Oregon Hands KU First Loss Of 2007
Aug. 25, 2007
EUGENE, Ore. – Saturday’s final match of the Oregon Invitational featuring Kansas and Oregon guaranteed a good contest as both teams went in undefeated after the last two days of play. Kansas dropped its first two games and, after a nail-biting game three, were defeated 3-0 (30-20, 30-20, 30-20) to the red-hot hands of Oregon who recorded a blistering .344 hitting percentage during the match.
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Oregon jumped ahead early in game one and Kansas (2-1) could not answer. A hot <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Oregon (3-0) offense defeated Kansas 30-20 on a .328 hitting percentage to take the opening game.
The Jayhawks’ offensive woes continued into the second game, while Oregon never lost momentum hitting at an impressive .370 clip en route to a 30-20 win.
In game three, KU tallied four unanswered points to take an early 5-1 lead. An Oregon point later, the Jayhawks used a kill by senior Caitlin Mahoney and a block from Natalie Uhart and Karina Garlington to keep KU on top, 8-2. Oregon closed in tying the game on several occasions before finally taking back the lead at 21-20. The Ducks refused KU another point in the remainder of the contest en route to its 30-20 win.
“We had too many unforced errors,” said coach Ray Bechard. “You learn a lot from a good team like Oregon and that will definately motivate us this week to get some things together.”
Bechard remains just one win away from history, needing just one more victory to become the winningest volleyball coach at Kansas. He will find a chance to earn that milestone this coming weekend as Kansas heads north again, this time to East Lansing, Mich., for the Spartan Invitational. The Jayhawks are scheduled to take on host and 2006 NCAA Tournament team MichiganState at 5 p.m. CST Friday, Aug. 31. Kansas will wrap up the tournament Saturday with contests against FloridaState at 10 a.m. CST and Missouri State, another NCAA Tournament team last season, at 4 p.m. CST.
