Tennis runs New Mexico State, Pacific out of town
■The Oregon men’s tennis
team picks up two big wins
at home against ranked
opponents
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
When you have a team of mostly
freshmen and a few upperclassmen,
the growth curve is steep. For the
Oregon men’s tennis team, the road
just got a little bit smoother.
Duck freshmen went 5-1 in sin
gles play this weekend to propel No.
66 Oregon to two non-conference
wins over ranked opponents.
“They’re getting tougher each
match,” head coach Chris Russell
said. “They haven’t played that
many matches but they’re getting
more experienced.”
On Friday, the Ducks handed No.
54-ranked New Mexico State a 5-2
loss at the Student Tennis Center.
After being swept in doubles play,
the Ducks re
sponded with
three two-set de
cisions in sin
gles play to re
gain the lead.
Oregon ended
the match by
winning two
close extra-set matches.
Freshmen Buck Mink and Greg
Dubourdieu each swept their oppo
nents. Dubourdieu, who joined the
team in January, defeated the Ag
gies’ Dan Even by identical 6-2
scores while Mink swept Al
Dominguez, 7-6,6-2. Sophomore Ja
son Menkeadded a 6-1, 6-5 win to
push his season win total to nine.
Sophomore Oded Teig clinched
the match for Oregon by defeating
New Mexico State ace Cesar Obieta,
3-6, 6-2, 6-4. Senior David Becker
iced the win, Oregon’s third of the
season, with a long-haul 6-4,4-6, 7
5 win over Ben Newcombe.
“This is the best team effort we
have had all year,” Russell said. “All
the guys did a good job fighting and
competing at a level we could win
at.”
The Ducks continued their two
match winning streak on Sunday
with a 5-2 win over visiting Pacific.
“When doing back-to-back
matches with a young team, you
hope that after a good performance
they are able to keep up their good
play,” Russell said. “Today we even
picked it up a notch. ”
Men’s golf ‘pleased’ with fourth
■The Ducks end up in fourth
place at Hawaii tournament
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon men’s golf team
didn’t do much wrong Saturday.
But the only problem was that
the teams in front of the Ducks
just did things a little better.
Oregon finished the final round
of the Taylor Made/Waikoloa In
tercollegiate golf tournament in
fourth place (falling from second
place), despite shooting its lowest
round of the weekend.
The Ducks shot a 291 after
shooting a 305 and a 308, respec
tively, in the two rounds prior. But
No. 16 Texas finished with a blis
tering 281 to capture first place in
the tournament played at the
Waikoloa Kings & Beach Golf
Course in Waikoloa, Hawaii.
“I am very, very pleased with
our finish,” Oregon head coach
Steve Nosier said. “We played
pretty good today, but just not
good enough. A lot of teams
played better than we did.”
Oregon finished five points be
hind second-place Arizona State
(313-304-281— 899) and only four
points behind third-place TCU
(307-308-285— 900), which is
ranked 19th in the nation.
The Ducks were again led by
sophomore John Ellis, who con
tinued his successful season with
a tied-for-lOth place finish with a
score of 224. He was Oregon’s
lowest scorer Saturday with a
mark of 71.
Oregon was also paced by
sophomore Chris Carnahan (227),
who ended the weekend tied-for
19th among individuals, and
teammates Brandon Harnden and
Matt Genovese, who both ended
up tied-for-24th. Aaron Byers
rounded out the Ducks’ contin
gent with a tied-for-37th total
score of 232.
“We had a very successful tour
nament,” Nosier said. “I think this
could be a kick off for the start of
some real good things to happen
for this team.”
While the men won’t compete
until March 5-6, the Oregon
women’s golf team hits the fair
ways today at the Wildcat Invita
tional in Tucson, Ariz. The three
day tournament marks the Ducks’
first action of the spring season.
“We are looking to lay a founda
tion for the remainder of the sea
son,” women’s head coach Shan
non Rouillard said. “This is a
wonderful chance to see how this
group will play together.”
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Freshmen Martin Pawlowski and
Chris King contributed to the
Ducks’ victory in doubles play. The
No. 45 doubles team of Pawlowski
and Becker dominated Pacific’s
Alexander Fiedler and Claus Lind
holm, 8-3, while King and Teig up
ended Maxime LaCroix and Tobias
Abrahamson,8-5.
Duck freshmen got off to slow
start in singles play, but bounced
back for three crucial wins. Both
Pawlowski and Dubourdieu were
down 4-1 before coming back to win
their first sets.
Pawlowski swept Fiedler, 7-5,6-2
while Mink earned an emotional 6
2,7-5 win over Lindholm.
Dubourdieu evened his season
record at 2-2 with a 7-6,4-6,6-2 win
over fellow Frenchman LaCroix.
“Greg did a good job of turning
around that match,” Russell said.
“He’d beaten his guy before pretty
handily back in France and after the
first few games he really turned it
on.”
Teig’s two-set win over the Tiger’s
Dietrich Haug clinched the match
for the Ducks, who are winners of
their last three matches.
Oregon improves to 4-5 on the
season and will try for its fourth
straight win this Friday against UC
Santa Barbara.
“These are the kind of matches
we need,” Russell said. “They de
velop confidence and it makes the
guys want more wins like this.”
The wins were the Ducks’ first
over ranked opponents this season,
which will help Oregon in the
spring when the NCAA selection
committee convenes.
NASCAR legend dies
at Daytona 500 race
By Mike Harris
The Associated Press
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —
Dale Earnhardt, the greatest stock
car star of his era, was killed in a
crash on the last turn of the last
lap of Sunday’s Daytona 500 as
he tried to protect Michael Wal
trip’s victory.
The 49-year-old driver had to
be cut from his battered car and
was taken to Halifax Medical
Center, where he was pro
nounced dead of head injuries.
“He had what I felt were life
ending type injuries at the time
of impact and nothing could be
done for him,” said Dr. Steve Bo
hannon, an emergency physician
at the hospital who also works
for Daytona International Speed
way.
The accident happened a half
mile from the finish of the
NASCAR season-opener as Earn
hardt’s newest driver, Waltrip,
and son Dale Earnhardt Jr. were
in front racing toward what
should have been the most tri
umphant moment in the brief
history of Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Earnhardt, a master of super
speedway racing, was fighting for
third place, leading a tightly
bunched five-car pack heading
through the final turn. The back
left corner of his famed black No.
3 Chevrolet was bumped by Ster
ling Marlin.
Earnhardt’s car fishtailed
slightly and briefly slid to its left,
down toward the infield, before
suddenly swinging back to the
right and cutting across traffic at
a sharp angle. He clipped Ken
Schrader, whose yellow Pontiac
carried both cars hard into the
concrete wall headfirst at about
180 mph.
With Earnhardt’s car already
smoking and shredding at the
front, Schrader’s car stayed
lodged into the passenger’s side
of the Chevrolet, forming a T. The
cars careened again off the wall
plowing into the final turn and
sliding to a stop on the infield
grass.
“I guess someone got into Dale
because Dale got into me and
then we went up,” Schrader said.
“We hit pretty hard and Dale hit
harder.”
The scene was grim as safety
workers removed Earnhardt from
the car, and the accident re
moved all the luster from a glit
tering race that kept the record
crowd of 195,000 spectators on
their feet most of the afternoon.
{ { This is undoubtedly
one of the toughest
announcements I have
ever personally had to
make. We've lost Dale
Earnhardt.
Mike Helton
NASCAR president //
Many of them were well on
their way home when NASCAR
president Mike Helton made the
announcement, about 90 minutes
after the race ended.
“This is undoubtedly one of
the toughest announcements I
have ever personally had to
make. We’ve lost Dale Earn
hardt,” Helton said.
Fans in and around the sprawl
ing speedway wept after hearing
the news. The track lowered its
huge American flag in the infield
to half-staff after the race.
Earnhardt was a seven-time
Winston Cup champion, and his
76 victories were the most among
active drivers. He continued to
race for longtime friend and boss
Richard Childress while starting
his own team, which expanded
to three cars with the addition of
Waltrip this year. His other driv
ers were Earnhardt Jr. and Steve
Park.
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