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WEDNESDAY
December 2,1998
Best Bet
College Basketball
Great 8 Shoot-out
4:30 p.m., ESPN
SPARK
from the
Bench
Lindsey Dion has redefined her role
as a top threat off the bench
t
By Allison Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
Lindsey Dion is in her element. The gray Ore
gon basketball T-shirt she is wearing com
bines the two worlds that this 5-foot-lO
sophomore has been primed for — college and
athletics.
While some granddaughters spend their time eating ice
cream cones and listening to their grandfathers tell child
hood stories, Dion spent her time at football practice
watching her grandfather coach the Fresno State Bulldogs.
“All my life I’ve been around college athletics,” Dion
says. “I watched the players go through his practices, and I
was around all of his coaches, and it taught me how to be a
student athlete — how to act and things like that.”
The memories still linger.
One of Oregon’s greatest strengths this season is its
depth, and Dion is the spark off the bench. Her career-high
10 points and six rebounds against Colorado on Nov. 24
helped the Ducks clinch their first road win of the season
and thus proved how important her role to the team was.
“I don’t really think about being a starter,” Dion says.
“Becoming a starter is like a gift. It comes when you’re old
er and you’ve earned it. Coming off the bench makes you
more focused because if [head coach Jody Runge] calls on
you and you’re not ready, you could lose the game for the
team.”
It’s a new role for Dion, who was a starter in high school
and who led Clovis West High School in Fresno, Calif., to
three consecutive sectional championships. She was a
three-time all-conference selection, and as a senior was the
league’s most valuable player. In 1997, The Fresno Bee
named Dion the league’s Player of the Year, and Clovis
West labeled her its athlete of the year.
It has been Dion’s work ethic both on and off the court
that has defined her character. She was student body pres
ident and a member of the Inter-School Council during her
senior year at Clovis West.
“There would be times when we were traveling during
the summer, and of course Lindsey is taking a class for
summer school,” says Jose Hernandez, Dion’s high school
coach. “She would be in the hotel studying every free mo
ment because she wanted to balance both and be good at
Turn to DION, Page 8
Dion
brings great
enthusiasm
to the
game. D
Jody Runge
Oregon head coach
Lindsey Dion scored
a career-high 10
points and grabbed
six rebounds in the
Ducks’ 75-63 victory
against Colorado on
Nov. 24.
Matt Hankins/Kmerald
r
Tyson back in
court over
assault charge
By Derrill Holly
The Associated Press
ROCKVILLE, Md. — Mike Tyson plead
ed no contest Tuesday to misdemeanor as
sault, a decision that could return the for
mer heavyweight champion to prison.
Although the plea to the two counts is not
an admission of guilt, Tyson faces up to 20
years in prison —10 years on each count —
when he is sentenced early next year by a
Maryland judge. He also could be fined up
to $2,500 on each count.
The charges stem from an Aug. 31 traffic
accident in Montgomery County, Md., in
volving Tyson’s wife, Monica. Tyson was
accused of kicking and punching two mo
torists after the accident.
“You understand that this plea could af
fect your parole,” Judge Steven Johnson told
Tyson before accepting his plea.
“I’m truly aware of that,” said Tyson,
who was released from prison in 1995 after
serving three years of six-year sentence for
a 1992 rape conviction in Indiana.
Tyson, who is scheduled to fight Francois
Botha on Jan. 16, would not discuss his case
outside court.
It will be up to Indiana authorities to de
cide whether the no-contest pleas violated
his probation.
By late Tuesday afternoon, Marion Coun
ty (Ind.) Superior Court Judge Patricia Gif
ford had not heard from probation officials
about Tyson, her clerk, Becky Wagner, said.
She said probation officials would decide
whether to request a violation hearing for
Tyson.
George Walker, chief probation officer for
Marion County, was out of the office until
Wednesday.
Tyson told Johnson he did not expect le
niency or a lighter sentence in return for en
tering the no-contest pleas.
The prosecutor urged that jail time be in
cluded in the punishment.
“The state opposes any probation before
judgment,” said Assistant State's Attorney
Carol Crawford.
Tyson’s lawyer, Paul Kemp, said the plea
was an appropriate resolution to the case.
“Mr. Tyson certainly concedes that
things occurred that were inappropriate,”
Kemp said.
Oregon volleyball looks to rebuild after disappointing season
By Allison Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
From the beginning, things were supposed to be
different for this year’s Oregon volleyball team.
Gone were the demons of past seasons. At present
was a freshman setter from Arizona and two senior
captains, who seemed primed for a winning sea
son.
Oregon head coach Cathy Nelson was finally
coaching a group of her own recruits and the
chemistry between the freshman class and the re
turning players seemed to be one the squad’s
biggest strengths.
“One of the most important things about this
year is not to think about last year,” Nelson said at
the beginning of the season. “I do think that we all
learned very valuable lessons last year.”
And so with last year’s dismal 9-21 record be
hind them, and a fresh outlook to this season, Nel
son wasn’t shy about what she wanted to accom
plish with this team — an NCAA Tournament
berth.
Oregon appeared to be on the right track when
they opened conference play on Sept. 18 with a
sweep of in-state rival Oregon State at MacArthur
Court. The Ducks followed the win with a non
conference victory against Cal State Fullerton on
Sept. 23.
But the events that followed became eerily fa
miliar to Nelson. Oregon dropped its next 11
matches, obliterating its chances to make an NCAA
VILLEYBALL
l ournament appearance.
Among those losses were
teams that Oregon thought it
clearly should have beaten, in
cluding California and Portland.
And that, senior Madeline Ernst
said, was the hardest part to
swallow.
The lowest part of the season was losing to
teams we could have beaten,” Ernst said. “The out
come of our record was disappointing, but overall,
the returning players have bright futures.”
It was not a season entirely of low points, how
ever. For most of the season, Ernst led the Pacific
10 Conference by averaging more than five kills per
game. That average also placed her second in the
nation. Ernst was an all-American candidate and
was a first-team all-Pac 10 selection at the end of
the season.
Freshman setter Julie Gerlach also ranked in
the top five of the Pac-10 for the entire season by
averaging more than 13 assists per game. Gerlach
received an honorable mention to the Pac-lO’s
all-freshman team for her stellar freshman year.
Oregon’s high point of the season came when
the Ducks broke their 11-game losing streak by
defeating No. 16 Arizona in Tucson on Oct. 30.
It was the first time in Nelson’s tenure that the
Ducks knocked off a ranked opponent, and it
proved that the Ducks could compete with the
top teams in the conference.
Despite finishing the season with an 8-21
overall record and a 3-15 Pac-10 record and tied
for eighth place, Oregon’s players insisted this
was a better team than its record showed.
“This season had its highs and lows,” Ernst
said. “We’re disappointed that we didn’t finish
with a winning record or make it to the
tournament, but we were able to knock off some
games from top teams, and we achieved goals we
didn’t even set.”
Which gives the Ducks even more promise for
next season.
ERNST