Sports brief
Mu tola coming back
Maria Mutola has moved to
South Africa, but she’ll re
turn to her former training
base in Eugene for the Pre
fontaine Classic 800-meter
race on May 24.
Mutola, the reigning
Olympic, World Outdoor
and Indoor champion in the
event, will face a strong field
that includes Regina Jacobs,
who just won the 1,500
World Indoor title but
ranked first internationally
in the 800 as recently as two
years ago. The Prefontaine
field also includes Jearl
Miles Clark, the American
recordholder in the 800.
Miles Clark holds the three
best American times ever in
the event.
Mutola won the last Pre
‘Classic 800, in 2001, by
almost a second over fellow
Mozambique native Tina
Paulino.
—Peter Hockaday
Senior duo leads club water polo
Kirsti Neidig and Jordan Sceffler
lead the Ducks, who barely
missed the national
tournament this season
jon Roetman
Freelance Sports Reporter
Kirsti Neidig and Jordan Scheffler
started as rivals in high school.
They would see each other at wa
ter polo camps and tournaments,
but their relationship went no deep
er than a “Hey, how’s it going?”
Little did they know, they would
end up leading the Oregon Club
Women’s Water Polo team to several
successful seasons after traveling
similar paths.
Both Duck seniors attended Ore
gon high schools and received schol
arships to attend Division I schools
in California. Neidig attended Shel
don High School and received an ac
ademic scholarship to Galifomia
San Diego, while Scheffler attended
Ashland High School and received a
water polo scholarship to Long
Beach State. Both seemed to be
heading in their desired directions,
when after one year, each decided it
was time to move on.
Both athletes transferred to Ore
gon for their sophomore years to fo
cus on academics, though Scheffler’s
path was anything but direct. After
realizing LBSU wasn’t for her, Schef
fler decided to play water polo at
Michigan. The decision held for less
than a week, though, as future plans
to attend dental school made aca
demics a priority.
“It was crazy,” Scheffler said. “I
was literally there for three days.”
Since no Oregon schools feature
Division I water polo, the pair found
club water polo as a fix for their com
petitive urges.
“It allows me to be aggressive,”
Neidig said of water polo. “It’s really
physically demanding and every day
you come out dead tired.”
After joining the team during
their sophomore seasons, the two
didn’t wait long to contribute, help
ing the Ducks to a second place fin
ish at regionals and a fourth place
finish at their national tournament.
A year later, the pair had developed
quite the friendship and led the
Ducks to a regional tournament
championship, a 10th place finish
at nationals.
“We have a strong bond between
the two of us,” Scheffler said. “We’re
always there for each other.”
This year, the Ducks were disap
pointed with how their season end
ed. After winning their seeding tour
nament in Corvallis, the Ducks
finished third in the Northwest re
gional tournament, losing to rival
Washington in the semi-finals. This
year, only teams that won their re
spective regions qualified for the na
tional tournament.
“We were the best team in the
regional tournament,” Oregon
head coach Jeff Lee said. “We just
didn’t bring our ‘A’ game when we
needed to.”
Lee said it was especially disap
pointing because he feels Neidig
and Scheffler were the best players
in the region at the two-meter of
fensive position and fellow senior
Amanda Studdard was the best
goalie in the region.
Despite not making the tourna
ment, there have been many posi
tives to come out of the Ducks’ sea
son. The friendship between Neidig
and Scheffler spread throughout the
entire team.
“This is by far the best team I’ve
ever played with,” Scheffler said.
“We’re like a big group of sisters.”
The Ducks expect a strong nucle
us of returning players next season,
led by sophomore Samantha Bund.
If returning players can pick up on
the competitive nature left by Neidig
and Scheffler, next year’s Duck team
will be just fine.
“During practice I would have
(Neidig and Scheffler) play on oppo
site teams so they could compete
against each other,” Lee said. “In
games, they knew where the other
one was without having to look.”
Jon Roetman is a freelance writer for the
Emerald.
Lightning strike Devils, take first game of series
Tom Gulitti
The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) (KRT)
TAMPA, Fla. — The Devils came
all the way back from three goals
down. And they did it without
their captain, too.
But they couldn’t finish the job
on Monday night at the St. Pete
Times Forum.
Former Devil Dave Andreychuk,
the savvy 39-year-old captain of
the Lightning, was the hero, scor
ing the go-ahead goal 6:08 into the
third period to lift Tampa Bay to a
4-3 victory in Game 3 of the East
ern Conference semifinal series.
So the Lightning have made it a
series now, with the Devils leading
two games to one in the best-of
seven set. Game 4 is Wednesday
night in Tampa. But the Devils
could have delivered a crushing
blow and taken command if they
had found a way to pull out a vic
tory on Monday.
Devils’ defenseman Scott
Stevens played only 1:17 before he
was struck in the left ear with a
slap shot by Tampa Bay’s Pavel Ku
bina. After having the cut on his
ear stitched up, Stevens was taken
to the hospital for precautionary
X-rays and did not return. Results
of the X-rays were not immediate
ly known.
With Stevens out, the Lightning
delighted their boisterous crowd of
With (Devils'
defenseman Scott)
Stevens out, the
Lightning delighted
their boisterous crowd
of 19,854 by jumping
out to a 3-0 lead in the
first period.
19,854 by jumping out to a 3-0
lead in the first period. But the
Devils rallied to tie it in the second
on goals from John Madden, Grant
Marshall and Jeff Friesen.
That set the stage for Andreychuk.
Lightning enforcer Andre Roy had
kept a Oleg Tverdovsky clearing at
tempt in the New Jersey zone at the
left point and gave it to Andreychuk,
who pushed it ahead to Ben Glymer
in the circle. Andreychuk headed to
the slot and took the return pass be
fore beating Devils’ goalie Martin
Brodeur low to the stick side for his
third goal of the playoffs.
Only seconds before at the other
end, Madden had hit the right post
with a slap shot from the high slot.
The Devils lost their captain and
their composure in the first period,
putting themselves in a big hole.
Stevens turned his head at the
last second before Kubina’s slap shot
from the red line hit him, so he was
hit in the ear instead of the face. He
dropped immediately to the ice in
the right circle, sliding into the cor
ner with face in his hands as he left
a trail of blood behind.
Devils’ medical trainer Bill Mur
ray raced off the bench. Stevens
was up within a minute and was
quickly helped to the locker room
for stitches, but the sight of him
going down and leaving appeared
to have an unsettling effect on the
his teammates.
The Lightning led, 2-0, before the
Devils registered a shot on goal.
© 2003, The Record (Bergen County,
N.J.) Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Track
continued from page 9
marks near 158 feet. Julia Demarni of
Arizona leads the way at 159-9.
In other field rankings, senior Mary
Etter has earned the third position in
the discus while senior Amanda Brown
holds down fourth in the triple jump.
In the pole vault category,
redshirt senior Becky
Holliday and (Niki)
McEwen rank first
and third, respectively.
Oregon does represent with athletes
on the oval, including senior Eri Mac
donald, who stands at third in the 800
meters. Redshirt junior Abby Andrus
holds the fourth position in the 400 hur
dles at 59.9 seconds.
Trojans stand strong
In the third edition of the Pac-10 2003
Athlete of the Week awards, USG’s Julianna
Tudja won the honor for the third-straight
. week in the women’s field category.
The senior from Veszprem, Hungary,
is the only woman thus far to win the
award, all for her remarkable accom
plishments in the hammer.
Tudja recently threw 218-5 inches at
the Mt. San Antonio College Relays,
which shatters the previous conference
best mark, held by UCLA’s Christina Tol
son. It is the second-farthest mark in the
nation this year.
Contact the sports reporter
atjessethomas@dailyemerald.com.
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Elisa Crumley currently sits second on the Pac-10 list in the javelin.
Hager
continued from page 9
and that’s believable, given that
she is from Puerto Rico.
But her loss leaves the Ducks
with just five returning players next
season. Six have left since last year.
The Ducks have lost more players
than they have retained.
Nobody has really said why they
left, so pinpointing the problem is a
hard thing to do. It could have been
with the players themselves, the
coaching or the fact that Oregon has
n’t had a winning season since 1990.
I don’t think it matters who’s on
the bench or on the McArthur Court
floor. If you haven’t been able to ex
ceed your loss column with wins,
then it’s really hard to cultivate a
winning attitude. That’s especially
true when the Pac-10 is annually the
best collegiate volleyball conference
in the country and some teams, like
Stanford and Arizona, could sleep
walk their trip through Eugene.
The volleyball program at Lane
Community College is in danger of
being cut because of budget prob
lems. Duck volleyball doesn’t de
serve the same fate right now, but if
seasons like the last decade or so
keep on occurring, then it might be
the time to discuss some changes.
And if a change for the better is de
sired, than the deletion of the volley
ball team may be the best way to go.
Contact the sports reporter
at hankhager@dailyemerald.com.
His views do not necessarily reflect
those of the Emerald.
Golf
continued from page 9
10-over-par, good enough to be tied
for 36th with Washington State’s
Dustin White.
Junior Jimmy White, competing as
an individual, shot a 16-over-par
round, which landed him 52nd overall.
Host and No. 11 UCLA, playing
on its very own golf course, current
ly holds a firm lead over the field af
ter shooting a 6-over 726, seven
strokes ahead of Stanford. No. 20
Washington is third with a 17-over
737, followed by No. 6 Arizona and
No. 16 Arizona State to round out
the top five. If Oregon hopes to
crack the top five, which the team
did in last year’s event, it would
have to out-shoot its nearest com
petitor No. 16 Arizona State by 11
strokes just to tie. However, in-state
Oregon rival Oregon State isn’t far
behind the Ducks, as the Beavers
shot a 36-over-par 756 to finish only
two strokes behind the Ducks.
Oregon State’s Cameraon
MacKenzie is currently the field
leader after his 4-under-par edged
out second place leader Jim Seki of
Stanford by one stroke. Alejandro
Ganizares of Arizona State, Brock
Mackenzie of Washington and Roy
Moon of UCLA are all currently tied
for third overall at 1-under-par.
The third round of the Pac-10
Tournament is set for 8:15 a.m. today.
Scott Archer is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.