Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Friday, November 9,2001
Best Bet
Friday Night Fights,
6p.m., ESPN2
Harriers set to begin regional championships
■ If the men’s cross country team runs
well this weekend, it could compete
in the national championship meet
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
This weekend holds enormous implica
tions for the men’s.cross country squad.
The NCAA Western Regional Champi
onships in Tucson, Ariz., on the Dell Urich
Golf Course features five other top-25 teams
besides No. 18 Oregon.
Stanford, the second ranked team in the
nation, will be chased by No. 8 Portland,
No. 13 Santa Barbara, No. 14 Arizona State
and No. 20 Arizona.
The Western Regional is one of nine meets
held nationally to determine the 31 teams
who will travel to South Carolina for the na
tional championship meet.
In the race in Tucson, the top two finishing
teams and top four individuals from non-qual
ifying teams automatically receive invitations
to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 19.
Another 13 teams and two individuals from
across the nation, who will^e selected by a
committee, will also attend the national meet.
All-American junior Jason Hartmann, who
placed second in last year’s race, will contend
with Stanford’s Grant Robison and Arizona
State’s Fasil Bizuneh for the regional title.
Following Hartmann for the Ducks will
probably be senior Adam Bergquist, who fin
ished 10th at the Pacific-10 Conference
Championships. Other than the senior team
captain and All-American junior, all the
other runners for the Ducks are either fresh
men or sophomores.
“Even though we’re really young, I’ve been
Turn to Men’s, page 8A
■The women’s cross country team
limps into what is probably its last
race of the season at regionals
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
After finishing eighth at the Pacific-10 Con
ference Championships and struggling with
injuries and disappointing times all year, the
women’s cross country team is not expecting
to come home from Tucson, Ariz., with a win at
the NCAA Western Regional Championships.
Oregon will face No. 1 Stanford, No. 8
Arizona, No. 11 Arizona State, No. 17 UCLA
and No. 24 Washington, in addition to other
regional schools. The top two schools and top
four individual finishers from non-qualifying
teams automatically receive an invitation to
the NCAA Championships, so there still is an
outside chance for the Oregon harriers.
Another 13 teams and two individuals
will also be selected by a committee to go to
Furman, S.C., for the nationals, but it is un
likely that head coach Tom Heinonen’s
squad will be granted an at-large bid.
Leading the way for Oregon, as she has
done throughout the season, will likely be
junior Carrie Zografos. Through last week
end, Zografos had been running well in prac
tice, but Sunday night she became ill and
missed Tuesday’s workout, Heinonen said. It
is unclear whether she will still be feeling
the effects on Saturday.
Heinonen said that sophomore Magdalena
Sandoval is feeling the effects of a quad
strain, but Laura Harmon appears to have
recovered fully from a kidney infection that
has been affecting her for almost a month.
Freshman Sara Schaaf will not travel with
Turn to Women’s, page 8A
Junior guard
Shaquala
Williams drives
past Western
Oregon’s Trisha
Schwenk(35)for
two of her game
high 23 points
Thursday. The
Ducks won their
last exhibition
game 75-55
;' ' i
Adam Amato Emerald
Ducks’ defense steals win
against Western Oregon
■The Ducks needed a defensive
stand and got one in a victory
over Western Oregon
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Good things happen to those who
don’t stand around.
After a lackluster performance in
the first exhibition game last week,
the Ducks’ defense stole the show
Thursday night. Western Oregon
committed 34 turnovers and the
Oregon women’s
basketball team
had 22 steals in a
75-55 victory in
front of 3,706 fans
at McArthur Court.
Offensively, the
Ducks have now
scored 75 and 83 points in their first
two games, with junior guard
Shaquala Williams leading the way
with a combined 45 points. The real
story of Thursday’s game, though,
was Oregon’s pressure defense,
which was virtually non-existent in
the first exhibition game last Friday.
“In the big picture, as a coaching
staff, we were much more pleased
by our effort tonight,” head coach
Bev Smith said. “It was not always
pretty and we still had some men
tal lapses ... but the defensive pres
sure that we were looking to apply
was there.”
The backcourt tandem of Ed
niesha Curry and Williams com
bined for eight steals and 38 points
Thursday, while holding the Wolves
to 43 percent shooting.
Curry, a senior transfer from Cal
State-Northridge, said she was a
little nervous in the first exhibition
game, where scored only seven
points and committed four
turnovers.
“I was hesitating on everything,”
Curry said. “I was just standing
around and watching.”
But against Western Oregon, Curry
let loose against point guard Becky
Gregory — who committed a game
high six turnovers — and showed her
tenacious defensive style.
“From a personal standpoint, it
helps the team tremendously when
I’m pressuring the ball,” Curry said
with a grin. “I love to play defense.
I love to frustrate the point guard.
Turn to Basketball, page 8A
Oregon volleyball not spooked by Beavers coming into The Pit
■This season’s second
installment of the Civil War
promises to be a good one
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon volleyball team re
ceived quite a surprise Thursday at
practice in McArthur Court. A medi
um-sized bat decided to make Mac
Court’s rafters its home for the morn
ing, and swirled above practice, sur
veying what was down below.
Is this an omen?
Oregon State (15-7 overall, 8-5
Pacific-10 Conference) comes to
The Pit tonight in hopes of taking
match two of this season’s Civil
War from the Ducks, with the first
serve slated for 7 p.m. And if you
ask Oregon head coach Carl Fer
reira about the significance of the
team’s little flying friend, it’s eerie.
“Black and orange,” he said.
“OSU wears Halloween colored
uniforms, we just had Halloween
and have a bat
here. The Beavers
are coming.”
Oregon is com
ing off its first win
in two months,
when it defeated
Portland in the
Rose City on Tuesday, and looks to
continue its success when the
Beavers come to town. But Oregon
State will be no pushover, as the
Beavers showed when Oregon visit
ed Gill Coliseum earlier this season.
In the match, the Ducks (9-16,
0-13) stayed with the Beavers until
game three, only to see their confer
ence rival speed ahead and eventu
ally win the match in four games.
“Probably the best word you can
use to describe Oregon State is effi
ciency,” Ferreira said. “They take
care of the ball well and don’t make
ball-handling errors. They don’t
give you cheap points, and you
can’t sit back and think they will
award you with lack of concentra
tion errors.”
The Beavers are assured a win
ning season, but must roll through
and win at least two of their five re
maining Pac-10 matches to finish
above .500 in the conference. Ore
gon State was considerably raw
when the Ducks traveled to Corval
lis in October, but have since come
on strong, although their record
doesn’t show it.
“Oregon is improving like every
other team in this conference, so
I’m sure we’ll see a much better
Oregon team this time around,”
Oregon State head coach Nancy
Somera said. “But, Oregon will also
see a much better Oregon State
team this time around, too.”
Of course, it’s Civil War time, but
if you ask Ferreira, that doesn’t
weigh too heavily on the team’s
preparation.
“In actuality, it’s just another
game on the schedule,” he said. “It
adds an extra element in prepara
tion in that the coach doesn’t need
to add the stimulus of concentra
tion or focus.”
After defeating the Pilots on
Tuesday, the Ducks have been play
ing their best all season. They nar
rowly lost to California last week,
and took a game from No. 4 Stan
ford. Although the team’s true col
ors have taken this long to show
through, Ferreira is encouraged by
the team’s play.
The Ducks are not in the position
to challenge for the Pac-10 title and
don’t have a chance to gain a berth
to the NCAA Tournament, but still
know that every game and every
match still counts.
“At this time of the year, you
should be playing your best vol
leyball,” he said. “There’s a lot of
people who will be back to this
team in the future, so you make
Turn to Volleyball, page 8A