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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