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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2000)
Ryan Starkweather Emerald Senior Pam Sowden is one of five team members that will not return next year. Oregon finishes emotional year ■The women’s golf team ends its season on a high note despite a disappointing NCAA Tournament By Peter Hockaday for the Emerald The Oregon women’s golf team’s 1999-2000 season reads like the plot to a choose-your own-adventure novel — the Ducks never knew where they were going to end up. Now, reflecting on a season that saw many peaks and equally as many valleys, it’s easy to see why, at times, Oregon, which finished the season ranked at No. 18, looked like one of the best teams in the country and at other times looked overwhelmed. Take the NCAA Champi onships, for example, which just concluded this weekend in Sun river. The Ducks were the best of the field after the first round, mediocre after the next two, and then slipped up, falling to 11th on the final day. At the NCAA West Regionals two weeks before the champi onships, Oregon was precariously on the brink of elimination at 1 Oth before a late charge put them into the championships dnd seventh place. These tournaments are micro cosms of the Ducks’ entire emo tionally charged season, but a sea son that ended successfully for the team no matter the results. “The whole emotion of the thing overwhelmed us,” head coach Renee Baumgartner said af ter the final round at the NCAA Championships. “But you’re not going to remember this round, you’re going to remember the friendships.” The reasons for the Ducks’ emo tional high this season, and espe cially at the final round of the NCAAs, were near the surface since the very beginning. For one, the Ducks knew that Baumgartner would retire from coaching at the end of the season to take over as associate athletic di rector and that four seniors would be lost to graduation. Baumgartner even redshirted Anika Heuser and Kylie Wilson last year so they would have a chance to play on this team, which the coach called her “dream team.” Secondly, a trip the Ducks took to Australia and New Zealand last summer gave the team a chance to bond in a way most teams couldn’t. “It was a great trip,” said senior co-captain Wilson, a New Zealand native. “We’ve got a lot of players from other countries, so it’s a family kind of thing. ” Finally, the Ducks tasted suc cess early in the season and right before the postseason, which may have contributed to their pushes at the end of the regionals and the start of the championships. In the fall the Ducks won the Fall Nittany Lion Invitational in October and had two second place finishes at the Oregon Invi tational and Hawaii Golf Classic. This spring, Oregon took the team titles at the Colby/ Santa Clara Invitational and the Lady Aztec Invitational, both in March. As for individual accomplish ments, the Ducks had many. Wil son won an individual title and senior co-captain Pam Sowden added two of her own. Junior Jerilyn White had the team’s lowest stroke average all spring and ended the season ranked 60th in the country. Heuser was a strong candidate to win at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships and could have contended at the NCAAs as well. All this emotion doesn’t mean the team will fall apart when it loses the four seniors and the coach. White will most likely re main the Ducks’ leader next year on the course. “The next tournament I play in, I’ll forget this one,” White said af ter the championships. The Ducks’ roller-coaster sea son came to an end last weekend, and they will return a whole new team, coach included, next fall. But the Ducks’ emotion should carry over for many years to come. I magi with Abhiman KaushaMabfa tor Ravi Shankar and Phillip Glass & OJ's from June 7. 2000 R»9i«8 Family TEST Multi-Media 8pm Show Hu*t Center Ticket Office 682,5000 University Ticket Office Sl*>/tix 346.4363 $12/sta Student Tickets Available Oregon daily emerald worldwide WWW. dailyemerald.com Summer Storage Units start at /'N ZZ] $26 ' y a month. \1 boxes DOWNTOWN MINI-STORAGE 1475 Railroad 6lvd • Chambers & River Rd • 342-5363’ Get a higher score anytime, anywhere. Study this summer in one of our 160 centers or online! Call our Eugene Center 345-4420 and ask about our “Summer Study Buddy Special" i UPCOMING EUGENE CLASSES: MCAT June 1st ‘ GRE June 3rd UPCOMING CORVALLIS CLASSES: GMAT June 22nd GMAT June 24th LSAT June 25th LSAT June 24th TOEFL July 17th GRE July 8th P/SAT August 14th p/SAT July 15'th World Leader in Test Prep • kaptest.com YOUR place for newt, darrifiedr, merraje boardr, readeu poll;, ODE archiver and more.. Coursebook Buyback ■ EMU Lobby June 5-8 •8:30 A.M.-5:00 P.M. June 9 • 8:30 A.M.-4:00 P.M. ■ Main Store May 31 - June 10 • Regular store hours
