Pac-10 conference race heats up While Washington is the current leader, other teams— including UCLA are hot on their heels By Tim Pyle Oregon Daily Emerald Heading into the final weekend of Pacific-10 Conference women’s soccer play, five teams still harbor hopes of claiming the conference crown. Washington currently leads the Pac-10 with a 6-2 mark (10-7-1 overall). The Huskies and arch-ri val Washington State (5-10-3, 3-4 1) have their final game against each other. The other four con tenders — No. 17 UCLA (15-3-1, 5-2), Southern California (11-6-1, 5-2), California (11-7, 5-2) and Arizona State (8-9, 4-3) — have two games to play this weekend. The Bruins and Trojans travel to the desert to battle Arizona (3-10-2, 0-6-1) and the Sun Devils, while California hosts Oregon (6-8-2,3-4) and Oregon State (6-10-1,1-6). UCLA and Washington entered last Sunday sharing the confer ence driver’s seat with one league loss apiece, but neither the Bruins nor the Huskies were able to capi talize on their advantage. Southern California got a boost from senior forward Courtney Barham to upset rival UCLA 5-4 and win its fifth-straight game. Barham scored two goals, includ ing the game-winner in the 89th minute, despite having started the game on the bench. She was named Pac-10 player of the week for her efforts and pushed her ca reer total to 35 goals, which is the Trojans' all-time leading total. Washington was blanked, 1-0, on its home field in Seattle by Stanford (9-6-2, 3-4), which used Ronnie Fair’s fifth goal of the sea son to complete a sweep of the Washington schools. Whichever team ends up on top of the Pac-10 will be reward ed with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which will announce its field Sunday evening. In the likely case of a tie between two teams for the confer ence title, the team which won the regular season head-to-head game between the two will be awarded the automatic bid to the tournament. If more than two teams tie for the title, the team which possess es the highest point total in head to-head competition between all of those teams (three points for a win, one point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) will receive the bid. Fabulous freshmen The Pac-10 has had an influx of high-scoring freshmen this sea son, with 10 such newcomers among the conference’s top-30 scoring leaders. Man (lorton /Emerald Forward Chalise Baysa leads Oregon with eight goals and 16 total points this season. Former Arizona State star tells his story The Associated Press MESA, Ariz. — A former Arizona State basketball star who pleaded guilty last year to sports bribery conspiracy in games against Washington and other schools is telling his sto ry in a national sports maga zine. Stevin “Hedake” Smith has told a Sports Illustrated writer he had been “well taken care of” during his stint with the Sun Devils, according to The Tribune, a newspaper serving suburban Phoenix. The first-person story writ ten with the help of reporter Don Yaeger will appear in a soon to be released issue of the magazine, the Tribune said to day. In it Smith, the Sun Dev ils’ No. 2 all-time leading scor er, also tells how he got into the habit of gambling. Though the federal probe of the 1994 scandal is over and resulted in a number of guilty pleas and sentences, Smith’s story suggesting gifts from boosters could lead to an NCAA investigation. Yaeger told the Tribune Smith met with an Arizona State official several weeks ago to discuss possible rules viola tions. Yaeger also said Sports Illustrated interviewed other sources to verify Smith’s claims. Wally Renfro, NCAA direc tor of public relations, said he hadn’t seen anything pertain ing to the report. Women’s tennis starts tournament The team enters the Rolex Regional Tournament in Palo Alto, Calif., today By Mirjam Swanson lor the Email) Having seen marked improve ment at its first tournament and on the practice court, the Oregon women’s tennis team hopes to convert those gains into success at the Rolex Regional Tourna ment, which begins today in Palo Alto, Calif. “I'm excited to see us play our second event,” head coach Jack Griffin said. "Our No. 1 concern is that we keep getting better. We’ve seen progress, and this is another chance for us to translate that over to our matches.” The only factor clouding the Ducks’ prospects as they head into the individual tournament is the status of Alina Wygonowska. Oregon’s top player is suffer ing from tendinitis in her knee and may not be able to compete in the tournament, where she would be the sixth seed. "Her knees are really bothering her,” Griffin said. “We’re kind of on a holding pattern on whether we’re going to play her in singles. It’s pretty frustrating, but I don’t want her going out there if she doesn’t have a legitimate chance of playing her best tennis. We’ll wait and see.” Everyone else on the team is healthy, including two of the team’s promising freshmen, Adeline Arnaud and Janice Ny land. Two weeks ago, they both fal tered in their first collegiate matches at the Washington Invi tational. Griffin credited the loss es to freshman jitters. But they later wound up facing each other in the consolation champi onship, which Amaud won, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6. “Janice Nyland and Adeline Arnaud played very well," Grif fin said, “They were playing some really good tennis. I'm looking forward to some good re sults from them. It's their second chance, and I think they're going to be more comfortable with playing college tennis.” They’ll have to find the com fort zone against some of the best players in the nation this week. No. 3 Stanford will be at the tour nament, as will several other highly ranked teams. California, ranked No. 6, will be there, as will Washington. Washington State and Fresno State. “It’s going to be great,” Griffin said. “The level of our players is getting better, so I think there are going to be some great matches.” ©regorW€meraltJ (all (541) 346-434:1 nr stop bv Suite ;iU0 KM I to place >our ad today 090 BIRTHDAYS AilCC ^ooe*