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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 1996)
A Proven Winner England’s Ali Napier brings experience and a winning past to the Ducks By Ryan Frank Sports Reporter Tennis hotbeds Florida State and Washington State both recruited Ali Napier, a quarter-finalist of the British national doubles championship, out of high school in Surrey, England. But Oregon offered her an opportuni ty that the other Division I schools couldn’t: a chance to play as a freshman. Napier suffered an Achilles’ heel in jury dining her senior year of high school and was worried about making the trav eling team if she chose a tennis power house like Florida State. But the Seminoles loss turned into Oregon’s gain. “She’s got really as much potential as you can have, as anv Dlaver in the coun ALI NAPIER ■ YEAR: Sophomore ■ HOMETOWN: Surrey, England ■ TEAM SEEDING: No. 2 singles player ■ 1995-96 RECORD: 18-9 sin gles; 10-11 doubles ■ 1996-97 RECORD: 0-3 sin gles; 1-3 doubles try,” said first year head coach Jack Griffin of his No. 2 singles’ player. “From a coach’s perspec tive, she’s got all the shots.” And some of Napier’s poten tial showed dur ing her freshman season last year. She finished her first year as a Duck with 18 singles wins — only one short of the school’s top 10 sin gle-season win total — and a No. 26 final ranking in the West region. “I played number two and three last year, which was probably higher than I thought I would play,” Napier said. “But I didn’t lose to anybody badly, even when we played Arizona State and Ari zona my matches were close.” Last season, Napier took three Pacific 10 Conference opponents to three sets before losing, including two matches against highly ranked Arizona State. While posting only a 4-7 record against the Pac-10, which contains four perennially top-ranked teams, Napier ex celled against non-conference players with a 14-2 mark. “Coming from England, she’s played a fair amount of tournaments and she’s coming in with probably more experi ence than an American kid would proba bly have who’s playing just junior tour naments,” Griffin said. Napier also teamed up with Shanelle Kaneshiro last year at No. 1 doubles where the pair finished with a 7-10 record and a No. 12 final ranking in the West region. Before coming to Oregon, Napier was undefeated as the team captain and No. 1 player at Kent Sevenoaks High School for three seasons. And before leaving Eu rope, she defeated the No. 37 singles player in the world in the International Tennis Federation tournament. “I was at a good tennis school, so that was good,” Napier said. “But I’ve played a few of the top 50 players in England, it just makes me feel like in England there is no one who I can’t go out and have a good chance against.” Griffin said that Napier has brought ex ! * f x 1 -j_t_i_ CHAD PATTESON/Emerald Ali Napier, the Ducks' No. 2 singles player, recorded an 18-9 record last season, includ ing a 14-2 record against non-conference opponents. perience to the Ducks that has set an ex ample for the rest of the team. “I think definitely the level in the Pac 10 is as good or better than what she was facing over there,” Griffin said. “I am sure that the other players on the team had nev er faced that sort of competition and 1 think she showed the other players on the team that these [Pac-10] players are beat able.” While Napier is winless in two singles matches this season, she has competed against two highly ranked players while bothered by a wrist injury. In the first round of the Duck Classic on Oct. 4, she held a commanding 5-2 lead over Colorado’s Sandra Fischer before los ing 7-5, 6-4. Then in the All-American Championships two weeks ago, UCLA’s Elizabeth Schmidt easily handled Napier in a 6-1, 6-2 win. But she didn’t leave the Championships without a win. Napier and Kaneshiro earned a first-round doubles win over a pair from UCLA. Napier, a right-hander, has been ham pered by an injured left wrist that has been more of an annoyance than a problem. “I had it a few years ago. I think it is just a nick in the cartilage,” Napier said. “The only thing her wrist injury affects is her two-handed backhand,” Griffin said. “So we are trying to take care of that right now, but it is a pain and not a huge deal. It is not going to stop her from playing for too long.” As far as the future, Griffin expects noth ing but improvement out of his No. 2 sin gles’ player. “I would say when she is a senior she’ll be a top 50 player in the country,” Griffin said. “That is reasonable. I think she could even do better than that. I feel pretty strongly about that.” Rider gets into trouble again: Surprised? I was less than shocked to open the pa per on Tuesday and find out that the Blazers are having some problems with one of their newest team mem bers, Isaiah Rider. Apparently, Rider missed Portland’s ex hibition game with Seattle up in Corvallis because he went to the wrong place to get on the team bus. Sounds like an honest mistake. It could be overlooked, but shouldn’t be. First of all, this isn’t even close to the first time that Rider has done something id iotic. He has already missed a shoot OPINION Delta) around before a game in Sacramento. He was supposed to be a celebri ty judge at a slam-dunk contest at Barlow High School this past week end but didn’t show up. Rider was no saint in Minnesota either. As a rookie, he kicked a lady at the Mall of America in Minneapolis over an ar gument about an autograph show. He re peatedly missed games and practices as a Timberwolf. So Rider was traded to Portland for James Robinson, Bill Curley and a first round draft pick. That’s cool, give the guy a fresh start. Maybe a new team and a new city will give him a place to start his life and career over with a better attitude. Maybe not. Rider still spent his summer in Oakland, the site of many past problems. Coach P.J. Carlesimo has blamed Rider’s friends in Oakland for getting him involved in situations that he shouldn’t be in. No offense to Carlesimo, but why would you want a guy on your team who can’t be his own man and learn to say no to his friends when they are doing something il legal? I mean, the man is 25-years-old. He either needs to get out of Oakland or start taking some responsibility for his actions. How many 25-year-olds do you know get arrested for gambling on the street? How many do you know get caught with four il legal cellular phones and marijuana in his pockets? These may seem like fairly minor infractions, but that isn’t the worst of them. Rider was arrested in June of this year for allegedly raping a woman. The charges were eventually dropped, but he was later named as a co-defendant in another alleged rape of a woman who was allegedly drugged with narcotics laced with a hallu cinogen. Is this somebody who is a good influence on a team that includes 18-year-old Jer maine O’Neal? Over the summer, Carlesi mo said he wasn’t afraid of Rider and O’Neal being on the same team, just as long as they d.idn’t become best friends. Obviously, Carlesimo doesn’t have a lot of faith in Rider as a person. But where does he fit in as a player? Port land is a better team than Minnesota. Rider is going to have to prove himself as a team player if he expects to prove himself as a person. And he isn’t going to do that by missing a game. In fact he will end up miss ing two because he has been suspended one game for not making it to Corvallis. There is little the Blazers can do now. Who is hurt more when Rider doesn’t play: die player or the team? I guess that will be determined in the next eight months. Andrea DeYoung is the assistant sports editor for the Emerald. Her views do not necessarily represent those of the newspaper.
