Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemenxld.com
Wednesday, September 26,2001
Best Bet
MLB: Seattle at Texas
4:05 p. m., Fox Sports Net
Adam Amato Emerald
UO needs to improve
to stay with Pac-10
■Although it has won two straight
games, the Oregon soccer team
knows it must make progress before
conference play begins
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
In her first games for the Oregon soccer
team, midfielder Chalise Baysa set the
tone for her remarkable career by scoring
five goals in two games and immediately
changing the face of Duck soccer.
Now, as a senior, Baysa is watching
young Nicole Garbin do the exact same
thing. Garbin, a freshman, has scored
four goals, three of them game-winners,
in Oregon’s three wins this season. The
three game-winners match an Oregon
season record, and Garbin has 13 games
left to smash it.
But it won’t get any easier for the Ducks.
After facing San Diego and Eastern Wash
ington at home this weekend, Oregon’s
next four opponents feature No. 5 Port
land, No. 6 California and No. 8 Stanford.
Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said
his team still needs to improve, even be
fore this weekend.
“We want to keep developing, keep*'
moving forward,” Steffen said. “I don’t
think we’ve been doing that.”
Baysaagreed.
“We’re not playing well right now,”
Baysa said. “We need abetter showing.”
Oregon will take on San Diego Friday
at 3 p.m., and Eastern Washington Sun
day at 1 p.m.
Home cookin’
The Duck kickers are smack-dab in the
middle of their longest-ever home stand,
and they need to enjoy it while they can.
Turn to Soccer, page 15
Adam Amato Emerald
Ann Westermark (left, 11) suffered a sprained ankle in Sunday’s physical contest with Nevada. Julie
McLellan (top, 22) scrapped her way through the Nevada defense in Oregon’s 2-1 win Sunday.
Washington State’s
Gesser ‘the best’ QB
in the conference
■Cougar junior quarterback Jason Gesser is making some
noise for the Pac-10’s most potent offense
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Maybe the Pacific-10 Conference coaches should rethink their
preseason predictions.
The biggest surprise of the season, thus far, has no doubt been the
massive offensive explosion by Washington State and junior quar
terback Jason Gesser. The Cougars, picked to finish dead last in the
conference standings, are 3-0 and lead the Pac-10 with 546.3 yards of
total offense per game, nearly 400 of that through the air.
This weekend the Cougs take on undefeated Arizona.
“If you were a defensive coach, and these were the numbers
against you, you wouldn't sleep, period,” Arizona head John
Mackovic told the Arizona Daily Star.
So much hype has surrounded Oregon’s senior quarterbacks
— the Ducks' Joey Harrington and the Beavers' Jonathan Smith —
that the kid from the Palouse has seemingly come out of nowhere.
But that’s not necessarily true. Gesser, who threw for 432 yards
in Saturday’s 51-20 victory over California, torched the Wildcats
for 348 yards and six touchdowns last season.
And Duck fans will remember Gesser’s performance in Pull
man last November, when the 2000 Pac-10 leader in passing effi
ciency nearly pulled off an upset before suffering a broken leg
that caused him to miss the rest of the season.
When the Ducks again travel to Pullman Oct. 26, you can bet
Turn to Pac-10, page 14
Oregon marches on with tragedy in mind
■ Oregon volleyball team members were touched by the
nation’s tragic events, and recall where they were when
the attacks on the East Coast occured on Sept. 11
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
Like football, baseball and every other sport in America,
volleyball also felt the aftermath of the tragic events that took
place on Sept. 11.
Matches all across America were canceled, which included
the Pacific-10 Conference. The Oregon volleyball team was slat
ed to open its Pac-10 season at McArthur Court with matches
against conference rivals UCLA and USC on Sept. 14 and 15,
but the Ducks had to wait a week to open conference play.
Oregon players were fortunate not to have any family mem
bers involved in the unfortunate circumstances that took place
that fateful day. Despite the distance between Oregon and the
East Coast, the events that unfurled were felt 3,000 miles away.
“The first time I heard about it, I was actually (at McArthur
Court],” sophomore Heather Gilmore said. “I went to get treat
ment, and it was on the news and everyone was saying, ‘Have
you heard about the bombings?’ It was dead silent in the
training room. It was unbelievable ... It was like a movie.”
“I remember my alarm clock went off, and I heard something
about airports being closed, and I just hit that snooze button, not
thinking," senior Monique Tobbagi said. “I showed up (at
McArthur Court) and heard about it on TV, and it was just scary.”
While the tragedy affected each player mentally, most on
the team felt it was more important to spend time with their
teammates than to dwell on what had happened by going
home to watch the events unfold on television.
The thing about volleyball and a lot of sports on the Oregon
campus is that none of our players have any family locally, so
where do they go to lean on somebody?” said head coach Carl
Turn to Volleyball, page 15
Emerald
Junior setter Sydney Chute and the Oregon volleyball team returns
to McArthur Court this weekend, sporting an 0-2 Pac-10 record.