Beavers Head South for Matches at USC, UCLA

Thursday, November 21

Los Angeles, CA

7:00 PM

Oregon State

USC

Photo by: Dave Nishitani/Oregon State Athletics

November 19, 2019 | Women's Volleyball

OSU at USC, UCLA notes

By: Athletic Communications

ON TAP
• Oregon State finishes the season with back-to-back weekends on the road - Los Angeles this week, then Salt Lake City and Eugene next week.
• OSU (9-18, 3-13 Pac-12) takes on USC (15-11, 9-7) on Thursday at 7 p.m.
• The Beavers get an extra day in L.A. before facing UCLA (14-11, 9-7) on Sunday at 1 p.m.

LIVE STREAM & TELEVISION
• Thursday's match against USC will stream live on the Pac-12 Plus Facebook page.
• Sunday's match will be broadcast live on Pac-12 Los Angeles.
• Fans can find both the streams by visiting the volleyball schedule page on osubeavers.com.

LIVE STATS
• Live stats will be available for both matches. Fans can access links to live stats by visiting the volleyball schedule page on osubeavers.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA
• Fans are encouraged to follow the Oregon State volleyball program via social media. There are several platforms to follow the team including:
• Twitter: @BeaverVBall
• Instagram: @BeaverVBall
• Facebook: /BeaverVBall

AGAINST THE TROJANS
• Oregon State trails the all-time series with USC 9-56. The last win for the Beavers over the Trojans came in a four-set match in 2014 by scores of 25-22, 19-25, 25-23 and 25-13.

AGAINST THE BRUINS
• OSU is behind in the series with UCLA 3-62. The Beavers trailed the Bruins 2-0 earlier this year in Corvallis before forcing the match to five sets. The match was decided by scores of 23-25, 15-25, 30-28, 26-24, 14-16. The last OSU win over UCLA came in 2007 when the Beavers upset the fourth-ranked Bruins in five in Westwood.

LAST WEEK
• Oregon State won the opening set against Arizona State on Friday but ran out of gas late falling in five sets. Haylie Bennett tied her career-best with 22 kills and Amy Underdown contributed season-bests of 17 kills and 19 digs while Montanna Gubrud set career-highs with 54 assists and 20 digs.
• OSU came back on Sunday morning to take Arizona to five sets as well before taking the loss. Haylie Bennett was lights out again registering a career-high 25 kills and Maddie Goings turned in a double-double performance with 14 kills and 10 digs off the bench. Montanna Gubrud dished out 53 assists and reset her career-mark, for the second time during the weekend, with 25 digs. Grace Massey collected a career-high 33 digs and a personal-best five aces.

SIGNING DAY
Last week, Mark Barnard and the Beavers' coaching staff added four future student-athletes to the program for the 2020 season. The Beavers addressed three areas of need - outside hitter, middle blocker and libero/defensive specialist. The 2020 recruiting class includes: Nevaeh Bray, a middle blocker from Corvallis, Aliyah McDonald, a middle blocker from Pearland, Texas, Ellie Turner, a libero from Austin, Texas, and Mychael Vernon, an outside hitter from Ossining, N.Y.

TESTING THE DEPTH
• Oregon State, for the second season in a row, has been battered by injuries. A squad that head coach Mark Barnard suggested was the deepest he's had, was tested early in the season. Four outside hitters went down within a matter of days - Chloe Brown (injury) and Amy Underdown were injured during Week 2 at the Hoosier Invite and were unable to finish the tourney. While Maddie Goings (injury) and Cecilee Max-Brown (illness) played through ailments but were sidelined the following week.
• With that foursome sidelined, the Beavers played at the Redhawk Invitational with Haylie Bennett, the starting opposite in 2017 and '18, Shekinah Clarke, who had been rehabbing last year's season-ending knee injury, and Kory Cheshire, who moved from starting middle blocker to opposite and then to the left side.
• Goings was able to return to the lineup at the UNC/CSU Classic after missing one week, while Brown and Underdown returned for the opening week of Pac-12 play ... Max-Brown finally returned from illness last weekend after missing five weeks.
• While the hitters have returned to health, the Beavers lost senior DS Makenna Browne to a season-ending knee injury at the end of September during the victory over Oregon.
• In addition, starting setter Maddie Sheehan and freshman Amya Small were injured in mid-October and won't return this season. Further, Cecilee Max-Brown has re-joined the injured list and remains out.

BENNETT FIRING BULLETS
• Junior opposite Haylie Bennett is back. Bennett suffered through an injury-marred season in 2018 missing time with three separate injuries playing in only 20 matches.
• Bennett began the 2019 season coming off the bench, but when injuries struck the outside hitter position, she was called into full-time duty and has seized the opportunity refusing to relinquish her role.
• Bennett leads the Beavers with 294 kills and 3.03 kills/set overall. In conference play, she enters the weekend with a team-high 201 kills and 3.30 k/s.

NEWCOMER CONTRIBUTIONS
• The Beavers welcomed five newcomers to the fold in 2019 - sophomore transfer OH Chloe Brown and freshmen S Mary Kate Lopez, OH Cecilee Max-Brown, DS Taylor Quinn and MB Amya Small.
• Brown and Max-Brown made an immediate impact on the squad winning both of the starting outside hitter spots. The pair of newbies led the Beavers in the opening weekend at the Oregon Classic with both earning all-tournament team honors.
• Quinn has earned playing time as a defensive and serving specialist.
• Lopez spent the early portion of the season trapped behind a pair of more experienced setters. However, with an injury taking Maddie Sheehan out of the equation, Lopez received her first extensive playing time setting a personal mark with 16 assists against UCLA.
• Small battled against three middles with starting experience ahead of her and will redshirt in 2019.

DIGGING THROUGH THE RECORD BOOKS
• Early in the preseason, junior libero Grace Massey moved into OSU's Top 10 in history. Recently, she moved in the Top 5 in OSU history and currently has with 1,441. She needs 42 more digs to tie Tricia Becker (1987-90) for fourth with 1,483.
• Massey, who entered the season with 993 digs, became the 16th player in OSU history to amass 1,000 career digs during the first match of the season, against UC Irvine at the Oregon Classic.
• She set OSU's sophomore record in 2018 with 560 digs, which also ranked as the third most prolific season in OSU history.
• Massey currently has 446 digs in 2019, which is the 4th-most by a junior in OSU history.
• Junior outside hitter Maddie Goings has also moved into the Beavers' top 30 with 819 career digs, which is good for 22nd in school history.

CHESHIRE PUTS THE ROOF ON
• Senior middle blocker Kory Cheshire is moving up the Beavers' career blocks lists this fall.
• Cheshire currently has 299 total blocks in her career ranking 13th in OSU history. She needs 10 blocks to tie Bree Knitter (2006-09) for 12th on the Beavers' all-time list.
• In addition, Cheshire has 240 block assists to rank 13th. She needs 15 more to tie former teammate Maddy Gravley (2015-18).
• And she is up to 59 career solo blocks to rank 16th in school history. She needs three solos to tie Merri Walters (1984-86) and Christy Stoeckel (1989-92) for 16th.

GOINGS GOING GONE
• Junior Maddie Goings, who moved to the right side to begin the season but has played all over the court due to injuries, has tallied 238 kills in 2019 (2.64 k/s), ranking second the team in kills and third in kills per set.
• Goings registered 56 kills at the Hoosier Invite for a 4.67 k/s clip en route to earning all-tournament honors.
• Goings now has 952 kills in her career which ranks 19th in OSU history. She needs 23 to tie Magan Prieto (1994-97) for 18th place.

MAXING OUT
• Freshman Cecilee Max-Brown began the season by earning a starting spot at outside hitter. However, after earning Oregon Classic all-tournament honors and recording her first college double-double at the Hoosier Invite, she came down with an illness that sidelined her for the next five weeks.
• Max-Brown returned to action at home against USC (10/18) and made her first conference start two days later against UCLA posting 16 kills.
• She accounted for 58 kills across 20 sets for a team-leading 2.90 kills/set before being sidelined again.

SETTING THE OFFENSE
• Sophomore setter Maddie Sheehan became the 13th player in school history to register 1,000 career assists early in the 2019 campaign.
• Sheehan moved into 10th place all-time at OSU and now has 1,467 career assists. Most recently, Sheehan moved past McKenna Hollingsworth and Christine Wilson and needs 298 to tie Kristy Wing (1988-91) for ninth in OSU history.
• Senior setter Montanna Gubrud, who transferred into the program in 2018, raised her OSU career-high to 54 assists against Arizona State.
• Gubrud now has 528 assists in 2019 which ranks as the 10th-most by a senior in OSU history.

TH-UNDERDOWN REACHES IMPRESSIVE MARK
• Senior outside hitter Amy Underdown registered the 1,000th kill of her collegiate career against UCLA (10/20).
• Underdown tallied 537 kills during her first two seasons at Northeastern before transferring to Oregon State.
• She led the Beavers, in 2018, her first season at OSU with 406 kills. Her 406 kills are the eighth-most by a junior in OSU history.
• Underdown's role with the Beavers in 2019 has evolved as the offense has changed throughout the season due to injuries. She had a season-best 17 kills last week against Arizona State (11/15).

CLARKE IN THE CLUTCH
• Redshirt senior Shekinah Clarke was called upon for the first time in 2019 at the Redhawk Invitational when the Beavers were decimated by injuries. Clarke came through with a team-leading, and career-high, 15 kills in her first start against New Mexico to lead the squad to a come from behind five-set win.
• Clarke went on to tally another 19 kills in the next two matches helping the Beavers to a 3-0 record over the weekend (9/13-14).
• Was named to the Redhawk Invitational All-Tournament Team.
• Recently, Clarke has been forced into a defensive specialist-type role due to injury. She posted a career-best 13 digs in the win over Colorado (9/27).
• In an unrelated note, Clarke's brother, Onesimus, made his first career start at left guard for the Beavers' football team during the same weekend as the Redhawk Invitational -- a win over Cal Poly that Saturday (9/14).

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS
• Oregon Classic - New starting outside hitters Chloe Brown and Cecilee Max-Brown were named ot the Oregon Classic All-Tournament Team in their OSU debuts. Brown led the Beavers with 12 and 13 kills respectively and registered the first double-double of her career.
• Hoosier Invite - Maddie Goings set a career-high with 26 kills against Oklahoma and totaled 56 in the Beavers' trip to Indiana. Goings was named to the all-tournament team.
• Redhawk Invitational - Kory Cheshire garnered MVP honors and Shekinah Clarke earned an all-tournament nod as the Beavers swept the competition. Cheshire set a career-high with 17 kills against Gonzaga and 23 digs against New Mexico, while Clarke registered a career-high 15 kills against the Lobos.