By Rob Moseley

Editor, GoDucks.com

For a team with significant postseason aspirations, the young Oregon volleyball squad will have to grow up in a hurry. And there's nothing like a long road trip to help a young team bond and mature.

The Ducks, ranked No. 13 in the preseason coaches' poll, open their 2015 season Friday in Philadelphia against Temple. The match is the first of nine straight nonconference matches to open the season, all of which will be played during a two-week road trip for which the team departed Wednesday.

The trip will take them to play at LIU Brooklyn ? like the Ducks an NCAA Tournament team last fall ? and also to Texas for a tournament featuring No. 4 Florida and No. 5 Nebraska.

“It will be interesting,” UO senior Martenne Bettendorf said, “to see how well we hang, and where we have to go from there.”

Match results over the next two weeks may be hard to predict, but Bettendorf has a sense of what to expect otherwise. Her freshman season, in 2012, UO coach Jim Moore also took the team on an extended road trip, to the Midwest.

That Oregon team made it all the way to the NCAA final. Whether this UO squad has a similar run in store will begin to become known over the coming days.

“We're going hard in practice, but we're sort of unsure what we're going to get once we start playing someone else,” Moore said. “We're not sure how good we really are.”

The Ducks return three of their top four offensive players from last season, led by Bettendorf (3.52 kills per set). Also back are Frankie Shebby (2.55) and Kacey Nady (2.05), along with sophomore setter Maggie Scott and libero Amanda Benson.

Moore's program no longer features the irrepressible Liz Brenner. But he signed a top-five recruiting class in the country, with outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide, middle blocker Lauren Page and the other newcomers all expected to have an immediate impact.

To get the veterans and newcomers on the same page, the Ducks endured team-building sessions with The Program this offseason. Based on her own experience as a freshman, Bettendorf expects this long road trip to further cement the team's bonds ? and boost their confidence.

“There's times when I think we doubt ourselves, but that will happen with any young team,” Bettendorf said. “I think it'll be a chance to prove to ourselves that we're good.”

Just how good? That remains to be seen. But the Ducks will have a much better idea after spending the next two weeks on the road.