Stanford rolls on as Arizona, SC challenge
Is Stanford unstoppable? Six
games remain for Pac -10
teams to prove otherwise in
the season’s final weeks
Women’s Pac-10
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
For the Stanford women’s basket
ball team, winning is a custom, and
winning big is not uncommon either.
The Cardinal faced the Oregon
schools in Stanford over the week
end, where they easily breezed
through with two victories. And as
Stanford won both games by a com
bined total of 56 points, the ques
tion still remains: Can any team win
at Maples Pavilion?
For an opposing Pacific-10 Con
ference team, walking into Maples is
like walking into a death trap. Ore
gon women’s basketball head coach
Bev Smith described it as a “house
of horrors.”
Even though the arena seats just
7,391 — smallest in Pac-10 — Stan
ford has won 23-straight games, dat
ing back to Dec. 28, 2001. The Car
dinal home-winning streak is
second in the nation behind Con
necticut, as the Huskies have 57
straight home victories.
Stanford (19-2, 11-1 Pac-10)
moved to 12-0 at home this week
end and the Beaver game marked
the 400th home game for the Cardi
nal, who have won more than 80
percent of those.
Stanford has lost just 10 games at
home over the last five seasons.
“We saw our team execute the of
fense as well as we have all season
or better,” Stanford head coach
Tara VanDerveer said of the recent
victory over Oregon. “We have play
ers who, when they focus on things,
can get it done. We have a lot of dif
ferent options.”
Despite the super-human appear
ance, the Cardinal can and has
been stopped before. Of Stanford’s
two overall losses, one came at the
hands of conference rival USC.
It was an on-the-road loss in Los
Angeles, but the Trojans have been
the only conference team to
achieve such a feat.
The Cardinal are ranked sixth
nationally, and with the upsets on
the weekend, Stanford comfort
ably sits atop the Pac-10 by a 2
1/2-game margin. No. 20 Washing
ton, second in the Pac-10, lost to
Arizona and Arizona State over
the weekend.
Stanford will face the Washington
schools this week, as the Cardinal
battle Washington on Thursday and
the Cougars on Saturday. The Car
dinal should not have trouble, as
they have defeated the two schools
by an average of more than 21
points the last time around.
The real battle will be waged Feb.
20, as the Trojans come to Maples
Pavilion to try and do the seeming
ly impossible.
Mendiola who?
Junior guard Giuliana Mendiola
of the Washington Huskies is the
name. And double-doubles are
the game.
Mendiola was recently named the
Pac-10 Women’s Basketball Player
of the Week for Jan. 27-Feb. 2. On
Saturday, Mendiola set a new prece
dent for Husky basketball as she
scored a school record and career
high 43 points en route to a blowout
win over UCLA.
During her team’s destruction of
the Los Angeles schools, Mendiola
averaged a near triple-double with
32.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 7.5 as
sists and 2 steals.
Recently, though, her team has
suffered in back-to-back losses
against the Arizona schools. During
the outings, Mendiola put up a com
bined 42 points on the board.
In the recent loss to Arizona
State, the California native also had
10 rebounds and five assists on her
way to another double-double.
Mendiola and her team have
quite the task at hand as the
Huskies go to battle with top-ranked
Stanford on Thursday.
Race heats up
With just five or six games left for
the Pac-10 schools the race to the
top of the conference is getting a lit
tle tighter en route to the trip to San
Jose for the Pac-10 Tournament.
As expected, Stanford still sits on
top and Washington State brings up
the rear, but the other eight schools
remain in close contention.
Washington and Arizona are tied
for second as both try to catch the
Cardinal and Arizona State and
Oregon State are in a tie for sixth
with just under .500 records.
The Pac-10 Tournament begins
March 7th, which gives the Con
ference of Champions just 24
more days to try and work itself
into position.
Contact the sports reporter
at jessethomas@dailyemerald.com.
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Dee-Dee Wheeler and the Arizona Wildcats are tied with Washington for second in
the conference. Both teams sit 21/2 games behind Stanford with six games left
Pingpong
continued from page 9 A
years past, something head coach
Lee Werthamer, 48, attributed to a
drop in foreign student enrollment.
Along with China and Hong Kong,
the club has had students from
Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines
and Japan.
Werthamer, who has coached the
club for 10 years and has taught
table tennis at the University for
eight, spends most of his time
coaching players how to hit and
how to recognize and deal with spin.
“It’s all about spin,” Werthamer
said. “It’s all in the wrist.”
"You're basically like
a robot You know
where the ball will be
before it gets there"
Tong Johnson
club pingpong player
Werthamer, who owns an auto
repair shop in Eugene, is a talent
ed player in his own right. A jun
ior regional champion in 1970,
Werthamer and other junior
champs played the Chinese na
tional team in an exhibition in
New York. Despite their talents,
the juniors were no match for the
dominant Chinese.
“They were champions, we were
bozos; we got our asses kicked,”
Werthamer said.
Hand-eye coordination is essen
tial to being a good pingpong play
er. Hitting a small, white ball back
and forth at high speeds takes
practice.
“You’re basically like a robot,”
Johnson said. “You know where the
ball will be before it gets there.”
The club team is preparing for
the Association of College Unions
International Tournament Feb. 22
in Seattle. It is a regional qualifying
tournament for the 2003 national
tournament.
Pong has been to two national
tournaments in the last four
years. In 1999 she traveled to
Houston, and in 2002 she traveled
to Baltimore.
“The guys were really, really
good,” Pong said. “Half of the girls
were good.”
As for now, Pong and the rest of
the team can only practice and
look for a way to beat Johnson until
it’s time for Seattle.
“I don’t think I’m that good,”
Johnson said. “At least when I’m at
home, I’m not that good.”
So much for table tennis being
an American garage sport.
Jon Roetman is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.
Hockaday
continued from page 9A
battle again.
It gets to 14-13 and he blows the
next shot by me to win the game and
the match. I’m devastated. Floored.
In 21 games of pingpong, I’ve won
two. I leave in shame.
But as I head back home, Rocky
still playing on the car stereo but
more softly now, I think back to high
school.
And I’m Forrest once more.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His views don't necessarily represent
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