Oregon Volleyball On Display In Annual Green-Yellow Challenge Saturday
Oregon Ducks Volleyball opens the season ranked 18th in the country and will look to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the second time under Head Coach Matt Ulmer.
Saturday night will see the unofficial start to the 2018 season with the annual Alumni Game at Matthew Knight Arena. Earlier this week the Preseason AVCA poll was released and the Stanford Cardinal open the season as the top team in the country followed by UCLA(11), Washington(17) and Oregon(18). Scheduling is in favor of Oregon as the team opens the season again playing in the VERT Challenge.
The challenge is clearly ahead as the Oregon Ducks face four Top 10 teams in their first eight games starting with Texas and defending National Champion Nebraska. The Ducks will also face Minnesota and Penn State. Oregon opens the 2018 season returning key players with experience from last year including Setters August Raskie and Kylie Robinson who will have to get up to speed early and get the ball to front-line players Lindsay Vander Weide and Lauren Page.
Another key player Ronika Stone enters her Junior season following offseason success Internationally and two seasons of experience with Oregon under her belt. I expect Stone will settle into her Middle Blocker role and also find herself working blocks up front for points throughout the season.
Last season, momentum was not always on the side of Oregon Softball and that comes with team chemistry. Despite just having three early practices, the team will be on display on Saturday night at Matthew Knight Arena. Team Chemistry will have to be at a premium early with key games and opportunities to make a big climb in the AVCA Poll in the first few weeks of the regular season.
Next. Mariota Impressive In Brief Debut vs Green Bay. dark
The Oregon Annual Green-Yellow Scrimmage begins at 7 pm Pacific Time on Saturday at Matthew Knight Arena. Parking and Admission are free for fans.