Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, November 12,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
European soccer:
Ajax at Inter Milan,
1:30 a.m., ESPN2
Cougs want to join
national title party
WSU jumps to No. 3 in the BCS and has not
given up on playing in the Fiesta Bowl
Pac-10 notes
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
Sure, the Washington State Cougars are getting a bit
thorny, but they have their sights set a little bigger.
One win away from securing a trip to the Rose
Bowl, the Cougs have not given up hope of playing
for the national championship at the Fiesta Bowl. Af
ter defeating Oregon 32-21 Saturday in Pullman,
Wash., the Cougs jumped to No. 3 in the latest Bowl
Championship Series poll, released Monday.
Just two teams, No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Miami,
remain unbeaten in college football. At the end of
the regular season, the top two teams in the BCS will
play for the national title.
WSU is ranked No. 3 in The Associated Press poll
— its highest ranking ever — and No. 4 in the USA
Today/ESPN coaches’ poll.
“We’re in unchartered territories now and it’s kind
of exciting,” WSU head coach Mike Price told The
Seattle Times.
With their romp through the Pac-10, the Cougs
are also on the brink of making history.
At 6-0 in the Pac-10, Washington State (9-1
overall) could become just the sixth team to finish
the regular season undefeated since the Pac-10
was formed in 1978. UCLA was the last team to go
undefeated, in 1998.
The Cougars take this week off before hosting
Washington on Nov. 23 for the Apple Cup. WSU fin
ishes the Pac-10 season Dec. 7 at UCLA.
Trojans rising, too
At No. 8, USG (7-2, 5-1) is the only other Pae-10
team ranked by the BGS.
With three games remaining — against Arizona
State, at UCLA and against Notre Dame — the Tro
jans could be headed for a BGS bowl. But USG will
likely have to get past Notre Dame, No. 7 in the BGS,
to earn a major bowl bid.
Even if the Trojans get to a big bowl, they may not
be happy with it. They haven’t been content with
much lately.
After crushing Stanford, 49-17, in Palo Alto, senior
quarterback Carson Palmer — who set the school
record for career touchdown passes in the win—act
ed like the Trojans had lost.
“I’m mad, I’m frustrated, and I’m angry. The whole
offense is,” Palmer told reporters. “We should have
scored every time we had the ball.”
Imagine what he would have said if they did lose.
Passers passing records
With four touchdown passes against Oregon, Ja
son Gesser tied Gade McNown (UGLA, 1995-99) for
third on the Pac-10 career touchdown list with 66.
John Elway (Stanford, 1979-82) heads that list with
77 career TD passes.
Palmer has 61 career TD passes, seventh-best in
conference history. He also stands second in career
passing yards (10,622) and total offense (10,421).
California’s Kyle Boiler, who tossed five TDs in
the Bears’ win over ASU, has 60 career touchdown
passes, which ties him with former Oregon quar
terback Bill Musgrave for eighth on the Pac-lO’s all
time list, one ahead of former Oregon quarterback
Joey Harrington.
Turn to Pac-10, page 10
Courtesy Washington State Media Services
Jason Gesserand Washington State moved to third in the latest BCS standings.
Ducks impress in losses
Adam Amato Emerald
Sydney Chute had two kills and 21 assists against the No. 19 Bruins as
UCLA pulled out a four-game victory Saturday.
The Oregon volleyball team comes
up short against the Southern
California schools
Volleyball
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
Freshman Dariam Acevedo posted 21
kills and senior Lindsay Gloss pitched in
with 20 on Saturday against UCLA in
front of 1,133 fans at McArthur Court,
but Oregon could not pull out a victory
against the No. 19 Bruins.
Still, the Ducks (11-17 overall, 1-13
Pacific-10 Conference) — who lost to
No. 2 USC in three sets Friday —
played their best volleyball of the sea
son in the two losses.
“I’m not disappointed in anything
tonight except for the fact that we didn’t
beat a top-25 team,” Oregon head coach
Carl Ferreira said after the Ducks lost to
UCLA in four games (30-24, 30-25, 28
30, 30-27). “We’re chasing something
now that we weren’t before and these
players believe they can win.”
The Oregon offense was on target
against the Bruins (15-10, 8-7), posting
a .400 hitting percentage in Game 3 en
route to a .256 overall percentage. In ad
dition to Acevedo and Closs’ domi
nance, freshman Kelly Russell had 11
kills while sophomore Lauren Westen
dorf had 10.
Westendorf also had a career-high 15
digs in the loss, while Acevedo matched
her season high with 20.
“I felt that we played our hearts out,”
Westendorf said. “We did everything we
Turn to Volleyball, page 10
Not your
father's polo
The only horses on the Oregon
water polo team are in the water
Scott Archer
Freelance Sports Reporter
After finishing the season third in
its division, the Oregon men’s Water
Polo team is fine with how the season
ended. With only two tournaments
scheduled during its season, the polo
players said it is hard to come togeth
er and compete with so few matches
and so little rest in between.
“Our whole season is tourna
ments,” team coordinator Matt Bau
mann said. “We have a regional
placing tournament and a regional
tournament.”
The regional placing tournament
pits teams from the Northwest Divi
sion of Club Collegiate Water Polo
against each other, and the teams
compete to determine who earns
what seed in the regional tourna
ment. Oregon traveled to Pullman,
Wash., on Oct. 5 for this year’s seed
ing tournament. The Ducks haven’t
had much success in Pullman this
year — in any sport.
Facing Washington in the first
round, Oregon sank the Huskies, 10
5. Then the Ducks cruised to a victo
ry over Western Washington and beat
Washington State to set up the fourth
and final round game, a showdown
with in-state rival Oregon State.
Club
Sports
Tuesday
The Beavers prevailed, dropping
Oregon to 2-2 on the day, and earn
ing the Ducks a third-seed berth for
the important regional tournament.
The regional tournament was
where the winner of the division
would be determined, and was held
in the familiar setting of Corvallis.
Again the Ducks squared off with
Washington, but Oregon came up
short. Next up was the Beavers, and
again Oregon couldn’t come up with
a win. In the final game, Oregon
matched up with Western Washing
ton, and the Ducks swam to victory.
When all was said and done, Ore
gon finished third in its seven-team di
vision. Included in the Northwest divi
sion are Oregon State, Puget Sound,
Western Washington, Washington
State, Washington and the Ducks.
“We had a pretty good season,“
said Baumann.
And with that, the 2002 fall season
started and finished in a heartbeat.
Turn to Water polo, page 10