Best Bet
NBA Playoffs,
Utah vs. Portland
7:30 p.m., TNT
Tuesday
May 9,2000
Volume 101, Issue 148
Emerald
Seniors still want year to end at World Series
Kevin Calame Emerald
Senior Andrea Gustafson still hopes to be playing after the regular season ends next Sunday.
■As the season winds
down, seniors reflect on
their careers, and fresh
man look to the future
Softball Notes
By Matt O'Neill
Oregon Daily Emerald
It was a great final week
end for the seniors — espe
cially roommates Jill Robin
son and Andrea Gustafson.
Robinson set two new
records, one for career home
runs (32) and another for
single season homers (15).
But, for Gustafson, it was the
second of the two records
that was especially sweet.
“I knew it was gone right
when she hit it,” Gustafson
said. “I was so happy for her.
It’s especially nice because I
was on second. It was a relief
to score in the first inning.”
As one of four seniors on
the team, Gustafson is sad to
see her career coming to a
close. But she also realizes
that it has been a wild and
exciting ride for them in
their final campaign.
“We’ve had our ups and
downs,” Gustafson said.
“But Sunday’s win has
hopefully taken the monkey
off our backs and we can
now play more relaxed.”
Gustafson said Sunday’s
pregame ceremony for the
seniors was nice, but captur
ing the win was even better.
With the final game at Howe
Field finally over, she real
ized how emotional that last
contest turned out to be.
“It was hard to stay fo
cused for the whole game —
it was really emotional,”
Gustafson said. “I had this
feeling for a couple of weeks
now, and now that it’s over,
it’s kind of sad. But it was
great that everyone pulled
together and got the win.”
On the horizon
While Gustafson and her
fellow seniors had time to
reflect Sunday, they know
they have some work to be
done. The Ducks still have
to play No. 1 Washington
and No. 3 UCLA on the
road. But Sunday’s win does
a lot for Oregon’s confidence
for the final weekend.
“Mentally, it takes the
pressure off us,” Gustafson
said. “Hopefully we can go
there and steal a few wins.”
Stealing a few wins will
give the Ducks one last
chance to impress the
NCAA selection committee.
Even though Oregon is
ranked No. 16, Gustafson is
still nervous about her
team’s chances. Last season
the Ducks found themselves
in a similar situation in
which they were the final
team posted on the board.
This year, however, Ore
gon has a certain factor in its
favor: sitting one game
ahead of the No. 9 California
. Turn to Softball, page 12
Oregon women s esteem furthers success of team
■The maturing track
team is learning its
lessons in the value
ofconfidence
Track Notes
By Mirjam Swanson
Oregon Daily Emerald
Confidence is an impor
tant thing, members of the
Oregon track and field
team will tell you.
Pole vaulter Karina El
strom knows it. Hurdler
Lucretia Larkin knows it.
And middle distance run
ner Katie Crabb does too.
Elstrom, an All-Ameri
can pole vaulter last sea
son, underwent medical
meniscectomy knee sur
gery last October. Once
Oregon’s record-holder in
the event, she hadn’t been
the same since the surgery
— at least not until Sunday.
At the Steve Scott Invita
tional at UC-Irvine, the jun
ior led the women’s track
and field team by vaulting
12 feet, 6 3/4 inches. That’s
3 1/4 inches higher than
she had all season.
“I was waiting for that all
season,” Elstrom said Mon
day. “I was totally excited
to go down there. It was so
warm, and there was no
rain; there was a tailwind
there because it’s kind of by
the ocean.
“And I was in the ideal
mindframe too.”
Meaning, of course, that
she was confident — at last.
“I’ve been having some
problems with confidence
after the knee surgery,” El
strom said. “Pole vaulting
is a mental sport. If you’re
not mentally there then it’s
an impossible event. After
my surgery it was so hard
to thing to think of
myself as a good
vaulter still.”
The same goes for
her teammates. The throw
ers. The distance runners.
The sprinters and hurdlers.
Redshirt freshman Lu
cretia Larkin, herself on the
rebound from a stress frac
ture in her leg last season,
seems also to have located
that sometimes-elusive
confidence. The hurdler
said she’s translated the
conviction her coaches
TurntoTrack, page 13
^ It was frustrating to not
be running the times I’ve
been capable of, but then
PR-ing, it means everything
to me.
Lucretia Larkin
freshman hurdler
Freshmen highlight women's mediocre lacrosse season
Catharine Kendall Emerald
Oregon Club Sports women’s lacrosse team member H’rlna De Troy lunges fora ball during practice.
■Two members of the
women’s lacrosse team
are selected to compete
at nationals
By Lisa Toth and Shigenari
Matsumoto
Oregon Daily Emerald
They were sunburned and
smiling when the Oregon
Club Sports women’s
lacrosse
team re
turned to
Eugene
from the
Pacific
Northwest Lacrosse Associ
ation Tournament at Delta
Park in Portland April 29.
Despite the team’s three
loses, two freshmen brought
back their own victories.
Defensive wing Terra
Cloyes and attack wing
Karen Stoker made the cut
for the Division IV team that
will compete at the national
tournament sectionals on
Memorial Day weekend in
Longmeadow, Mass. The
tournament is the highest
level of competition for
West Coast teams. Recruit
ing coaches from West Coast
schools will also be observ
ing the players.
The two-hour scrimmag
ing tryout process “was an
intimidating experience be
cause the women were
skilled athletes,” Cloyes
said.
Cloyes said playing with
competent athletes in the se
lection process had its ad
vantages.
“You could count on
someone to be where you
expected them to be,” she
said.
Stoker, a Massachusetts
native, added that one of the
reasons she tried out was the
chance to fly home. She also
said that although the nerve
racking tryouts are over, she
and Cloyes now have the
task of keeping in peak con
dition for nationals.
Overall, the Oregon
women’s lacrosse team had
a rough season. Its only win
was the first home game of
the season against Pacific
Lutheran University.
The student-facilitated,
two-hour practices three
times a week with games
every weekend from March
through May kept the ath
letes in good spirits despite
seven defeats.
Cloyes said the 18 play
ers, mostly beginners, have
grasped the concept of ball
handling 1 complete
TumtoCIt.* S,Hrts,page 16