Oregon golfers start slow in Hawaii tournament
The Ducks are led by Gregg
LaVoie, who finished 32nd
in the first round in Waikoloa
By Brian Smith
Freelance Reporter
The Oregon men's golf team fin
ished the first round of theTaylorMade
Waikoloa Inter
collegiate one
spot higher
0“% | ET than last year's
_ showing.
The Ducks,
who sent two freshmen and three
sophomores to Hawaii, finished with a
team score of 6-over 294, good for a tie
for 13th with the University of Rhode
Island on the 7,074-yard, par-72
Waikoloa Kings Golf Course in
Waikoloa, Hawaii. The Ducks are 22
strokes back of the leader, fifth-ranked
Georgia Tech.
The young squad continued to show
the inconsistency and inexperience that
has hampered it all year. Looking to
turn a comer after shooting a season
best 6-under second round of the
PING-Arizona Intercollegiate, the
Ducks have posted rounds of 15-over
and 6-over, respectively.
Sophomore Gregg LaVoie was the
only Duck to finish in the top 40, post
ing a even par 72, finishing in 32nd.
Fellow sophomores Justin St. Clair and
Kyle Johnson finished a shot behind
LaVoie, tied for 41st with first-round
73s. Freshman and Hawaii native Matt
Ma carded a 77 in his opening round
and finished in 85th. Freshman Dustin
Pewarchuk, playing the best golf so far
in the spring season with his first top
twenty of his career at the PING-Ari
zona, struggled his first nine holes,
shooting a 41. Pewarchuk righted the
ship and finished the back nine with a
35, posting a first round score of 76,
good for 76th.
Georgia Tech, winner of three of the
past sixTaylorMade-Waikoloa tourna
ments, continued its dominant play in
Hawaii, finishing with an impressive
16-under team score of 272. Georgia
Tech was ten shots clear of the second
place finisher, defending champs and
fourth-ranked UCLA. Washington fin
ished an impressive round tied for 3rd
with No. 9 Arizona State at 283. UC
Davis and Stanford finished tied for
fifth at 284. The second tier of finishers
includes Texas Christian University
with a 285; USC at 286; host school
Hawaii-Hilo at 289; and Arkansas,
Nagoya Commerce (Japan) and Tulsa
in a tie for 10th at 293.
Individually, four of the Georgia
Tech golfers posted a score of 70 or bet
ter during the first round of play, led by
their own Nicholas Thompson, who
shot an 8-under 64 to take a four-shot
lead over second-place finishers Brock
MacKenzie ofWashington and UCLA's
John Poucher, who both shot 4-under
68. Stanford's Zach Miller and Kevin
Blue tied with four other golfers for 4th,
at 3-under.
Oregon returns for the second round
of 18 holes Thursday morning. Tee
times starts at 6:45 a.m.
Brian Smith is a freelance writer for the
Emerald.
Ducks host Sun Devils to start off weekend contests
The Oregon women face
off against Arizona and
Arizona State to start off the
Pacific-10 Conference season
By Alex Tam
Freelance Reporter
The undefeated Oregon women
look to ride the momentum of their
six-game win
ning streak
into the begin
TENNIS
__ 10 Conference
play.
The Ducks (6-0 overall) will host
two national powerhouses ranked in
the top 35, starting today with No. 18
Arizona State at 6:30 p.m. in the Stu
dent Tennis Center. Oregon will later
compete against 34th-ranked Arizona
at noon on Saturday.
The Ducks have so far dominated
their opponents in both the doubles
and singles play during the dual meet
season. Five Ducks are currently hold
ing perfect dual match singles records
with senior Davina Mendiburu lead
ing the way at 6-0. As a team, Oregon
has lost only six matches this spring
season in compiling a 32-4 singles
record and a 16-2 record in doubles.
The women are starting to feel con
fident that they can make a big impact
in a conference that has six teams in
the top 20, including top-ranked
Stanford.
"I think this program has come to
the point where if we play well, we
can beat every match we play," Ore
gon head coach Nils Schyllander said.
However, this weekend will prove
to be the toughest challenge at this
point in the year.
Arizona State (2-0 overall), ranked
as high as sixth in the country last
year, is a very young team composed
of six freshmen and is led by junior
Joslynn Burkett, who is ranked 50th
in the nation. The Sun Devils' fresh
men have a great deal of international
experience, though, and have already
proven themselves in their first year at
the collegiate level.
Sun Devils head coach Sheila
Mclnerney said her newcomers are
not feeling any pressure to live up to
their expectations and their ranking.
"I'm not sure (our freshmen) know
what to expect so this will be a great
test for us," Mclnemey said. "We have
a lot of respect for Oregon and are
looking forward to the match. We
know the Ducks will come out very
aggressively and we will have to
match their intensity."
Schyllander said he is impressed by
Arizona State's first-year players.
"They are very accomplished play
ers that I don't think they've fallen
off from where they were last year,"
he said.
Arizona (2-1 overall) comes to Eu
gene after dropping seven places in the
rankings from No. 27 to No. 34. As
opposed to Arizona State, the Wildcats
boast a lineup of experienced
third-year and fourth-year players, in
cluding juniors Dianne Hollands and
Maja Mlakar, who are both ranked in
the top 30 in the nation.
Revenge will be on the minds of the
Wildcats after the Ducks pulled off a
4-3 upset victory last year when Ore
gon senior Courtney Nagle won her
singles match that decided the dual
contest tiebreaker. It turned out to be
the first win ever in Tucson for the
Oregon women's tennis program.
"Arizona is a very experienced
group that knows what it takes to win
matches," Schyllander said. "We upset
Arizona last year so I know they're go
ing to be gunning for us."
Alex Tam is a freelance writer for the
Emerald.
BIG
continued from page 13
to you and be able to watch them."
Kraayeveld knows how nerve
wracking it can be to play as a fresh
man. In her first season, she played in
all but five of Oregon's games, albeit
in a limited role.
"I just tried to encourage her and be
a positive influence on her,"
Kraayeveld said. "She's played a lot
coming in as a freshman and that can
be hard sometimes."
Shetters is just making her way right
now. Her mom Teri Shetters still lives
in Portland and attends all of Oregon's
home games. Her older sister, Jenny
Shetters, is in touch regularly by phone
"Between her and my mom, they
probably hear all of my problems,"
Jessica Shetters said. "She's just some
body that I can vent to about things
that are bothering me and stuff like
that, because she's been through it."
Jenny Shetters is in her fourth year
playing on the women's basketball
team at New Mexico. Although the sis
ters grew up together on the softball
field, they rarely played basketball to
gether because of their age difference.
Now, Jenny Shetters is regularly in
volved in her sister's basketball days.
"It's kind of hard because we're so
far away," Jenny Shetters said. "I tried
to help her know what she was getting
into. She tells me what's going on and
how her team is doing. We talk a lot."
Jessica Shetters' first season hasn't
been all hard work and no fun. Shet
ters started her first collegiate game in
Oregon's annual Pape Jam in Decem
ber, playing in front of her hometown
crowd at the Rose Garden. Overall,
she has started in 11 games.
"I don't think I've ever been that
nervous in my entire life," Shetters
said of her first start. "I can't even de
scribe it, I was so nervous. My hands
were sweating so bad I thought I was
n't going to be able to catch the ball.
The minute the jump ball went up,
the nerves just went away, but sitting
in the locker room, listening to Bev's
pre-game speech, that was intense."
Besides starting as a freshman, oth
er unexpected things have happened
during Shetters' time in Eugene. For
mer opponent Cicely Oaks, who
played for P1L rival Grant High School,
is now a teammate and a friend.
Oaks and Shetters played against
each other dating back to Amateur
Athletic Union teams in middle
school. The first and only time they
took the court as teammates before
wearing University of Oregon jer
seys was in Oregon jerseys for the
annual Oregon-Washington all
star game.
"In high school, her attitude was a
little sketchy," Oaks said. "We knew
we could kind of piss her off and get
her out of her game. Strategy was just
to piss her off basically.
"Now, she's matured a lot. I think
she sees that she can be a good play
er, so she's putting the effort into
sucking stuff up and just becoming
better all around. I think college had
a lot to do with it. She sees the big
ger picture so she's changing her
ways a little bit."
Shetters' older sister agreed that the
Oregon freshman has matured since
her high school days not so long ago.
Jessica Shetters realizes it herself.
"It's been definitely a learning expe
rience," Shetters said. "There's been
some down moments and definitely
some up moments. It's all about keep
ing your head up."
Contact the senior sports reporter
at mindirice@dailyemerald.com.
Tim Kupsick Freelance Photographer
Portland native Jessica Shetters said she thinks going through freshman year of college in
a different state would have been a difficult adjustment to make.
SPORTS BRIEFS
Hawks stay undefeated
PHILADELPHIA — Jameer Nelson
hears the whispers about how third
ranked St Joseph's isn't really this good.
He watches some of the talking heads
on television express their doubts
about the Hawks, listens to them say
they will be exposed sooner or later by a
team with a formidable ffontcourt
Always quick with a smile or a hu
morous quip, the all-American guard is
n't one to carry a chip on his shoulder.
But when asked whether Wednesday
night's 81-67 Atlantic Ten victory over
defending conference champion Day
ton was a reply to the skeptics, Nelson,
sitting sweat-soaked at his locker with a
bag of ice wrapped around his left knee,
offered a response to the critics.
"People can say what they want," he
said. 'The bottom line is we're winning.
I'm really getting tired of people saying
we're pretenders and all that stuff. I'm
not the kind of person who's going to
come out and be cocky. But at the same
time, we're out there working hard like
everyone else. So why would anyone
want to take something away from us?"
With a roaring, standing-room
only crowd inside Alumni Memorial
Fieldhouse exhorting them, the
Hawks (21-0 overall, 10-0 conference)
defeated the tall, stubborn and veter
an Flyers (19-4, 9-1) as the magnifi
cent backcourt tandem of Nelson and
Delonte West delivered one blow af
ter another at crunch time.
West led St Joe's with 24 points on
9-for-16 shooting, and handed out five
assists. After missing his first five shots,
the 5-foot 11 Nelson finished with 16
points, seven assists and six rebounds.
Each had only two turnovers.
— Ray Parrillo
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Duke wins 18th straight
DURHAM, N.C. — Luol Deng
shouted at his teammates after he
scored on the block and was fouled.
"Let's go, man," he said, before
making the free throw to complete
the three-point play Wednesday night
at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
After missing 16 minutes of the first
half with two fouls and a sore tailbone,
Deng was ready to make an impact He
scored all 11 of his points over 5 min
utes, 57 seconds of die second half and
top-ranked Duke pulled away for a 93
75 victory against Virginia.
“The game was getting close, and I
really just went out there to lift every
one up," Deng said.
Virginia trailed by five points when
Deng began hitting shots. After the
three-point play, Deng made a 15
foot baseline jumper, two free throws
and a rebound basket before conclud
ing his scoring flurry with an alley
oop dunk on a pass from Chris
Duhon with 8:52 remaining.
Thirty-four seconds later, Duhon
passed to Shelden Williams for a two
handed dunk on the fast break. Duke
was comfortably in command at 74
59 after leading 57-54 with 13 min
utes to play.
"As soon as Looey got into the
game, he brought energy to the whole
place, not just our team, because we
hadn't seen him in a long time," said
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewsld.
Guard J.J. Redick scored 25 to lead
Duke (21-1,10-0 ACC) in its 18th vic
tory in a row and its 39th straight
home win. Virginia (12-9,2-8) lost its
fifth straight.
Deng was injured while commit
ting a charge under the basket 3:23
into the game. Duke center Williams
also suffered a tailbone injury in the
second half.
With two of their top frontcourt
players gimpy, the Blue Devils weren't
the same, especially on defense. Vir
ginia center Elton Brown played
strong in the post and scored 24, two
short of his season high.
Virginia shot 47.4 percent from the
field, the highest mark allowed by
Duke in 18 games since its lone loss
of the season, against Purdue on
Nov.29.
"Winston Churchill said, 'Do the
best you can, where you are, with
what you've got.' I'm at a great school
and you've got to do the best you can.
I thought tonight we did the best we
could," said Virginia coach Pete
Gillen.
— Ken Tysiac
Knight Ridder Newspapers