Sports Editor
Hank Hager
hankhager@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
SPORTS
Best bet
MLB playoffs:
Boston at N.Y. Yankees
5 p.m., FOX
Mindi Rice
The girl and the game
Cougars,
Beavers
dominate
Northwest
There must be pigs flying over the
Northwest section of the Pacific-10
Conference.
Oregon State and Washington State,
the wayward step-siblings of the high
ly publicized and funded Ducks and
Huskies, are leading the Pac-10.
I'm talking football here folks, not
calf-roping or lawnmower relays.
The Cougars, in their defense of the
2002 Pac-10 Championship, are well on
the road through the conference with a
5-1 record.
Washington State is in the top 25
nationally of eight categories, includ
ing the allowance of an average 81.3
rushing yards per game.
The thing that bodes best for the
Cougars is a conference trend — in the
past decade, nine of the 10 conference
champions had seniors at quarterback.
With the graduation of All-American Ja
son Gesser, senior Matt Kegel has
stepped out of a shadow and into the
limelight of success.
lne Cougars hit a bump in the road
Sept. 6 in a 29-26 overtime loss to then
feared, now-mocked Notre Dame.
Since that game, Washington State has
gotten back on track. Blowing past teams
one at a time, the Cougars are currently
No. 6 in both national polls.
Hopefully some of those Eastern
Washington Cougar faithful have made
the drive to Seattle if for no other reason
than to gloat.
Not that they needed an excuse to
leave Pullman, anyway.
As for Oregon's neighbors to the
north, the Beavers match the Cougars
with a 5-1 record.
One thing Oregon State has un
matched in the conference is pass effi
ciency defense — its 88.22 rating is
fourth in the nation.
Behind the arm of Derek Anderson
and the legs of Steven Jackson, the
Beavers are in the midst of their best con
ference start since 1968.
But don't tell them, or their returning
and new head coach Mike Riley.
It seems that mum's the word on
everything to do with publicity in Cor
vallis, especially Jackson's potential Heis
man Trophy campaign.
Before previous seasons, Duck alum
ni have paid for posters in New York City
and Los Angeles. Recently, Beaver believ
ers mocked their rivals by essentially say
ing there would be no Heisman publicity
in Who-ville.
Minus the State, the sibling schools
are in the midst of tough and tougher
seasons.
Alter falling victim to the Sports Illus
trated jinx — or was it the Cougars run
ning some Ducks into the mountains?
— Oregon is 4-3, including a 1-2 confer
ence record.
Between head coach Mike Bellotti
Turn to RICE, page 16
Mark McCambridge Photographer
Freshman Allyson Leavitt made the transition from an attacker in high school to a defensive
specialist in college with the guidance of Oregon coaches.
Oregon looking
forPac-lOwin
against Wildcats
The Ducks will have to deal
with sophomore Kim Glass
in tonight's Arizona match
By Jon Roetman
Sports Reporter
After returning home last week
for only the second time all season,
the Oregon volleyball team is back
on the road tonight against Arizona.
The Ducks are searching for
their first Pa
cific-10 Con
ference win
of the season
_ and first win
against any
opponent
since defeating Villanova, 3-0, on
Sept. 13.
DUCK
VOLLEYBALL
Oregon (3-13 overall, 0-7 Pac-10)
has lacked the ability to score points
in bunches and has often suc
cumbed to more experienced oppo
nents that are able to jump out to
an early lead. The Wildcats (7-10, 1
6) should present the Ducks with
ample scoring opportunities.
They lead the conference in errors
per game (9.89).
Arizona and Arizona State "make
the most errors of any teams in the
conference; so they give you (oppor
tunities)," head coach Carl Ferreira
said. "But they have very explosive
and dynamic athletes."
One of those athletes is sopho
more Kim Glass. The 6-foot-2-inch
outside hitter was the American Vol
leyball Coaches Association National
f reshman of the Year in 2002. Glass
set Wildcat single season records in
kills (556), kills per game (4.96) and
20-plus kill matches (14) during her
freshman campaign.
"She is an international, world
class volleyball player and athlete,"
Ferreira said. "We need to attack her.
We're going to try and triple block her
and not just let her have her way."
This season, Glass is averaging
6.23 points per game. Middle
blocker Bre I .add (3.91) and outside
hitter Jennifer Abernathy (3.12) are
both averaging more than three
points per game and are always of
fensive threats. Jolene Killough, a 6
foot-5-inch middle blocker, is a
force at the net.
After being ranked third in the
preseason Pac-10 poll, Arizona is
tied for eighth in the conference.
Despite struggling, the Wildcats
have been competitive in all but
two of their conference matches.
They have shown flashes of being
an elite team, with wins over No. 5
Pepperdine and No. 8IJCLA.
Turn to VOLLEYBALL, page 16
The jinx lives on in Florida’s game 7 win;
Cubs denied entrance into World Series
The Marlins prevail, 9-6, to defeat the
Cubs and earn a World Series trip
for the second time in their history
By Mike Phillips
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
CHICAGO — Long live the goat.
It you don't believe in the Cubs' jinx, the
Cubs' hex or the ridiculous Curse of the Billy
Goat, you haven't been paying attention.
It seems Jack McKeon could start Beyonce
Knowles at shortstop and use David Letterman
as his closer and still beat the Cubs.
The Marlins were patient enough to wait for
the inevitable, the eventual collapse of a fran
chise that has been inventing ways to lose since
Teddy Roosevelt was president. The Cubs lost
their way to the World Series as only the Cubs
could — in a gut-wrenching, painful series that
will be remembered more for a bizarre play in
the stands than for anything the Marlins did.
Crazy? Sure it is, but it makes as much sense
as the Cubs' sad history. The Marlins, barely 11
years old, are off to their second World Series af
ter beating the Cubs, 9-6, in Game 7 of the
NLCS after the Cubs blew a 5-3 lead.
The Cubs, who started playing at Wrigley
Field in 1916, haven't been to the Series since
1945 and haven't won it since 1908. Everyone
knows those painful and unfathomable num
bers by now. Follow a Cubs fan to a roulette
wheel. If he bets red, you bet black — and you
can't lose.
It has been this way for decades: The '69 Cubs
had three Hall of Famers and baseball's best
team — and lost. The '84 Cubs were nine outs
away from the Series — with the best pitcher in
baseball leading 3-0 — and lost.
Cubs fans have suffered long
and hard, but this might be their
greatest heartache. You can add
Steve Bartman's name to the long
lineage of Cubdom, a river of mis
ery that runs from one generation
of Cubs fans to another and an
other and another...
Bartman, a self-proclaimed
Cubs fan, tried to catch a foul ball
down the left-field line in the
eighth inning of Game 6, and
when the inning stayed alive the
Marlins rallied for eight runs and
a unbelievable 8-3 win to force
Game 7.
The Game 7 loss left Cubs fans
stunned, and the feeling in
Chicago this winter might be that
this team needs a psychiatrist
more than another bat or arm in
the bullpen.
"Sometimes you just have to
look back and at the end say, they
might have been better than us,"
said Cubs manager Dusty Baker,
who came to Chicago this year af
ter leading tne ;>an brancisco Gi
ants to the World Series last year. "It's disap
pointing, but we have established a foundation
for next year."
Cubs fans will blame Bartman — the scapegoat
who takes his place next to William "Gus" Sianis'
Billy Goat as a part of the tragic Cubs lore.
"It's going to take a while to sink in," Baker said.
It was almost apropos that I Iall of Famer Fergie
Jenkins, the Cubs' ace in '69, threw out the first
Joe Rimkus Jr. Miami Herald
Ivan Rodriguez points to the sky during Florida’s win Wednesday.
pitch, because this series and this Cubs collapse
was all about pitching.
Mow could the Cubs lose? They had Mark Pri
or. They had Kerry Wood.
The Marlins would have to beat one of them
at least once, and then, after the Cubs took a 3-1
lead, the Marlins faced an impossible task: they
would have to beat Prior and Wood.
Turn to JINX, page 16