Thursday
April 8,1999
Best Bet
NBA Basketball
Portland vs. Seattle
7 p.m., Fox Sports Northwest
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Fisk fights ankle injury—and the field
Nick Medle/Enierald
Two weeks after spraining her ankle at Stanford, senior Heidi Fisk is recovering and hopes to top off her Oregon career by reaching the elite NCAA meet in June.
Despite a severe ankle sprain,
Heidi Fisk is set on capturing
her first trip to the NCAAs
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
It is a warm, sunny day on the Oregon
campus, and senior Heidi Fisk is enjoy
ing it.
Fisk sits casually in the first few rows
of wooden bleachers adjacent to the
Bowerman Building at Hayward Field,
squinting her eyes to avoid being blind
ed by the midday sun.
Still, she is all smiles. She explains
how much she likes having good weath
er, and her eyes sweep across Hayward
Field as she gleefully talks about her ex
periences as a thrower for the Oregon
track and field team.
Then, for a moment, her carefree smile
fades. Fisk pulls up the right leg of her
warmups to reveal the bandage on her
ankle, protecting a sprain that occurred
two weeks ago at the Stanford Invitation
al in Palo Alto, Calif.
“It’s doing a lot better,” she says. “The
swelling has gone down, and the colors
are changing to the healing colors of
green and yellow. It’s still really sore, but
it’s definitely getting better.”
The Oregon track and field program
will rest more easily when the swelling
and odd-colored marks completely dis
appear from Fisk’s right ankle. In her
four years at Oregon, Fisk has become
the Ducks’ top thrower in the shot put,
discus and hammer.
But when she recovers from her injury,
the biggest sigh of relief will be from her
self.
Turn to FISK, Page 13
UO sports get
spring fever
Spring is in the air, and with it
comes the crack of bats at Howe
Field and lively crowds at Hay
ward Field — not to mention
spring football, which has a quarterback
competition between Joey Harrington and
A.J. Feeley that will keep
everyone interested until
the fall.
Even the NFL draft gives
Duck fans something to
look forward to. Former
Oregon quarterback Akili
Smith is forecast to be
among the top-10 picks
when the draft begins
April 17.
As soon as the sun
makes its debut, there
won’t be a better place to be a sports fan
this spring than here at Oregon.
Sure, the basketball season was packed
with excitement for both the men and the
women. The men finished the season in
New York, but before heading to the Big
Apple, they gave Duck fans two solid
home wins in the National Invitation
Tournament after a string of home losses
earlier in the season.
The women lost only once at home this
season, and that was early in the presea
son. Head coach Jody Runge led her team
to a 9-0 conference record at McArthur
Court and a sixth straight NCAA Tourna
Allison
Ross
Turn to ROSS, Page 12
Huskies slam Ducks to gain revenge
Oregon can ’tfind a way to
upset Washington for the
second time this season
By Mirjam Swanson
Oregon Daily Emerald
Against Washington on Wednesday, the
Oregon women’s tennis team didn’t look
much like the team that beat the No. 27
Huskies a month ago.
Without two of their top seven players in
the lineup, the Ducks (10-8 overall, 0-6 Pa
cific-10 Conference) struggled, dropping all
of their singles matches in the 6-0 loss.
Oregon was missing its regular No. 3 sin
gles player, Sarah Colistro, who is out for the
remainder of the season with a knee injury.
And Jaime Martin, who was slated to play in
the No. 6 slot for the Ducks, was diagnosed
with the flu and couldn’t participate.
“I don’t think we responded well to los
ing a couple of our top seven,” head coach
Jack Griffin said. “Having our three-to-six
players bumped up one position, the play
ers started doubting themselves, even
though it’s only one spot higher.”
Although Oregon, ranked No. 42, fell be
hind at the beginning of almost every
match, several Ducks bounced back and
transformed their matches into more com
petitive affairs.
“There wasn’t a whole lot separating our
players and [Washington],” Griffin said.
“It just came down to who wanted it more
and who competed harder.”
Freshman Janice Nyland was one of the
Ducks who exhibited the competitiveness
that Griffin wanted from his players.
Competing in place of Colistro at the No.
On Tap
WHAT:
Women’s
Tennis
WHO: No. 4
UCLA (14-5,
2-2) vs. Oregon
(10-8,0-6)
WHEN:
'Today, noon
WHERE: Willow
Creek Tennis
Courts or 15th
Street Courts
Despite jumping to a
quick 2-1 lead, fresh
man Janice Nyland
lost in straight sets.
3 spot, Nyland found herself pretty evenly
matched with her opponent, Zuzana Stuno
va. As her parents looked on, Nyland was
the only Oregon player who was able to
take a lead in the first set, albeit a slim 2-1
advantage, before she eventually lost, 6-4.
In the second set, Nyland fell behind 5-2
as the two players used various drop shots
to run each other all over the court. But
Nyland, only two points away from losing
the match, began a courageous rally.
Scott Harriett/kmertud
After grabbing a 6-5 lead, Nyland needed
just one more game to send the match to a
third set. But that one game turned into a
spectacular tiebreaker in which both players
held serve 10 times. Finally, Nyland faltered
and Stunova came away with the straight-set
victory, winning the long final set 12-10.
“It was a close, close match,” Nyland
said. “She’s a good player, but basically
it’s just that she had two years of experi
Turn to TENNIS, Page 13
Thursday, April 8.1999 Oregon Daily Emerald 11