USC
12-6, 4-3Pac-12
Oregon
12-5, 5-3Pac-12
Team Stats
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
USC Outlasts No. 16 Oregon in Four-Set Upset
October 14, 2016 | Women's Volleyball
Final Stats | Notes | Final Statistics (PDF) 
EUGENE, Ore. -- The USC women's volleyball team (12-6, 4-3 Pac-12) defeated No. 16 Oregon (12-5, 5-3) in four sets (28-30, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21) at Matthew Knight Arena on Friday, Oct. 14. The Women of Troy remained undefeated and improved to 6-0 in matches played on the road behind a career-high 23-kill performance (7e, 61att, .262) by freshman outside hitter Khalia Lanier.
Lanier also added eight digs and had a block to finish with a match-high 23.5 points. Senior middle blocker Elise Ruddins added 12.5 points as she finished with 11 kills (1e, 17att) and a .588 hitting percentage to go with three blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Alyse Ford tallied 10 kills and had eight digs and three blocks.
Junior opposite hitters Niki Withers and Brittany Abercrombie each had seven kills and four blocks apiece. Junior middle blocker Jordan Dunn had two kills but set a new career high with nine blocks (one solo) for seven points. On defense, senior libero Taylor Whittingham put up 26 digs to go with five assists and a service ace. Whittingham became just the fifth Trojan to cross the 1,500-career digs mark and moved into fifth place in USC's career record books.
USC hit .214 on the night and finished with 60 kills. Junior setter Reni Meyer-Whalley logged her third double-double of the season with 28 assists and 10 digs to go with a service ace. Senior setter Alice Pizzasegola had 20 assists. Off the bench, sophomore defender Victoria Garrick picked up four digs to go with a pair of service aces.
For the Ducks, Ronika Stone and Taylor Agost each finished with 12 kills. Stone added seven blocks (one solo) while Agost went without and error on 27 swings for a .444 hitting percentage. Lindsey Vander Weide had 11 kills but was held to a .086 hitting rate. She also had nine digs and four blocks. Amanda Benson finished with 26 digs. The Trojans erased a pair of six-point deficits and used a 5-0 run to knot the score at 23-all in the first set. USC then took set point four times before the Ducks got back-to-back points to close out a 30-28 win. The Women of Troy scored 20 kills and had four blocks but couldn't overcome Oregon's push at the end.
The second frame went back and forth until a 4-0 run put USC on top by a pair at 16-14. Oregon knotted the score at 16-all, but another 4-0 Trojan run put USC up by four, 20-16. The Ducks mounted a comeback push to score five straight points, but Ford's kill and a big block by Dunn and Abercrombie put the Trojans in front for good at 22-21. Lanier knocked down back-to-back kills to put USC up, 24-22, before Oregon committed the final error for a 25-22 USC win.
Down, 17-13, in the third, Ford and Ruddins teamed for a block that would spark a 6-0 run to flip the score to 19-17 for the Trojans. USC extended on that run to 9-1 for a 22-18 lead before it finished on a 12-3 stretch to sew up a 25-20 win. The Women of Troy held the Ducks to a .075 hitting rate in the third frame (13k, 10e, 40att) to secure the win.
The teams were tied 14 times in the fourth set and the lead changed hands six times before USC went ahead, 21-20, on a kill by Abercrombie and held on to finish off a 25-21 win. Abercrombie's kill sparked a 5-1 Trojan run that included a pair of kills by Lanier and was topped off by a pair of blocks by Ruddins. The Women of Troy trailed several times in the fourth but only by as many as two points. USC put up four blocks in the final frame to hold Oregon to a .132 hitting rate.
Up next, USC heads north to Corvallis, Ore., for a meeting with Oregon State (8-10, 1-6 Pac-12). The Trojans and the Beavers will meet at Gill Coliseum on Sunday, Oct. 16, with first serve set for noon PT. The match will be shown live on Pac-12 Los Angeles and Pac-12 Oregon with Anne Marie Anderson and Holly McPeak on the broadcast. Visit Pac-12.com/NOW to watch.
For more information on the USC women's volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com. To purchase season and single-match tickets, please visit USCTrojans.com/tickets today. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCWomensVolley on Periscope, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.
MATCH NOTES
- USC improved to 52-11 in all-time meetings with Oregon and has won three straight. The Trojans also improved to 4-1 in matches against the Ducks played at Matthew Knight Arena.
- The Women of Troy improved to 6-0 and remained undefeated in matches played on the road this season.
- The Trojans reached double digits in blocks for the seventh time this season and finished with 13.0 total.
- Senior libero Taylor Whittingham had 26 digs to become the fifth Trojan to register at least 1,500 career digs. She moved ahead of Alli Hillgren (2006-09; 1,485 digs) into fifth place in USC's career record books for digs and now has 1,509.
- Whittingham had her 14th match this season in double digits for digs and her eighth over the 20-dig mark.
- Freshman OH Khalia Lanier set a new career high with 23 kills.
- Junior MB Jordan Dunn registered a new career high with nine blocks (one solo).
- Junior setter Reni Meyer-Whalley logged her third-career double-double with 28 assists and 10 digs.
