Oregon daily emerald., April 21, 1998, Page 7, Image 7

BEST BETS
Major League Baseball
Kansas City at Seattle,
FSNW(23) 7p.m.
Sports
Emerald
Ducks in middle of pack after first round
Paula
Patterson
led the Ducks
with an
opening round
score of 75
By Tim Pyle
Sports Reporter
On a course that they had never played
before a Sunday practice round, the Oregon
women’s golf team struggled to a fifth-place
standing after the first round of the Pacific
10 Championships in Rancho Santa Mar
garita, Calif., on Monday.
“We just didn’t finish very well," Oregon
head coach Renee Baumgartner said. “We
played the last three holes 11 over between
the five girls."
Senior Paula Patterson, who is ranked No.
35 in the MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rank
ings, led the Ducks with a 75 through 18
holes that ties her for 13th place individual
ly. Patterson is six strokes behind the first
round leader, Arizona’s Jenna Daniels.
Daniels paced the Wildcats to the top of
the team standings as well. Arizona’s 290
ci jiAjiiui icau
over Arizona State head
ing into today’s second
round at the 6,120-yard,
par-72 Tijeras Creek Golf
Club.
Southern California
shot a 302 to land it in
third place, and Washington s 303 is good
for fourth. The Ducks’ 309 puts them 19
strokes behind the Wildcats.
“It’s a very challenging course,” Baum
gartner said. “There are a lot of hazards and
a lot of tricky shots. It’s a good course be
cause if you hit good shots, you get reward
ed. But if you hit poor shots, then it’s going
to cost you two or three shots.”
The bottom half of the first-day standings
are bunched with UCLA claiming sixth
place at 311, Washington State and Stanford
tied for seventh at 313, Oregon State in
ninth at 316, and California looking up from
last place with a 317.
Daniels has a three-shot lead over Hilary
Homeyer of Stanford and Jeanne Marie
Busuttil of Arizona State. The Wildcats’ Jill
Turn to GOLF, Page 9
Round 1
■ OREGON:
Patterson 75
■ INDIVIDUAL:
Daniels, Ariz., 69
■ TOP 5 TEAMS:
1. Arizona 290
2. ASU 296
3. USC 302
4. Wash. 303
5. Oregon 309
Former Ducks
find perfect
homes in NFL
Baltimore receivers coach
Richard Mann says the Ravens
will use Pat Johnson’s speed
on special teams next season
By Joel Hood
Spoils Reporter
It took nearly six hours for Pat Johnson to
hear his name called in Saturday’s National
Football League draft. And although he
went lower than some experts had predict
ed, Johnson said he may have landed in the
perfect situation to start his NFL career.
The pass-happy Baltimore Ravens select
ed the former Oregon football and track star
with the 12th selection in the second round,
making him the 42nd overall pick and the
sixth wide receiver selected.
This is a good spot for Johnson, who
Raven coaches said they expect big things
from next season, and who could be insert
ed into an offense that ranked fifth in the
NFL in passing and which lost its best re
ceiver, Derrick Alexander, to Kansas City
this offseason.
Ravens’ receivers coach Richard Mann
said Monday that he expects Johnson’s first
contributions to come on special teams.
“He’s got a lot of up side,” Mann said
about Johnson. “He’s got the one thing you
can’t coach — speed. We’ll use him on spe
cial teams right away, and I expect him to
star in that area.
“But we’re not going to throw him into
the fire at wide receiver. We want to work
with him a little and get him used to play
ing in our system.”
Some of Johnson’s training will come
Thursday when he will attend the Raven’s
first mini-camp in Baltimore. The camp,
Turn to NFL, Page 12
EMERALD
Spence was voted an Honorable Mention All-American by Football News last season
after he led Oregon tight ends uith 38 receptions and 632yards.
Men’s lacrosse team headed to collegiate playoffs
John Laurman, Jeff Erickson
and Schuyler Harrison
combined for 10 goals in UO’s
win over Lewis and Clark
By Mirjam Swanson
Freelance Sports Reporter
For the first time in three years, the Ore
gon Club Sports men’s lacrosse team is
headed to the Pacific Northwest Collegiate
playoffs.
The Ducks earned a playoff birth by final
ly putting away the Lewis and Clark Pio
neers for the first time in four years, 16-10,
Saturday evening at Autzen Stadium. The
Ducks will try to use momentum provided
by the victory when they face the No. 1 seed
Simon Fraser in their first playoff game Fri
day.
The Ducks needed a few key goals and a
defensive shutout in the fourth quarter to
ensure the win against Lewis and Clark,
which was only trailing 10-7 at halftime.
“Lewis and Clark played tough the whole
game,” said first-year head coach Peter
norrman. tvery time
we would go up they
would come back."
Making a significant
offensive contribution
for Oregon was attack
man lohn Laurman
with four goals. Attackman Jeff Erickson
and midfielder Schuyler Harrison each
added three goals.
Now the focus is on Friday’s matchup
with Simon Fraser. A win would give the
Ducks the opportunity to face either West
ern Washington or Whitman College. If
they are able to put together back-to-back
wins, they will be on their way to the na
tional championships.
“We have a good chance to get to the na
tional tournament,” Hoffman said. “We
want to accomplish that goal.”
Women’s ultimate frisbee
As expected, the Oregon Club Sports
women’s ultimate frisbee team had no
problem winning the college section of the
annual Henry Callahan Memorial Tourna
ment. Two resounding victories on Satur
day —13-3 over Oregon State and 13-6 over
Humboldt State — locked up the Duck’s
bid for the second seed in the West Region
al Tournament, which begins May 9 in San
ta Cruz, Calif.
On Sunday, Oregon played three games
Turn to CLUB, Page 8
Blazers drive
fans crazy with
inconsistency
Forget the Denver Nuggets and
their 11 wins. Forget the Golden
State Warriors, who endured a
miserable season and the whole
Latrell Sprewell incident with just 19
wins. Forget the troubles of Vancouver
and Toronto and other franchises se
verely down on their luck. Forget the
underachieving bunch in Milwaukee,
as well as those in Houston and Wash
ington.
Speaking from a fan’s standpoint, the
Portland Trailblazers’ recently conclud
ed season had to be the most frustrating
season in the NBA.
Yeah, teams like Denver, Golden
State, Toronto, Vancouver, Dallas and
Philadelphia didn’t
win much, and their
seasons can be
deemed miserable.
But at least they just
weren’t any good.
They were bad from
the time training camp
got underway in Octo
ber until the season
wrapped up over the
weekend.
OPINION
Alex
Pond
I he Blazers, who begin the playoffs
in Los Angeles against the Lakers on
Friday, had to be one of the biggest dis
appointments in the league this season.
OK, there are a lot of teams out there
that would love to have a “disappoint
ing” 46-36 record (see above teams).
But those teams just don’t have enough
good players.
The Blazers, though, have the talent.
Nobody can dispute that.
Damon Stoudamire, J.R. Rider, Arvy
das Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace and Bri
an Grant — the Blazers' starting five
when all are healthy — collectively
stack up favorably against most starting
five’s in the league, at least talent-wise.
It’s just the intangibles the Blazers
seem to be missing — the chemistry, the
focus, the heart and intensity for all 48
minutes that great teams such as Chica
go and Utah seem to have.
The thing that made the Bla-ers the
most annoying team in the NBA this
season was that they were perfectly ca
pable of beating every team in the
league, as wins over Chicago in Chicago
and three wins over Utah proved.
There wasn’t a game the Blazers en
tered that I didn’t think they had a
chance of winning — except against
Houston the day of the Stoudamire
trade, but again they showed their un
predictability and won that game easily
with a severely depleted roster.
On the contrary, there weren’t many
games I thought they probably didn’t
have any chance of losing either.
Turn to POND, Page 12