Volleyball loses sixth straight, falls to 3-11 in Pac-12
Published: Monday, November 5, 2012
Updated: Monday, November 5, 2012 03:11
 "Photo: John Zhang | THE DAILY BAROMETER")
John Zhang | THE DAILY BAROMETER
Megan McBride, Arica Nassar and the rest of the OSU volleyball team have been in a slump. Losses to Stanford and Cal extend their losing streak to six games.
Oregon State suffered its fifth and sixth consecutive losses this past weekend at the hands of No. 1 Stanford and Cal.
The Beavers (13-13, 3-11) started off hot against the Golden Bears (13-11, 7-7), taking an early 3-0 lead. Cal, however, would eventually take the lead and win the first, second and fourth sets in the 3-1 victory.
“We just weren’t in a rhythm in the beginning and we let [Cal] take the game to us,” said senior setter Megan McBride.
Oregon State hung around in all four sets (21-25, 19-25, 26-24, 20-25), but Cal took advantage of times when OSU was struggling to put together scoring runs.
“We played well throughout the match,” said head coach Taras Liskevych. “This match was really decided by runs of points by [Cal] when we couldn’t serve or pass well.”
This proved true throughout the duration of the match, as Cal would rattle off for five or six points at a time with little to no rebuttal by Oregon State. After halftime, the Beavers stepped on the court with renewed vigor.
“During the third set we started to finally look like ourselves again,” McBride said. “We were playing [with] more heart and our serving was really good. Like [Coach Liskevych] said, [it was] one of our best serving sets of the year.”
Saxton and sophomore Arica Nassar had 14 and 13 kills in the match, respectively. Junior Becky Defoe set a team-high for the season in digs with 18.
Friday night, the nation’s top-ranked team, Stanford (22-2, 14-0 Pac-12) remained unbeaten in Pac-12 play after sweeping the Beavers 3-0 (18-25, 30-32, 14-25) Friday night and sweeping Oregon Sunday.
During the second set against Stanford, the Beavers played their best volleyball, losing 30-32 and almost taking the set. But in the first and third sets, it was all Stanford.
“We came out hot and played with energy in the second set, and we have to do that all the time,” Liskevych said.
Oregon State is now 0-56 when facing Stanford.
The Beavers have six games remaining and play Arizona State at 6 p.m. on Thursday. The match will be aired by Pac-12 Networks.
“We have to play like we played [Sunday],” Liskevych said. “I like the energy and emotion we came with tonight, we just have to execute.”
Darryl Oliver III, sports reporter
is a member of the 
