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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 2000)
Thursday Best Bet MLB Playoffs: St.Louis at N.Y. Mets, NLCSgame2 5:15 p.m., FOX SPORTS EDITOR:JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com Kevin Calame Emerald (Left to right) Head coach Garreth MacDonald, Tyler Shaf far, Josh Hardin and teammates are set to begin season. The tragic death of Russ Atteridge in February has unified the Oregon hockey team as it embarks on a season of remembrance By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald It’s 10:25 p.m. Tuesday, and the Lane County Ice Arena rink is filled with the unmis takable sounds of hockey. Skates sliding all around on the ice. Pucks banging against the board. The whistle of the coach signaling when to switch from drill to drill. From the outside, it looks like any other hockey team practicing for its upcoming season opener this Friday night at 7:30. But when you look closer, you begin to see that there’s much more to this story. You see senior forward and team captain Tyler Shaffar skating down the right side of the rink and slapping the puck directly toward the net. You see senior goalie Josh Hardin deflecting Shaffar’s shot with his shin pad. While there is no couch to sit on nor a psychologist to talk to, what you are seeing is therapy at its purest. For Hardin, Shaffer and sev en other teammates who played for the Oregon club hockey team last year, this is their time of healing. Time of comfort. Time of to getherness. This is the time they’ve been waiting for. Because when they’re on the ice playing the game they love, it helps ease the emo tional pain still present from that fateful day back in Febru ary. A day when tragedy struck and changed the lives of a group of young men forever. Feb. 17 began as an exciting day for the Oregon hockey team. The Ducks had qualified for their fourth straight post season appearance and were headed to the Pac-8 Champi onships down in Los Angeles, Calif. While their 10-12-1 record at the time showed their in consistencies, the players were pumped because they knew that anything could hap pen in the playoffs. What they didn’t know, however, was that they would not play a sin gle game over the weekend. Oregon arrived into El Se gundo, Calif., that night at 11:30 p.m. and checked into the Hilton Garden Hotel. Ac cording to Hardin, about eight players then gathered in a ho tel room. “It was not a rowdy party like everyone thinks it was,” Hardin said. “It was just a few teammates hanging out the night before a big game, eating some pizza, drinking a couple of beers and watching a movie. We were not down there to party.” One player, however, took it a little too far. Russ Atteridge, a sopho more forward from Amherst, Mass., mixed together the painkillers Valium and Darvo cet with alcohol. The result was deadly. After falling asleep later that night on the floor, Atteridge re Turn to Hockey, page 8A Pre-NCAA meet will feature largest field of runners ever ■ There are 450 runners expected to compete in each Division 1 race at the pre-NCAA meet in Ames, Iowa By Robbie McCallum Oregon Daily Emerald A 6,000-meter course sounds like a long way, but when you pack 450 runners from 64 teams onto it, things can get a little crowded. The numerous runners will be on hand Saturday for the pre-NCAA meet at the Iowa State cross-country course in Ames, Iowa. “The meet will hold the greatest number of runners in a single race ever,” said Tom Heinonen, Oregon women’s coach. “If any course can handle 450-some runners, [the ISU course] can.” Seventy-two of the 316 Division 1 schools that sponsor cross country will attend the meet, which is a preview of the NCAA Cham pionship meet on November 25. To put the size of the meet into perspective, the Roy Griak Invitational, one of the larger meets in the country, only fielded 240 runners. PR watch Oregon’s trip to the Willamette Open last weekend was a successful one for new per sonal bests. Four Duck women recorded new marks in the 5,000-meter race at Salem’s Bush Pasture Park. Senior Katie Crabb broke the 18-minute barrier for only the second time in her career, running in 17 minutes, 30 seconds over the 3.1 mile course — good enough for third place overall. Freshman Laura Harmon also broke the 18-minute mark, running a time of 17:58. Her time is one minute and 51 seconds faster than her time at the Pier Point Invitational in Port land on September 9. Sophomore Carrie Zografos also bettered her 5K time at Salem. The transfer from Col orado saw a 51 second drop in her time of 18:32. But the biggest personal best came from freshman Annette Mosey. After putting in a disappointing effort at Pier Point (21st in Turn to Cross country, page 9A Oregon volleyball sets up different offensive lineup ■The volleyball team will move away from two-setter system to start and are still hoping for their first Pac-10 win By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald Throughout the first half of the season, the Oregon volleyball team’s 4-2 Flex of fensive scheme proved to be a pesky tactic to defend for the Ducks’ opponents. In fact, prior to the Sept. 30 match at USC, the No. 1 ranked Trojans changed their entire defense to counter the Ducks’ quick attack. “The system is awesome; it causes so much trouble,” senior outside hitter Amy Banducci said. “It’s a huge compliment to us when the other team changes their en tire defense to stop our offense.” Despite the problems it causes for oppo nents, head coach Carl Ferreira and the Ducks (7-8 overall, 0- 7 Pacific-10) have yet to pick up a conference victory with it. Thus, the first-year coach is looking in an other direction — sort of. Instead of starting matches with the two setter offense, Ferreira said he plans to start freshman Alisha Stevens, a 6-foot-2-inch outside hitter, to add some physicality to the lineup. Then, after the match begins, Ferreira said he will substitute junior Julie Gerlach in and go back to the two-setter system. “We’re going to make sure we give both formations equal opportunities,” Ferreira said. “We’ve always had the flexibility to do both.” A real killer Outside hitter Monique Tobbagi’s team leading 3.65 kills per game is seventh best in the Pac-10. The 6-foot junior from San Jose, Calif., has recorded double-digit kills in nine matches this year and has hit bet ter than .400 in three of the last five Turn to Volleyball, page 9A
