Friday
Best Bet
Women’s Volleyball: USCat UCLA
7:30 p.m., FoxSports Net
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Ready or not, women play first hoops today
i ne women s
basketball
team takes on
RTU Clondica
in its first
exhibition
game
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
By late tonight, some pretty impor
tant questions surrounding the Oregon
women’s basketball
team may finally be
answered.
Can the Ducks win
without Shaquala
Williams? Which
player will emerge as
the new leading scor
er? Can inexperienced
point guards feed the post effectively?
And how will the Ducks manage their
depth at the guard spot?
Oregon faces RTU Clondica, a nation
al team from Riga, Latvia, at 7 p.m. at
McArthur Court in the defending Pacif
ic-10 Conference champion’s first exhi
bition game of the season. The matchup
provides the Ducks’ first chance to flap
their,reconstructed wings in a game
time atmosphere.
“In practice we can read each other
and know what we’re thinking, so we’re
just excited to get out there and start
playing,” starting point guard Kourtney
Shreve said.
“We’re getting a lot more confident
Turn to Basketball, page 10A
Oregon women’s basketball head coach
Jody Runge was skeptical when a Pacific
10 Conference postseason tournament
was established, but at least her Ducks will
have an advantage when it finally arrives.
The University of Oregon will host the first
ever Pac-10 postseason women’s basket
ball tournament, Pac-10 Commissioner
Tom Hansen announced today.
The 10-team, four-day event begins in
March 2002 and will be staged annually
on the campus of a Pac-10 institution.
“Oregon is an excellent choice for the first
tournament because of its history and in
terest in women’s basketball,” Hansen
said. “It should assure excellent atten
dance and an exciting atmosphere for our
tournament games.”
The Ducks averaged a school-record 5,852
fans at McArthur Court in 1999-2000, the
12th-best mark nationwide.
The Pac-10 Chief Executive Officers ap
proved the men’s and women’s postsea
son tournaments Oct. 23. The winner of
the tournament earns the conference’s
automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Another losing night for slumping volleyball team
Emerald
Freshman Lindsay Murphy and the Ducks couldn't muster a victory in Tempe, Ariz. as the Sun Devils swept them 15-8,15-4,15-7.
■ Oregon hits just .097 from the floor as the Sun
Devils celebrate a historic night with a 3-0 victory
By Adam Jude o
Oregon Daily Emerald
The bus to Success, U.S.A., just took
a wrong turn, and the Oregon volley
ball team is now lost in the desert.
What could have been a momentous
victory for the Ducks (9-13 overall, 1
12 Pacific-10 Conference) turned into
a historic event for the home team
Thursday in Tempe, Ariz.
With a 15-8, 15-4, 15-7 sweep
against Oregon, the Arizona State Sun
Devils (16-8, 8-6) increased their
chances of making the NCAA tourna
ment for the second straight year and
hit the record books at the same time.
Arizona State head coach Patti Sny
der-Park, in her 12th year with the
Devils, recorded her 100th career Pac
10 victory. She is only the fourth
coach in conference history to achieve
that mark.
“To get the 100 wins is a nice
achievement, but getting 101 tomor
row night against Oregon State will be
even sweeter,” Snyder-Park said after
the match. “We played great defense
and just took control of the match from
the beginning. If we can pick up a win
tomorrow night it puts us in good po
sition for the NCAA tournament.”
Senior Amanda Burbridge, who has
recorded double-digit kills in each
match this season, led Arizona State
Turn to Volleyball, page 9A
VOLLEYBALL
a We
played
great
defense and
just took
control of
the match
from the
beginning.
Patti
Snyder-Park
Arizona State
head coach
_V
Women’s soccer trying to buck history in season’sfinal games
i ne Oregon
soccer team
will face two
ranked foes
this weekend
in games they
have
traditionally
lost
By Peter Hockaaay
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon soccer team
takes its show on the road,
but it’s hoping to change the
channel.
This weekend the Ducks
(4-13-1, 1-5-1 Pacific-10
Conference) will try to avoid
the worst record of their five
year history when they take
on No. 15 Stanford (11-5-0,
4-3-0) at 7 p.m. today in Palo
Alto, Calif., and No. 8 Cali
fornia (15-2-0, 5-2-0) at 12:30
p.m. Sunday in Berkeley,
Calif.
Oregon has had problems
against Stanford and Califor
nia in the pas, and is a com
bined 0-6 against the two
teams.
But the Ducks have never
been blown out in those
games. In three losses to Cal
ifornia, Oregon has been
edged by one goal each time.
The Ducks dropped one-goal
games to each team last year
in Eugene.
Oregon head coach Bill
Steffen thinks his team can
win this weekend’s games
but will need to play with
intensity for a full match to
do so.
“We’re going to continue
our process of trying to de
velop,” said Steffen. “We
look forward to being com
petitive in these matches.”
The Ducks will have a few
factors in their favor this
weekend.
One of those factors is a
, \ Turn to Soccer, page 9A
Junior midfielder Annie Murphy (14) and the Ducks will try to avoid losses in California this weekend.
Dan Brunell Emerald