Sports Editor:
Aclam Jude
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Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
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Oregon Daily Emerald
Best Bet
NFL: Indianapolis at Kansas City.
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Adam Amato Emerald
Senior Annie Murphy, seen here against Portland on Oct. 3, had two goals in Oregon’s 3*2 victory over Arizona State on Saturday.
She tore the medial collateral ligament of her left knee while scoring the game-winner in overtime.
FALLEN HERO
■ Oregon senior midfielder Annie
Murphy paid the price for her
game-winning goal against
Arizona State Saturday
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Annie Murphy sat on the ground, 18
yards away from the goal mouth.
She knew something was wrong, yet
everything was so right.
The scoreboard at Sun Devil Soccer
Field read 3-2, Oregon. Murphy had
just scored her second goal of the game
to put away Arizona State in overtime
Sunday and perhaps save the Ducks’
chances to make the NCAA Tourna
ment in 2001.
And yet, Murphy knew something
was wrong.
As senior Beth Bowler, who had
scored Oregon’s second goal of the
game, went bananas with the rest of the
Ducks, she rushed over to Murphy.
“No one realized it until we ran up
to hug her,” Bowler said. “She was
like, ‘Don’t touch me! I’m hurt!”’
Murphy, Oregon’s humble, talented
senior midfielder, tore the medial col
lateral ligament of her left knee when
ASU goalkeeper Kristin Slater tackled
her as she scored the game-winner. She
does not know if she’ll play again this
season.
“I was in shock,” Murphy said of her
initial reaction to the injury. “It felt like
the bottom half of my leg wasn't con
nected to the top half.”
But for one moment Sunday, the
South Eugene High graduate was the
ultimate hero of an Oregon team that
has found many different heroes this
season.
“I wouldn’t take it back, because it
meant a lot to beat them,” Murphy said
Wednesday. “I wish I was healthy. I
would be more excited.”
Murphy’s two goals Sunday were
her second and third this season, and
only the third and fourth of her Oregon
career. Despite her
\ >0™ low career goal total,
\ \3( midfielder has
been a key to the
Ducks’ success this
season, head coach
Bill Steffen said.
“She’s one of our
best players on the
ball,” Steffen said. “She’s a very dan
gerous player wide. She’s not especial
ly fast, like Julie (McLellan) or Crystal
(David), but she gives us a different
kind of weapon.”
Murphy hasn’t always been a Duck.
After she graduated from South Eu
gene, Murphy attended the University
of Utah for a year.
“I’m not even sure why I went
there,” Murphy said. “There were
things I really liked about it, but I did
n’t like the campus. It was empty a lot
Turn to Murphy, page 14
Guard-heavy Ducks ‘excited’ for
exhibitions to begin next week
■As Oregon prepares for the first
exhibition game Nov. 2, its players adapt
to a new system and a new coach
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Next Friday can’t come soon enough for the
Oregon women’s basketball team.
After a week-and-a-half of practices under
first-year head coach Bev Smith, the new-look
Ducks are eager to get back on the court with
their first exhibition game against the Basket
ball Travelers on Nov. 2.
“We’re picking up the of
fense really well,” said senior
point guard Edniesha Curry, a
transfer from Cal State North
ridge who sat out last season.
“We’re just excited to get the
season going and excited
about where we’re going to
be. I think we’re going have a real special group
of girls.”
The 5-foot-6 Curry and the 5-foot-6 Shaquala
Williams, the 2000 Pacific-10 Conference Play
er of the Year and a candidate for the Naismith
Player of the Year Award this season (given to
the country’s top player), will anchor a back
court that features three other returnees and
three freshmen.
Williams redshirted last season after tearing
the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee,
but after helping the U.S. collegiate team earn a
gold medal at the World University Games in
China this summer, she is back to full strength.
“(Williams) is one of the most talented bas
ketball players to ever step onto this floor,”
Smith said.
Senior Jamie Craighead, Oregon’s shooting
guard last year, will likely move to the No. 3 po
sition with the Ducks going with a smaller,
quicker lineup. Seniors Ndidi Unaka, a 6-foot
forward, and Alyssa Fredrick, a 6-foot-3 post,
will likely round out the starting lineup.
“We have a very small, quick team, but that’s
not going to be our problem, it will be our oppo
nents’ problem,” said Smith, an All-American
in her playing days at Oregon from 1978-82.
Although the Ducks have made eight straight
NCAA Tournament appearances and have won
or shared two of the last three Pac-10 Confer
ence championships—and won at least 10 con
ference games every year since 1993-94 — Pac
10 coaches predicted Smith’s Ducks will finish
in a tie for fifth place this season.
Stanford, a co-conference champion with
Washington and Arizona State last year, was
projected to finish first.
“We’re not really worried about that. We still
think we’ll be at the top,” said Craighead, who
set a school record with 81 three-pointers last
season. “We always anticipate good things.
Coach Smith has set into place a great philoso
phy here.”
Sophomore forward Cathrine Kraayeveld is
expected to see significant playing time this
season, as will freshman Andrea Bills, a 6-foot-3
post, Amy Parrish, a 6-foot-2 forward, and guard
Turn to Basketball, page 16
A little heart goes a long way
Ability. Quickness. Speed. Agili
ty. Strength.
Sportswriters around the
country throw these words
around when describing athletes like
Joey Harrington as he slings his passes.
They’re sometimes easily used, but more
often that not, they’re misplaced.
Courage. Love of the game. Heart.
These terms, and many more, are
less commonplace in today’s athletic
plays with more heart and sincerity
need look no further than the women
who call McArthur Court home.
Lindsay Closs fills the arena with a
scream every single time Oregon wins a
point, and when they don’t, she doesn’t
come close to hanging her head.
Stephanie Martin wears a scowl on the
court that many can’t match, and she
plays with the ability of a 6-foot-9 center
in basketball. But it is her ability to give
world than a win
was for the Seattle
Mariners in the
American League
Championship Se
ries. But often
times, these terms
are the most impor
tant ones.
Sure, Oregon vol
leyball is winless in
Pacific-10 Confer
ence play, and yeah,
they haven’t won
since Sept. 8. But
Oregon fans looking
for a squad who
Hank
Hager
Behind the Dish
everything she has that makes her spe
cial.
And even Monique Tobbagi plays
with a stone-cold demeanor, but it turns
soft and smiling when the Ducks step off
the hardcourt.
And every player on that team,
whether they play the entire match or sit
on the bench, has character that would
make anyone proud.
“We play this sport with as much en
ergy and emotion as the football team,”
head coach Carl Ferreira said. “Every
single person in that room wants to suc
ceed, or they wouldn’t be here. Every
one’s talented enough.”
Apparently, the Ducks are not talent
ed enough to succeed in the Pac-10, but
only because the conference is loaded.
Despite their poor play to date, the Ore
gon women have not forgotten the little
people.
They are not like some professional
athletes who shun reporters after a
game or refuse to sign autographs for
adoring fans.
Granted, had they a winning record,
this all might be a moot point. Athletes,
when their teams are down, are less
likely to discuss what happened and be
in a jovial mood. But there are those,
such as the Rashad Baumans and the
Tony Gwynns, who are willing to
speak about what’s on their mind, no
matter what has happened. These spe
cial athletes are accessible and have
the ability to speak up for what they be
lieve.
Turn to Hager, page 14