Wednesday
Best Bet
NCAA Men: Arizona State at Arizona
7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Net
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Ducks dealing with rare case of injury bug
Angelina
Wolvert won’t
play this week,
but forward
Lindsey Dion
will be back
WOLVERT
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Angelina Wolvert wasn’t think
ing happy thoughts when her lefl
knee suddenly buckled inwarc
against Washington last Thursday
The injury occurred during £
scramble for a loose ball about five
minutes into the game. Wolvert
who was walking backward;
when she saw the ball had beer
recovered, said a Husky player fel
onto the outside of her knee.
Wolvert then collapsed.
“I thought I was done for the
season,” said Wolvert, Oregon’;
leading scorer with 13.5 point;
per game at the time. “I jus
thought it was done. It hurt rea
bad, and it just didn’t feel right
You know, you get a gut feeling
and I didn’t know really what tc
think.”
Oregon trainers also thought the
injury was serious, originally di
agnosing it as a level two sprain of
the medial collateral ligament.
Such an injury could have cost
Wolvert more than a month of re
covery.
But the injury was less severe
than anticipated. Ducks head
coach Jody Runge said that the
best-case scenario has Wolvert
back in action in
time for No. 23
Arizona next
Thursday.
“It’s totally de
pendent on her
pain and the sta
bility of it,”
Runge said. “We
just have to see how quickly she
comes along, because everybody’s
different, and there’s no protocol
as far as how long. It just depends
on the individual.”
During rehabilitation, Wolvert
spends about four hours a day in
physical therapy and must wear a
knee brace. Runge said Wolvert
can jog forward, but can’t cut side
to-side. Wolvert can also shoot
jump shots, but isn’t practicing
with the team.
“Right now, we’re just waiting
for it to heal itself,” Wolvert said.
“There’s nothing else I can do but
heal it, just let my body heal.”
Playing without Wolvert and in
jured forward Lindsey Dion in
Pullman, Wash., Oregon dropped
a heartbreaker to unranked Wash
ington State two nights after the
injury. But Wolvert said her team
should have won despite her ab
sence.
“I don’t think [my team] is going
to be missing anything,” she said.
“When [Shaquala Williams] got
hurt, people were like, ‘Oh God,
the whole team will fall apart.’
Well, it didn’t, and it won’t, and it
didn’t matter who we lost.
“The team is just very resilient
and they face adversity really
well.”
Wolvert had never missed play
ing in a game before sitting out
against the Cougars.
Oregon center Jenny Mowe
tried to cheer up Wolvert, a close
friend of hers, after the injury hap
pened.
“Jenny was making fun of me
because I made a funny noise
when it happened. She was like,
‘You sounded like you were like,
aaahhhh!”’ said Wolvert, laughing
as she imitated her teammate.
Turn to Women’s, page 8
ii The
team is
just very
resilient and
they face
adversity
really well.
Angelina
Wolvert
Oregon
forward ^
V,
msiiiii
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i
|11 !||
Adam Amato Emerald
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent is expecting big things from freshman point guard Luke Ridnour (13) and junior center Chris Christoffersen (25)
this weekend against USC and UCLA. The road games mark a pivotal point in the season where Oregon can get back into the Pac-10 race.
Oregon prepares tor round two ot
Pacific-10 Conference road trips
Oregon
looks
forward to
facing the
L.A. schools
on the road
two weeks
after a 0-2
trip to Cal
and Stanford
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
It’s only been 11 days on the
calendar, but Oregon head
coach Ernie Kent says that his
team has matured greatly since
it left the Bay Area Jan. 13 with
two lopsided defeats.
And despite an up-and
down weekend at home with
the Washington schools, Kent
is confident that the Ducks (11
4 overall, 2-3 Pacific-10 Con
ference) will perform up to par
on the road this weekend in
Los Angeles.
“We will respond better be
cause I think we’ve grown
since our last trip as a team in
some areas,” Kent said.
The road won’t be easy for
Oregon, as the No. 22 USC Tro
jans await the Ducks on Thurs
day night, with 4-1 UCLA
looming on Saturday.
The key areas of growth for
Oregon were in its freshmen,
according to
Kent.
“The
biggest thing
is that young
guys had an
opportunity to
play down
there [in the
Bay Area],”
Kent said. “Luke Jackson has
come a long way since and is a
much better, more composed
and more confident basketball
player.
“Luke Ridnour will handle
the environment different now
going on the road in his second
road trip.”
Oregon junior guard Fred
die Jones wasn’t so quick to
make the assessment that his
team has grown. He sees im
provement, but knows the
challenge that this weekend
presents.
“We’ll find out a lot on this
road trip,” Jones said. “I mean,
we really don’t know where
we are until we get out there
and face the crowd and the ad
versity again.
Turn to Men’s, page 10
Men s tennis team
gains help in form
of three freshmen
■The Oregon men’s tennis team gains a trio of
freshmen following the departure of two veteran
players
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
Last season, the Oregon men’s tennis
team was talented, young and opti
mistic. Despite their youth, the Ducks
made a surprise visit to the NCAA
Tournament and had high hopes for
this season.
But the departure of two key players
seemed to set the clock back for the
Ducks and their postseason hopes ...
man roster. Three freshmen — Martin
Pawlowski, Alexander Druzenko and
Greg Dubourdieu — have filled that
void.
“We’ve been working on these guys
for a while,” head coach Chris Russell
said. “We’ve got three quality guys
who are ready to play.”
The Oregon roster now consists of
one upperclassman, senior David
Becker, two sophomores and five
freshmen.
The newcomers have had little time
to prepare for varsity action. At last
Saturday’s Foster Klima Ice Volleys,
Pawlowski was the No. 2 singles play
er for the Ducks while Druzenko
played at the No. 4 spot.
“We haven’t had a lot of time work
ing with them individually,” Russell
said. “So a lot of what they’re going
to learn is adjusting for the level of
competition that they are going to
see.”
Pawlowski brings in experience
from Poland and Sweden, where he
graduated from Kungsgardsskolan.
Pawlowski was ranked in the top-10
among Swedish juniors last year.
until the arrival of
three freshmen this
month.
When junior
Thomas Schneiter
and sophomore
Leslie Eisinga left the
Ducks, the team had
an incomplete five
Turn to Tennis, page 8
RUSSELL
We've
been work
ing on these
guys for a
while.
We've got
three quali
ty guys who
are ready to
play.
Giris Russell
Oregon tennis
coach jj