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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2000)
Women get psyched to kick start season ■ Oregon women’s soccer prepares for a season minus eight graduated seniors, but with budding stars in the wings By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald The Oregon women’s soccer team is young in every sense of the word. The program is young, the coach is relatively young, the players are young, the field is ... well, you get the point. If we want to be a na tionally ranked team, we’ll have to find out what it takes. Bill Steffen women’s soccer head coach In a season after the team graduat ed eight starters, head coach Bill Steffen dealt with breaking this young team in by lining up the toughest preseason schedule in team history. Before they even prepare for games against traditional Pacific-10 Conference powerhouses like No. 17 Southern California, No. 14 UCLA and No. 7 Stanford, Oregon first tangled with national power houses Duke (No. 22), Santa Clara (No. 3) and North Carolina (No. 1). Steffen insists his ultimate goal is a trip to the NCAA Championships, which would be the Ducks’ first ever, even if it appears he scheduled suicide for his team. “If we want to be a nationally ranked team,” Steffen said, “we’ll have to find out what it takes. ” If Steffen’s gamble pays off, the dividends could be significant. The Ducks have the talent to challenge the premier teams, but the next step is winning those types of games— something they tasted last year with a victory against UCLA. Repeating such an accomplish ment could come at the feet of Ore gon’s forwards and midfielders. Ju nior midfielder Chalise Baysa will easily pass Erin Anderson, who graduated last year, as the Ducks’ all-time leading scorer. She is the biggest offensive weapon Oregon has this season. “When Chalise has the ball, peo ple pay attention,” Steffen said. Turn to Kick start, page 17E Football continued from page 4E Granted, Harrington would end that drive with two incomplete pass es, a sack and then an interception, but the character of the 2000-01 Ducks was evident. “There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that we were going to score on that last drive,” said Harrington, who admitted in his soft, emotional voice that he didn’t quite know how to re act to this loss as he’d never lost a game as an Oregon starter before. “We’ve done it so many times before. We’re going to fight down to the end and never give up. It just didn’t hap pen this time for us. But that’s what Oregon football is all about.” For most people who experienced last season’s wild ride, it was a mes sage that was not new. But for highly touted junior college tailback Maurice Morris, it was a great sign to him that enforced in his mind that he came to the right place to play college football. “The one thing I learned about this team is that we’re not going to quit,” said Morris, who was regarded as the No. 1 junior college prospect in the country last year. “I’m pretty sure that everyone’s disappointed, but we’re not going to let this one game have an effect on the rest of our season. I was excited to see us play like this and am glad to be here.” While the hype leading up to the Wisconsin game was big, the hype on Morris was even bigger. The tail back didn’t play spring ball because he was finishing up classes at Fres no City College, and didn’t get a lot of chances to show his stuff during fall camp. Which meant most ot the tocus would be on him during Oregon’s season-opener. And the junior didn’t disappoint, rushing for 166 yards on 20 carries. His most impressive run thus far in the season occurred in the second quarter against Nevada. All Harring ton had to do was pitch it out to Mor ris, and the speedster took care of the rest. Morris followed one-block and then turned on the after-burners, en route to a 66-yard touchdown sprint. Against Wisconsin, he was some what held in check, but still managed to show off his speed and strength by picking up 95 yards in 20 carries. “Iam very pleased with Maurice,” head coach Mike Bellotti said. “He showed the full gamut out there in that first game, and did a great job here in Wisconsin in a very tough en vironment.” While Morris’ success is not a huge surprise, the sluggishness of the Oregon passing game certainly is. In the first two games, the Ducks only completed a total of 30 of 79 passes, as well as giving up a total of four in terceptions. Still, Harrington has resumed the starting quarterback role for his junior year, and left senior A.J. Feeley on the sidelines with a backwards hat and a headset. Feeley did get in briefly in the fourth quarter against Nevada, but only attempted four passes. While mistakes such as dropped balls and missed reads plague the of fense, the Duck defense continues to shine. In the first game, the defense came out inspired and held Nevada to minus-3 yards rushing, as well as giving up only 103 total offensive yards — its best such performance since 1962. “I know there were some worries about us before the season started,” said Smith, who returned back an in terception against Wisconsin for a 47-yard touchdown. “But we are very confident in our abilities. It’s a challenge every week to stop an op position’s offense and I would put us up against anybody right now. ” Saul Patu — he of the billboards along Eugene streets with the slogan “Tu Tough” on it—and Nikolao help Smith lead a pride-filled defense. Nikolao recorded Oregon’s first points of the season when he stuffed Nevada running back Adrien Dugas in the end zone of Autzen Stadium for the safety. After the first two games, the three big guns have a combined 40 tackles, four sacks and one interception. Another huge addition to the de fense is cornerback Rashad Bauman, who missed all of last season with a knee injury. Bauman made an imme diate impact this month with an in terception against the Wolfpack and by playing a tightly covered game against Wisconsin. His return lets the Oregon defense have more options because defen sive coordinator Nick Aliotti can put him on the opposing team’s best re ceiver, leaving the rest of the defense Turn to Football, page 17E We screen print and embroider t-shirts and sweatshirts, etc. for fraternities, sororities, dorms, etc. 865 Conger St.#16 • 686-5890 • 9 am-6 p.m. M-F Our Mistake, YOUR PRICE BREAK!’’ WE ARE ~Z1 M D ^ $49 TWIN MATTS $65 TWIN SET $69 FULL SET siSSt’’ $109 QUEEN SET KING KOIL FIRM SUPPORT TWIN SET $169°° FULL SET $1 99°° QUEEN SET $259°° 10-Year Warranty KING KOIL SUPER PLUSH TWIN SET $239°° FULL SET *289°° QUEEN SET $359°° KING SET *459°° 10-Year Warranty KING KOIL PILLOW TOP TWIN SET $299°° FULL SET *359“ QUEEN SET $399°° KING SET *599“ 10-Year Warranty $179 KING SETS AMERICAN MATTRESS MANUFACTURING Bring in this ad for FREE DELIVERY Mon - Sat 9-6, Sun 11-5 » 4075 W. 11th • O^O^DaU *’«OW*A • Quality pizza since 1977 • College student specials every term • Minimum delivery $8.95 • Tuesday night is pint night • Come watch the game with us • Specials every night after 10pm • Open 11am till midnight Sun-Thur and 1 1 am till 1 am Fri-Sat (delivery closes 30 min prior) www.tracktownpizza.com 1809 Franklin Blvd. • 484-2799 FREE DELIVERY! 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