Coming off a big conference win on the road, Dixon knew it had to stay focused while hosting Big Northern rival Oregon on Thursday night.

There was no letdown for the Duchesses after Tuesday’s win over Rockford Christian, building big leads in both sets before responding to rallies by the Hawks for a 25-18, 25-13 victory at Lancaster Gym.

“[Wednesday] at practice, we knew that we had moved up in conference, and we knew we needed to keep playing good volleyball to keep it going,” senior Izzy Queckboerner said. “We just can’t stop now, just keep playing how we do.”

Dixon (18-4, 6-0 BNC) remained unbeaten in league play thank to fast starts and strong finishes – a trend the veteran team has seen repeatedly this season.

Solis Thompson had three aces in a seven-point service run to stake the Duchesses to a 12-3 lead, with Queckboerner tipping a kill and stuffing two blocks in the surge. A kill by Leah Carlson stretched the hot start to a 17-8 lead.

Oregon (3-14, 2-4 BNC) answered, as libero Addi Rufer reeled off five straight points, Skylar Bishop stuffed a block and spiked a pair of kills. Suddenly, it was 21-18.

“I think bringing up our energy helped a lot. We kind of struggle with that sometimes, but I thought we had pretty good energy today,” Bishop said. “I thought our connection was pretty good, and especially the first set I thought we did a pretty good job playing at the net.”

Carlson restored order, slamming a kill and serving an ace, and Thompson and Queckboerner each had kills to close out the set.

“Our energy really does go down every game for some reason, and that’s what we’re working on the most,” Queckboerner said. “We just try to pick each other up the best we can, shake everything off and just reset and restart.”

“I think we all really dial in and get on the same page and just focus on putting down that next ball,” senior setter Presley Lappin said about getting out of those lulls. “We all have a lot of trust in each other. I trust my passers to get me a good ball, and I trust my hitters to execute.”

Carlson and Lappin went on service runs early in the second set, then Carlson had three kills. Abby Hicks added a spike for a 17-4 lead.

Lola Schwarz had a pair of kills, and Rufer went on another five-point service run as Oregon again closed the gap, getting within 18-11 on a Hayleigh Heuerman kill and another Bishop block.

But Carlson smoked a kill to end the Hawks’ surge, and after a Morgan Hargrave kill, Queckboerner slammed three kills in a four-point span, and Thompson served an ace as Dixon closed things out.

“Just playing together all around was the key,” Queckboerner said. “Our defense and passes were really good, our sets were on, and our hitters were executing.”

“Izzy, Solis, Morgan, Leah, they all did great,” Lappin added. “There were times where we’d get on a run where it was hard for us to get the ball in, but all our hitters are able to dial in and get back on track.”

Carlson had nine kills, eight assists, 11 points, three aces and four digs. Queckboerner added seven kills and two blocks for the Duchesses. Hargrave had 13 digs and six kills, Lappin finished with 12 assists, nine points, two aces, two dump-kills and two digs, and Thompson chipped in 10 points, four aces, four digs and two kills. Yui Santos had seven digs, and Micki Worrell and Abby Hicks each added four digs.

“I think that we’re all really focused when we go into these matches,” Lappin said. “We want to win conference, so every night we know that we need to win that game [if we’re going to do that].”

Bishop had three kills, three blocks and an ace for the Hawks. Schwarz and Heuerman each had three kills, and Shaylee Davis and Cassie Krup added two kills apiece. Rufer finished with 10 points and seven digs, Emma Eckerd dished five assists, and Mikaila Ellison chipped in six digs, four assists and an ace.

“We started to roll over in the second game, then we called timeout and talked about the goal of just being competitive, giving effort and trying to place the ball, and I thought we stepped up,” Oregon coach Farrell Cain said. “We really fought in the first game, just some errors here and there, but overall I was happy with our play.

“Dixon’s a good team, top of the conference, so we were just trying to give them a little bit of a run for their money.”