategy that Oregon was able to crack in last week’s game.

Neal believes some of the Ducks’ success has to do with the fact that before Utah, Oregon had faced two teams, USC and Stanford, who shoved their running game down the Ducks’ throats. In those games, Oregon’s defense wasn’t as effective, and the other teams were able to rack up 270 and 282 yards, respectively.

When asked what made the defense better against Utah, Neal said, “Consistency. Period.”

“We were knocking them back and creating a stopping point, and we hadn’t done that very much or very well,” Neal said. “We fit the puzzle for the first time maybe all season.”

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After Oregon’s 3-1 win against Colorado last Thursday, head coach Jim Moore told reporters that the Ducks’ serving was an issue.

In the first half of Oregon’s 3-1 win against USC on Saturday, serving was still the issue. Had they not fixed it, the Ducks could have dropped their second game in a row after losing to No. 9 UCLA the day before.

The team tallied 12 out of the its 17 total service errors in the first two sets and recorded just two aces. Oregon’s inability to serve and block — it only tallied one block — cost the Ducks the first set and almost the second.

It was only when Oregon began blocking the Trojans’ attack that the team was able to win sets. During the first two sets, the Ducks tallied three of the team’s 13 blocks. The other 10 were split between the third and fourth sets, in which Oregon put up more decisive victories.

After allowing the Trojans to hit .395 in the first set, the Ducks kept them at .194, .029, and .120 in the following sets due to their improved blocking efforts — that and the Ducks’ deep offense gave them the win. Four of the Ducks hitters tallied double-digit kills, led by middle blocker Ronika Stone with 14.

Even though the Ducks lost a tough first set 25-23, Oregon surprisingly did not start the second set well. Three service errors and an attack error gave USC an early 6-2 lead, but then the Ducks seemed to wake up. Jolie Rasmussen served an ace during a four-point streak that tied the game at 7.

With USC in a slight 19-18 lead, Oregon unleashed a four-point streak that included three kills to take the lead. Though Oregon had the match point with the score 24-21, two errors prevented them from finishing the set, until Stone tallied another kill for the win.

USC began to fall apart in the third set, and Oregon finally began to take control. After scoring two points to take a 2-1 lead, a yellow card was issued to head coach Mick Haley. After that, Oregon’s block contributed four of seven points during an early run for Oregon.

Shorter point streaks allowed the Ducks to take a comfortable 20-12 lead, but the team refused to slow down. Five kills in a row — two from both Rasmussen and outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide and one from Taylor Agost — helped Oregon get the match point, and the team went on to win the set 25-13.

In the fourth set, USC just kept shooting itself in the foot. Before the Trojans could score a point, Oregon tallied five, including two service aces and a block.

Jolie Rasmussen served up Oregon’s final service error of the night, bringing the score to 21-14 in favor of the Ducks. To finish up the match, Oregon scored four points in a row to win the set 25-14.

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