Sports Editor:
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, February 5,2003
-— Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NCAA men's basketball:
Gonzaga at Pepperdine
9 p.m., ESPN
University
must find
right coach
for lacrosse
Oregon made a smart move Monday
by adding women’s lacrosse to the
school’s lineup of sports beginning
in 2004.
Grew, gymnastics and swimming are
all good sports, but the sport that is a
combination of hockey and soccer will
fit in fine.
But now comes the hard part — the
part that could help define the new
sport at Oregon in the next five years,
the next 10 and possibly the next 20.
The head coach search is on. And
Oregon must be smart in its selection.
In 1996, a new
set of Ducks began
putting on the
green and yellow,
and leading them
was new soccer
coach Bill Steffen.
Having come
from national pow
er North Carolina,
Steffen immediate
ly began to put a
stamp on the sport
at Oregon that has
carried over. He is still at Oregon, and
although the Ducks finished 2-14-2 this
past season, he has brought the program
a long way.
So Oregon needs to get out the old
blueprints and study up on how they
want women’s lacrosse to look.
The sport is anchored deep in East
Coast roots, so looking that way would
n’t be a bad choice.
No one is saying Oregon can be like
national power Princeton soon, and
even trying to equal what the Portland
women’s soccer team has done — win
ning a national championship in 2002
after beginning play in 1992 — would be
a stretch.
Hager
Behind the dish
But thinking big time will deliver Ore
gon to the national rankings sooner
rather than later.
So why not go after someone big time?
You could pretty much throw out any
head coaches in the top 20 in the nation,
simply because leaving at what could be
the peak time of a program would be like
committing coaching suicide.
So there goes Jenny Grapp from Cor
nell, Chris Sailer from Princeton and
Ken Simons from Georgetown.
Those three constituted the coaches
of the year in the North, Mid-Atlantic
and South regions, respectively, last sea
son. And even though building a new
program might intrigue even the most
recognizable coaches, it’s not likely.
So, look deeper; there are some more
interesting choices that could definitely
benefit the Duck head coaching search.
Missy Holmes has a winning track
record at Princeton, having won three
national titles while at Maryland as a
player in the mid-1990s and won another
with the Tigers as an assistant last year.
But even more of an intriguing selec
tion resides with the name Colleen
Smith. One of the assistants at Virginia,
Smith has already done what Oregon is
looking for.
After a stellar career at Rowan, Smith
started her coaching career as the head
coach at Wagner College. She took over
the Seahawks in the team’s first season as
Turn to Hager, page 8
Wrestlers flock to California
Adam Amato Emerald
Luke Larwin (bottom) and the Ducks play two away matches today in California.
The Ducks begin a three-day, four-team tour
of California today against two Pac-10 opponents
Wrestling
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
Oregon is heading south to sunnier skies and warmer
weather as the wrestling squad travels to California for two
midweek matches against Pacific-10 Conference opponents.
Today, Oregon (5-8 overall, 4-2 Pac-10) battles California
State Bakersfield at noon. The Ducks then head west to face
Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo at 7 p.m.
Cal-State Bakersfield (5-5, 2-2) features sophomore Efren
Ceballos. Ceballos finished second at 133 in the 2002 Pac-10
Championships. This year, Ceballos has moved to the 125
class and is ranked between No. 14 and No. 19 in all four polls.
Cal Poly (8-6, 4-1) has two wrestlers earning national
recognition. Senior David Schenk, the defending Pac-10
champion at 197, is ranked in the top 20 in all four polls.
Schenk’s record this season is an impressive 22-6. Sophomore
Vic Moreno, ranked No. 8 by Intermat, has an 18-6 record on
the season.
Oregon hosted both Cal-State Bakersfield and Cal Poly last
year. The Ducks won their matchup with the Road Runners
35-9, but lost to Cal Poly in a close 19-15 match.
Sophomore Shane Webster remains the only Oregon
wrestler ranked by Intermat, sitting at No. 11 in the 174
weight class. Sophomore Martin Mitchell at 125, redshirt jun
ior Jason Harless at 133, senior Casey Hunt at 141 and senior
Tony Overstake at 149 are all listed as wrestlers to watch in
their respective weight classes by Intermat.
College wrestling has three recognized polls in addition
to Intermat.
W.I.N. Magazine puts Webster at No. 11, Overstake at No. 19
and Mitchell at No. 20. The Amateur Wrestling News ranks
Webster at No. 11, Overstake at No. 17 and Harless at No. 20.
The Wrestling Mall has Webster at No. 13 and Overstake, Hunt
and Harless each at No. 20 in their weight class.
The Ducks are recovering from their first Pac-10 losses of
the season. Mitchell missed Friday’s 27-9 loss to No. 10 Boise
State, while Overstake sat out Sunday’s 21-20 loss to No. 11
Arizona State.
Webster split his matches from the weekend. He earned an
8-3 decision over Boise State’s Pat Owens on Friday but lost a
10-4 decision to Arizona State’s Curtis Owen. Owen was
ranked one spot below Webster going into the match.
Webster leads the team with a 20-4 record and is the
Turn to Wrestling, page 8
Lacrosse 101: For West Coast dummies
The Emerald breaks down
the sport of lacrosse, recently
added as a sport at Oregon
Lacrosse
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
When you read the story Tuesday that
the Athletic Department was adding
women’s lacrosse in two seasons, you
probably had the same reaction as most
of your fellow West Coast students.
“Oh, that’s nice. What’s lacrosse?”
“It’s kind of a mix of soccer, basketball
and hockey, played in the air,” said Chip
Rogers, a representative of the United
States Lacrosse National Committee.
Lacrosse bills itself as “the fastest
game on two feet,” and it is. Unless
you’re talking about the 100-meter dash
in track.
But, seriously, lacrosse is a foreign en
tity to most of us. So without further
ado, the Emerald proudly presents its
“Official Guide to Women’s Lacrosse,”
© 2003.
The basics
The main goal of lacrosse is to score
goals — in particular, to score more
goals than your opponent. Odd, isn’t it?
Each team fields 12 players, including
a goalkeeper to guard a goal that is
slightly taller than an ice hockey goal.
The players use long lacrosse sticks
with “baskets” on the end, and the goalie
has a larger basket than a field player.
They can’t pick up the small, hard ball
with their hands, and they run down the
field “cradeling” the ball, slinging the
ball in the net to score goals.
The rules
The lacrossie playing field is approxi
mately 120 yards wide by 70 yards
across, but there are no out-of-bounds
lines on the field. The teams play two 30
minute halves and have one two-minute
timeout per half. Overtime is two three
minute periods, followed by as many
sudden death periods as needed.
Now, here’s where it gets complicat
ed. Like hockey, there is an “offensive
zone” on each end of the field, with the
restraining line 30 yards out from the
goal. Only eight defensive players and
seven attacking players can be in the
zone at the same time, or offsides
is called.
There is an eight-yard arc in front of
the goal, in which a defender can only
stand for three seconds unless she’s di
rectly guarding an offensive player. If a
defender fouls an offensive player in
side the arc, the offensive player gets a
penalty shot from a nearby hashmark.
A circular “crease” surrounds the goal
where no player is permitted except
the goalkeeper.
Turn to Lacrosse, page 8
Adam Amato Emerald
Players "cradle" the ball in their sticks in the sport of lacrosse.