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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2001)
Friday Best Bet NHL Playoffs: Dallas at Edmonton 4 p.m., ESPN SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com Movin’ on up: Ferreira signs two big recruits ■Volleyball head coach Carl Ferreira adds height and depth with the junior college Player of the Year and Oregon Gatorade Player of the Year By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald When Carl Ferreira was first hired as the Oregon volleyball coach in January 2000, he knew his job was to turn around a perennial underdog. After suffering his first losing season as a coach with the Ducks last fall, Ferreira took a big step Thursday toward bringing the r team to its first postseason appearance since 1989. Ferreira announced Thursday that two top recruits will join the team next season. The Ducks won the battle to pick up Stephanie Martin, a sophomore at the Col lege of Southern Idaho. Ferreira said the 6 foot-3 middle blocker will have an immedi ate impact on the team. “Stephanie has the potential to become a first team all-Pac-10 selection,” Ferreira said. “She will make the oth er players on this team better. She demands attention in the middle, which is something we didn’t have last year.” Katie O’Neil, the 2001 Ore gon prep Gatorade Player of the Year, has also declared that she will attend Oregon next season. O’Neil, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter from vol leyball powerhouse Gresham High School in Gresham, finished her senior season with 229 kills and 316 digs. Ferreira said O’Neil will have an impact defensively, much like sophomore to-be Lindsay Murphy had on the team last season. “A major priority was getting the state [re cruits],” Ferreira said. ‘‘We want to establish a relationship with players in the region.” Out of high school, Martin, a native of Mesa, Ariz., originally committed to Arizona, but be Turn to Recruits, page 10A Offense steals the show in Ducks’ third scrimmage ■The Ducks participate in their final scrimmage before going at it in next week's Spring Game By Jeff Smith Oregon Daily Emerald With defensive end Zack Freiter and cornerback Rashad Bauman watching from the sidelines with in juries, the Oregon defense had a tough time matching up with the offense at Thursday’s foot ball scrimmage. The Ducks capped their third week of spring workouts with a spirited battle that provided some entertainment to the couple hundred fans who showed up at the practice field near the Casano va Center. “Our lack of depth on defense hurt us,” Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. “But we did some good things offensively and had some big plays.” There was the 33-yard rushing touchdown for sophomore Kenny Washington, as well as the 75-yard bomb from true freshman Chris Lom bardo to receiver Keith Allen. But perhaps the one play that stood out from Oregon’s third scrimmage was the 38-yard scamper from hyped transfer tailback Onterrio Smith — his first big gain of the month. Smith took the hand-off from third string quarterback Scott Vossmeyer and began going right. Then he ran into a sea of defenders and reversed his direction. The 5-foot-ll 200-pounder then saw a seam and broke loose on the left side of the field, where he zig zagged his way past a few defenders before being brought down 38 yards later. “That felt really good man, I mean, being a running back, that’s what you live for right there: getting out in the open,” said Smith, who admits that he’s still only “75-80 percent” be cause of hamstring problems. “I popped it open, but I couldn’t get away.” The offense made up for a relative ly poor showing in its previous scrimmage with some crisp passing and solid execution in the no-huddle offense. “I thought the offense took charge in that [no-huddle] drill and put the defense on its heels,” Bellotti said. “That may have set the tempo for the whole day.” As usual, quarterback Joey Harring ton was solid in his brief outing. Har rington connected on 6 of 7 pass at tempts for 75 yards, including an 8-yard scoring pass to Allen in the deep left part of the end zone. Allen led all receivers with five catches for 113 yards. Harrington’s back-up, sophomore Turn to Scrimmage, page 12A Adam Amato Emerald Onterrio Smith, the talented transfer from Tennessee, rushes past Wesly Mallard (18) and Ed Wangler (55) for 38 yards. Softball faces tough tests at home against UW, UCLA ■A pair of tough freshman pitchers awaits the Ducks as Washington and UCLA come to town By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald It’s more of the same this weekend for the Oregon softball team. Three more games against two Pacific-10 Conference foes will give the Ducks an opportunity to regain their identity and some confidence. But, as usual in the Pac 10, nothing will come easy. Heading into today’s 2 p.m. matchup with No. 13 Washington, Oregon (25-26 overall, 1-7 Pac-10) has dropped nine of its last 12 and sits at the bottom of the confer ence standings'.. • * .v. SOFTBALL But the team has not lost hope. After not prac ticing the first three days of this week, the Ducks met Thursday to discuss the team’s objectives for the remainder of the season. Head coach Rick Gamez said the team needed a break to get back into mental shape. The Ducks will need all the mental help they can get with freshman pitcher Tia Bollinger leading the Husky charge. Bollinger comes to Eugene with a 0.98 earned run average and a conference-best 24 wins and 186.1 innings pitched. She is also third in the Pac-10 with 175 strikeouts. ON TAP Who: Oregon softball vs. No. 13 Washington and No. 1 UCLA Where: Howe Field When: Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m. Turn to Softball, page 12A Track heads to California for mixed-up Mount SAC Relays ■The Oregon women’s track and field team will compete in three different meets this weekend, including the tough Mt. SAC Relays By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald Last week, the Oregon women’s track and field team participated in a spirited, though not very difficult, dual meet with Washington. This week, the Ducks prepared for some thing entirely different. The women, and Bil ly Pappas from the men’s team, will face some of the toughest top-flight competition of the season at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in California. But Mt. SAC is not the only meet for the Ducks this weekend. Several athletes will also compete in the Azusa Pacific Heptathlon, the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational and the Long Beach Invitation al, all in the vicinity of Mt. SAC. Some ath letes will compete in more than one meet. “We’re going to have people spread all over the map,” Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen said. “Morning, noon, night, three different venues over a three-day period.” Senior hammer thrower Maureen Morri son is scheduled to compete today in the Pomona-Pitzer and Sun day at Mt. SAC. Like most of the Oregon athletes, she doesn’t quite know where she’s going, but she knows she’ll face top competition when she gets there. “This meet is huge,” Morrison said. “I’ll be competing against women from all over the nation. ” Kicking off this weekend’s competition are Jenny Kenyon and Ann Sullivan in the Azusa Pacific Heptathlon today. Both will face stiff competition in the event for the first time this season, after qualifying for the Pac-lOs earlier Turn to Track, page 12A