Scoreboard
Penn St. 86,
Louisiana Tech 65
Lisa Shepherd scored 20 of
her 25 points in the first half
to put Penn State in control ||
and the Lady Lions (30-4) sur
vived the pressure defense of
top-seeded Louisiana Tech
guards Tamicha Jackson and ||
Betty Lennox.
“Their execution in the first
half was perfection,” Portland §§
said. “If we get four like that
in a row, we’ll be wearing a If
different hat.”
The loss snapped Louisiana §§
Tech’s 21-game winning ||
streak as the Lady Techsters
HI failed to get Barmore in the ||
!|! Final Four one last time.
Connecticut 86, LSU 71 l||
At Richmond, Va., Svetlana ||
II Abrosimova scored a season |§
high-tying 25 points to lead if
II Connecticut (34-1), which also ||
III got 16 points from Sue Bird .
and 15 from Shea Ralph. It ||
HI was the Huskies’ 15th straight ||
III! victory. Connecticut went un
II defeated in 1994-95 to win
III! the school’s only women’s na
II tional title.
Tennessee 57,
Texas Tech 44
It appeared Tennessee might
be in trouble when Tamika
Catchings was helped off the ||
court with a sprained right an
kle with 10:17 left in the first If
half in Memphis, Tenn.
But the 6-foot-1 forward re
II turned to grab 16 rebounds,
ill tip away passes, make three
steals and hand out six assists ||
in Tennessee’s victory.
Rutgers 59, Georgia 51
PORTLAND (AP) — Rutgers’
stifling defense won another f§
II game for the Scarlet Knights,
and this one helped coach Vi
II vian Stringer take yet another ||
III team to the Final Four.
Shawnetta Stewart scored If
22 points as second-seeded §f
HI Rutgers physically dominated
HI top-seeded Georgia to claim
II the West Regional champi
II! onship with a 59-51 victory
III Monday night.
i|| “Never before have I felt f|
like this,” said point guard |f
Tasha Pointer; who had just f|
§§f five points and eight
II! turnovers but was elated
III nonetheless. “Dream come |§
HI true. People continue to If
count us out, but we have |§
III faith in ourselves.”
Rutgers (26-7) will play Ten
11! nessee, the winner of the if
!!| Mideast Region, in the nation
al semifinals on Friday in
Philadelphia. Rutgers is 2-7
all-time against Tennessee.
While the Scarlet Knights
had never been to the Final ||
' Four, it’s old hat for Stringer.
> She is the only women’s coach
? ' to take even two teams to the
Final Four—Cheyney State in
' 1982 and Iowa in 1993.
“Coming to Rutgers, there
really wasn’t anything here,”
II! Stewart said of the team that
went 11-17 in 1996-97. “But
[Stringer] made me believe in ||
her vision. Now, to see how it
II has come out, it’s beautiful.”
Tuesday
March 28,2000
Volume 101, Issue 118
Effierald
Emerald
(clockwise from far right) As junior-to-be Shaquala
Williams keeps improving, so will the Ducks. Bri
anne Meharry and teammates celebrate winning
the Pac-10 after beating Oregon State in front of a
sell-out at the Pit in their regular-season finale. In
typical Oregon fashion, Nicole Strange (14) keeps
things aggressive on defense.
By Mir jam Swanson
Oregon Daily Emerald
Your team loses three seniors. Every oth
er legitimate contender in your conference
loses almost no one.
So you’re really the only ones who be
lieve — most of the time, anyway — that
you can win your conference again.
But when the dust settles and the posi
tively precarious Pacific-10 season has end
ed, you’re the conference champion for the
second season in a row.
Only this time, instead of sharing the title
as you had the season before, you’ve won it
outright for the first time in your school’s
msrory.
On the individual front, two of your
team’s starters, Angelina Wolvert and
Shaquala Williams, are
named first-team all-Pac
10 — in fact the sopho
more Williams is hon
ored as the conference’s
Player of the Year, the
youngest player ever to
receive the award.
Two more of your players, Brianne
Meharry and Lindsey Dion, pick up hon
orable mention accolades,
which is fitting, because
they’ve both in performed so
admirably. Meharry took her
role as sixth-player in stride, for the good of the
team. Dion played though injury.
So you’re stoked, right? You’re season — despite a few bumps along the way — has been
a success, right?
No. Notior the members of the No. 24 Oregon women’s basketball team a week after
Alabama Birmingham prematurely ended their season at McArthur Court in the first
round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m still gonna have a sour feeling about it,” Williams said. “You can’t let that opportu
Turn to Season, page 8A
Five-match streaks come to close for UO
The men s
tennis team
has its five
match winning
streak ended in
Hawaii; the
women's team
wins 6-3 to halt
its five-match
losing streak
By Robbie McCallum
for the Emerald
Both the Oregon men’s and
women’s tennis teams were
amidst big streaks. One team
wanted the streak to continue;
the other did not.
The Duck men were disap
pointed to see their five-match
win streak disappear Monday.
Oregon matched up well with
No. 52-ranked New Mexico
State, but in the end, the Aggies
had too much to offer.
The Ducks lost the decisive
doubles point despite senior
Joaquin Hamdan and junior
David Becker’s 8-4 win over Al
varo Dominquez and Felix Hutt.
New Mexico State and the
Ducks would then exchange
blows in singles play, each team
taking three matches. Hamdan,
sophomore Thomas Schneiter
and freshman Leslie Eisinga all
picked up singles wins.
The Aggies’ No. 70 Marc
Legris ended senior Guillermo
Carter’s five match win streak
with a three-set 6-3,3-6,6-2 win.
“They out fought us a little
bit,” Oregon head coach Chris
Russell said, “Those are the
kind of matches we need to win
if we expect to get into the
[NCAA] tournament.”
The Ducks, ranked No. 71 in
the latest Intercollegiate Tennis
Association polls, fell to 8-5 on
the season.
Oregon hopes to start a new
Turn to Tennis, page 10A
Women s golf continues its run in California
Women’s golf
is in a close
second after
one round at
the Lady Aztec
Invitational —
but it could be
closer
By Peter Hockaday
for the Emerald
For the Oregon women’s golf
team, hindsight is 20/20.
The No. 24 Ducks stand in
second place after one round at
the Executive Women’s Golf As
sociation/ Lady Aztec Invita
tional in San Diego, three
strokes behind tournament
leader California.
However, if coach Renee
Baumgartner had designated
junior Dawn Berry a starter in
stead of an independent com
petitor, the Ducks would be
within a stroke of first going into
the final round.
Berry’s two-over-par 74
would have been Oregon’s sec
ond-best mark, but her inde
pendent status erased her score.
The Ducks are in position to
win their second straight tour
nament, largely due to the effort
of seniors Pam Sowden, in
fourth place with a one-over 73,
and Angie Rizzo, in ninth with a
two-over 74.
Oregon senior Kylie Wilson,
who won the Colby/Santa Clara
Invitational a week ago, only
shot a stroke worse than Rizzo
but is in a tie for 16th place. Se
nior Anika Heuser and junior
Turn to Golf, pagelOA