<DregonW€merafo
THURSDAY
Nov. 5,1998
Best Bet
College Football
East Carolina at Cincinnati
5:00 p.m., ESPN
It’s time to
put the past
behind us
It is no secret the Oregon football team
is in a slump.
A team that seemed destined fora
post-season trip to Pasadena was em
barrassed last Saturday by Arizona. The
fact that it happened on television didn’t
help.
The only way to lessen the national
humiliation that followed would have
been to close the game to all media. I had
never seen a greater variety of headlines
about one subject before last Sunday. Al
most every newspaper got its piece of the
pie.
Those Arizona newspapers really
jumped on the bandwagon. The Arizona
Daily Star featured a full-page color picto
rial with photos of the Wildcats relent
lessly tearing apart the fragmented Ducks.
wn me iiuiii spui JJcigt;
of The Arizona Republic,
one couldn't miss the dom
inant photo of Oregon tight
end Jed Weaver being
stopped by Arizona defen
sive end Joe Tafoya. The
headline for that story
reads, “Crackdown on
quackers.”
My favorite Sunday
headline to emerge from
the loss appeared in the
Register-Guard — “Cough,
Opinion
Scott
Pesznecker
sputter, hack, wheeze. Yes, you guessed
it: the story was about Oregon’s offense
against Arizona.
But from here, Oregon can only do one
of two tilings — it can continue to allow
themselves to be beaten, or they can move
on and play like the talented team they
are. Perhaps the most accurate headline
that I read this week appeared Monday in
the Register-Guard. It read, “Bellotti says
there’s no need to look back.”
The past few weeks have not been
pleasant for anyone who cares about the
football team. But things like this happen
to all sports teams, and when they do, it is
important for everyone to move on and
get over it.
So to help lighten things up, I decided
to write this little song. It goes to the
theme of the old-time television hit “Gilli
gan’s Island."
Turn to PESZNECKER, Page 8
Ernst and White winning together
Matt Hatikiti'i/hmerald
Senior co-captains Alii White (12) and Madeline Ernst attempt a block against UCLA in October. The two are
team leaders in kills and play their final home match on Sunday against Washington State at 1 p.m.
Early contentions hare
smoothed into a winning
relationship for Oregon's top
volleyball scorers
By Allison Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
Madeline Ernst and Alii White.
Two pillars within the Oregon volley
ball program. Two players, completely
different, yet intertwined in an experi
ence shared by no others.
Both will finish their careers at Oregon
this year without a winning season, but
each will have left her mark.
This year, Ernst became the sixth play
er in school history to record 1,000 or
more kills in a season when she pounded
26 against UCl.A on Sept. 25. She leads
the Pacific-10 Conference, averaging 5.71
kills per game, which also places her sec
ona in me nation. Mie
lias recorded double
digit kills in 23 of Ore
gon's 24 matches this
season, including 12
matches in which she
tallied 20 or more.
Ernst’s 451 kills this
VOLLEYBALL
season put tier atop the Oregon roster
and surpass her season total of 363 last
year.
White is second on the team behind
Ernst with 292 kills, and her 3.74 kills
per-game average ranks 10th in the Pac
10. Defensively, White is a force as well,
leading Oregon with 65 blocks.
Their relationship began three years
ago, but both admit it was rocky, to say
the least.
“Alii and 1 didn’t see eye to eye,” Ernst
says, laughing. “Our personalities didn’t
mesh. She was a different player than I
was. She was loud and really aggressive,
and I was the complete opposite.”
Ernst, a native of St. Paul, Ore., red
shirted the 1994 season, and when White
arrived from Los Gatos, Calif., in 1995,
she gave the passive Oregonian her first
dose of competition.
“I think it was hard for people to see
me so extroverted and loud," White says.
“I wasn’t the typical quiet freshman,
which got me into trouble sometimes,
but that was just my personality.”
White worked her way into the start
ing line-up that year to become Oregon’s
rookie of the year and one of the pro
gram’s most successful first-year players.
Ernst was also on her way, beginning
to showcase the type of player she would
Turn O VOLLEYBALL, Page~12
Bellotti writes off loss as ‘stubbed toe,’ prepares for Huskies
Last week’s loss
to Arizona was
less traumatic
than the
crushing blow
that UCLA
delivered,
Bellotti says
By Rob Moseley
Oregon Daily Emerald
No. 21 Oregon faces its second week of
practice after a losing effort, but head coach
Mike Bellotti said the attitude of the players
this week is decidedly more upbeat than it
was two weeks ago.
“Our spirits have been good, not anything
like they were after the UCLA game,” Bel
lotti said. “We had very spirited practices
Monday and Tuesday. We know we
stubbed our toe, but it’s not as important
that it happened. What’s important is what
you do with it after the fact and how you re
spond to it.”
The “stubbed toe” Bellotti speaks of is of
course the Ducks’ 38-3 loss at Arizona last
Saturday that cost Oregon nine spots in the
Associated Press Top 25 poll and a hefty
chunk of pride.
But Bellotti insisted he and his players
are having an easier time overcoming this
defeat than their 41-38 overtime loss at
UCLA on Oct. 17.
“It’s easier to let [the Arizona] game go
ana say they got us,
Bellotti said. "They
were playing very, very
well. We did not play
well. We were down a
couple of bodies that
probably would have
made a difference.”
Football Notes
Ho-Ching may return against
the Huskies
One of those bodies, tailback Herman Ho
Ching, may be available against Washington
on Saturday.
Ho-Ching, out since Sept. 19 with
strained knee ligaments, was described by
Bellotti as questionable for the Washington
game after Monday’s practice. That progno
sis was improved to "50-50" after Tuesday.
“I was pleased with the progress he made
from Monday to Tuesday,” Bellotti said.
“He was moving faster and quicker and
seemed to be more comfortable and confi
dent. If he continues to improve like that, I
think there is a very good possibility he
could play.”
After Wednesday’s practice, Ho-Ching
said he felt ready to go on Saturday.
“Today I felt great,” Ho-Ching said. “I was
doing a lot of things today full speed. I
thought I had to prove something to my
coaches, that I wanted to play this Saturday,
Turn to NOTES, Page 8
(( What's
important is
what you do
with it after
the fact and
how you
respond to
it. ”
Mike Bellotti
Head football coach