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Nelson Continued from Page11A turned her toward the Vikings. Her basketball ability earned her a starting position in each of her four seasons. It wasn’t until Nelson’s sopho more season that she decided to play collegiate volleyball. She tore apart her competition, con tributing to national champi onships in 1985 and 1988. Nelson could have won three titles had she not broke her foot as a junior. Nelson remained on the college volleyball scene by taking an as sistant coaching job at Oregon in 1989. The Ducks, led by coach Gerry Gregory, were a formidable Pacific-10 Conference team, fin ishing 21-9 overall and 10-6 in the conference to tie for fourth place. Four years later, two things happened. First, Oregon was no longer a high-caliber Pac-10 team. The Ducks finished ninth in the Pac 10 with a conference record of 2 16 in the 1992 season. Second, Nelson accepted her first job as head coach — at Port land State. In her two years as coach of the Vikings, Nelson led the Vikings to conference titles with overall records of 34-4 and 26-13. “The year I was most proud of was my second year at Portland State, because we’d lost the entire starting lineup and got fifth in the nation the next year,” Nelson said. “That was the year I was most proud of in terms of coach ing and developing the players and getting them to where they need to be at the right time of the year.” Being the competitor she is, Nelson loved winning — but she longed for the competition she faced as an assistant at Oregon. She wanted to compete in the Par-10. Little did she know, she was about to go back to Oregon. Nel son heard there was interest in her taking over as coach for the Ducks, who had slid to last-place in the Pac-10 in 1994. “I knew I was interested in the job, but I didn’t think they’d be in terested in me because I was too young,” Nelson said. “I had only been a head coach for two years, so I didn’t pursue it. “All of a sudden, a mutual friend said, ‘You guys should probably talk,’ so I went down and had an interview.” She took the job knowing that things would be tough, and that expectation came true. Oregon continued to sputter, winning just one conference match en route to another last-place finish. “I inherited a very young team,” Nelson said. “That can be a bad thing for a coach, because it can be a long time before you are able to recruit your own players. You’d think that if I were only gone two years, I would have re cruited a lot of those players, but I did not. “If you have a new coach com ing in, you have an option. You can stick with the kids who are here, or you can run them off so you can get your kids in here sooner. I took the former.” In time, Nelson began getting Cathy Nelson A two-sport standout at Portland State during her col legiate career, Nelson was named the Vikings' female athlete of the year in 1988-89 for her achievements in both basketball and volleyball... also named the schol ar-athlete of the year three straight years at Portland State... played on two Viking national championship volleyball squads (1985,1988)... was volleyball head coach at Portland State for two seasons (1993-94), compiling a 60-17 record and two conference champi onships. .. inducted into the PSU Hall of Fame in 1998... became Oregon head coach in 1995. recruits who fit into her long-term goals. Her second recruiting class brought hitters Amy Banducci and Annie Pogue to the Ducks, both players who have been in strumental at times. In the following recruiting ses sion, Nelson landed Julie Gerlach, Monique Tobbagi, Nicole Allen and Carli Halligan — a solid set ter, two growing offensive talents and a defensive specialist, respec tively. Nelson’s vision for Oregon’s fu ture took another step toward coming true last season when the Ducks finished tied for eighth in the Pac-10 with an 8-23 overall record. This season, Oregon added more talent to its roster when middle blocker Hallie Mazza transferred from Texas-Arlington. “Each year our recruiting has gotten better and better,” Nelson said. “You need to find somebody who’s good enough to be in the Pac-10 Conference who’s not be ing recruited by Stanford. “I’m looking for people who understand the situation we’re in. I can’t hide that from them. We haven’t been the most successful, but they need to understand that there are better things that are on the horizon. I have kids who want that challenge.” The coaching staff also was re vamped and entered the season with two new assistants, offen sive coordinator Didier Hemel soet and defensive coordinator Prentice Perkins. “The [former] coaching staff was something that attracted me,” Banducci said. “I liked [Nelson's] fire and intensity, and she’s a re ally active coach, and I really like that. I’ve always had a coach of that caliber. That was one of the biggest parts of [my decision].” Nelson and her team predicted surpassing last season’s mark. The Ducks came out strong, win ning those first six nonconference matches. The sixth victory was an emotional comeback over the Crimson Tide that went to five games in front of a McArthur Court crowd of 622. But Minnesota proved to be a tougher opponent than Oregon had faced. The Ducks failed to win a game Sept. 11 in their first loss. Being swept can be tough to swallow, but Nelson knew the real challenge would be the following week’s Pac-10 openers against Ari zona State and Arizona. The Ducks lost both matches in three games. “I was blind-sided by what has happened to our team,” Nelson said. “I did not expect it, I did not plan for it, I did not anticipate this at all. “I pinpoint a lot of our season to game 2 at Arizona State. We were ahead in game 2 — we were drilling them — and then we lost the game. And then we got killed in game 3 and lost the match. I think game 2 sort of took the heart out of [the Ducks].” Oregon’s most recent loss came in the season’s first Civil War matchup against Oregon State in Corvallis last Friday. But unlike the nine losses pre ceding it, something good hap pened against the Beavers. The Ducks were swept, but they lost game 1 only when Oregon State claimed the final four points. Ore gon showed in that game the same chemistry and attitude it had earlier in the season when it came back to beat Alabama in five games. Nelson has been trying to find ways to deal with the Ducks’ weaknesses. In practice, she is trying to help Oregon find its stride by stressing the basics — fundamental skills and attitude. “She is doing such a good job keeping herself composed, and I think it is helping us a lot as a team,” Banducci said. “In years past, it has been more stressful, and right now the whole coaching staff is helping each other out a lot.” However, Nelson said she can only help her team so much, and then a true leader needs to emerge. we re trying to hnd players to step up and fill their roles as the ‘go-to’ person offensively,” Nel son said. “Every team needs to have that person, and we don’t have that person right now.” Nelson readily admits the Ducks are having hard times, but she still believes they can win. “I absolutely believe it, and I don’t think I could go on every day if I didn’t believe that things were going to turn around and get better,” Nelson said. “As a coach, it doesn’t help me to focus on the fact that we’ve lost a bunch in a row. I need to focus on what are we going to do to get out of it, what are we going to do to play better and what are we going to do to be a better team. “Thinking about what’s already happened isn’t going to help me. I need to learn from it.” Oregon may not beat its confer ence record of a season ago. If things don’t improve, the Ducks could be on the way to their worst Pac-10 finish in school history. But Nelson is trying, and she still has her vision. “There isn’t any reason why we can’t be the hot team in the second half of the Pac-10,” Nelson said. “We’re going to have to turn some things around mentally, but there’s no reason why we can’t do that.” Nowhere to ru The Oregon Daily E www. da where to hide. n the world wide web. nerald.com Jeff Smith Continued from Page11A two Oregon State graduates, Gary Payton and Brent Barry. Both spoke to the crowd just before tipoff, with Barry saying how “weird it feels for me and Gary to be wearing green in this place.” Current Beaver and first-team all-Pacific-10 Conference point guard Deaundra Tanner could be seen walking around courtside snapping pictures of the players with the same wide-eyed enthu siasm as Tyler Nordby. Fittingly, the Blazers’ first points came on an eight-foot hook from Pippen, getting the crowd in an uproar that would last all night. With the crowd in midseason form, the players’ emotions seemed to match the energy. To ward the end of the first quarter, Seattle’s Vernon “Mad Max” Maxwell got into it verbally with Portland’s Grant, who was in street clothes on the bench. Later in the second quarter, Portland’s Jermaine O’Neal got tangled up with Seattle’s Vin Baker, and they exchanged some heated words before Rasheed Wallace - from the bench - yelled out at Baker, “Sit your fat ass down! Wait ‘til I get in there!” Wallace and Baker were both issued technicals. The play from the Portland starters seemed sluggish and dis oriented at times, but on a night when the Gill Coliseum crowd was the sixth man, the Blazer bench was the real star. Erasing a 19-point third-quarter deficit and forcing the game into overtime knotted at 111, were reserve guard Bonzi Wells with 20 points and rookie Roberto Bergersen, whose three-pointer in overtime helped propel Portland to a 124 115 victory. From the end of the fourth quarter to the end of the game, the crowd, including the Nord bys, never sat down. “This is serious now! Never mess with the Blazers!” ex claimed Tyler. “Fabulous! Unbelievable comeback! It was great,” hollered Dorene. With everything so new and exciting and visions of champi onships dancing in fans’ heads, one thing did remain the same. With more than six minutes to go in regulation, Wallace went ballistic - again from the bench - when he thought that Seattle’s Je lani McCoy hung on the rim too long after a dunk. He was abrupt ly issued his second technical and an immediate ejection. It seems the transformation from “Jail-Blazers” to “Hail-Blaz ers” left a few leftovers. Jeff Smith is a sports reporter for the Emerald. He can be reached via email at smittside@aol. com. f~Pay only $1 entry fee with"] coupon and student ID * sponsored by dub Sports; http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~hockey U Of O ice Hockey o&. Cal-Berkeley Fri., Oct. 15 7:00 PM Sat., Oct. 16 7:30 PM for more info call 346-3733 @ lane County :e (Falrgroun ,736 W. 13th Av Porn. Bong. Snowboard. Get all your gear online/ ■•(Snowtraders) pi for «n additional 10% off. ♦wwwjsno wtradere .com aete bega. boards Boy yoor bong* and You name it, Check out our fufl low of Oa Kine packs at the ASUO afcreet fair. ■ ;■ ■ ' s:. ■ ‘ ' boofca.
