■ Duck volleyball
Bay Area losses
to Stanford, Cal
sink Oregon
The Cardinal and the Golden Bears, ranked No. 12
and 13 respectively, overpower the ailing Ducks
BY STEPHEN MILLER
SPORTS REPORTER
Oregon’s roster was rearranged, but
no adjustment could remedy its trou
bles as it suffered two defeats against
California and Stanford this past week.
Sophomore outside hitters Sarah
Mason and Erin Little could only watch
Oregon’s dwindling offense from the
sidelines because of health problems.
Mason sprained her ankle last week in
practice and will be out for two to three
weeks, according to Oregon head
coach Carl Ferreira. Little was struck
with illness after the California match.
Those misfortunes forced Coach
Ferreira to shift his team’s positioning
and reassign players to unfamiliar
spots on the court, while facing two
nationally ranked teams that are flour
ishing in the Pacific-10 Conference.
“We were forced to play with a com
pletely different lineup, but each player
responded to the challenge,” Ferreira
said. “It was impressive to see us con
tinue to stay mentally focused despite
our injuries and illnesses. ”
Oregon (9-8 overall, 1-6 Pac-10)
went up against a Stanford program
that had swept the Ducks in each of
the past five meetings. The Cardinal
made it six straight on Saturday with
a 3-0 victory, 30-25, 30-17, 30-22.
Junior Kelly Russell had a breakout
performance at California and helped
Oregon capture the first game, but
the Ducks surrendered the next three,
I r—.
26-30, 30-23, 30-17, 30-23, to the
Golden Bears on Friday night.
The Cardinal (14-4, 6-1 Pac-10) im
proved their all-time series advantage
against Oregon to 40-2. Sophomore
Kristin Richards made a generous
contribution for No. 12 Stanford with
her 42th double-double of the sea
son. She recorded 14 kills and 12
digs.
With the absence of Little, Oregon
outside hitter Jaclyn Jones posted a
season-high 17 kills — two shy of her
career-best — on 32 attempts with only
four errors. Russell pitched in with nine
kills, and Allyson Leavitt added six.
“Jaclyn Jones had one of the best
matches of her collegiate career,” Fer
reira said. “Erin Little was unable to go
(Saturday), and Allyson Leavitt moved
from defensive specialist to outside hit
ter and did a phenomenal job. ”
Oregon’s defense stood strong in
front of Stanford’s Ogonna Nnamani,
who was limited to 14 kills after tally
ing 28 against Oregon State the night
before. Ferreira knew who his team
would have to contain, but the task
was still too overwhelming for Oregon.
“Stanford is a premier program,”
Ferreira said. “Richards and Nnamani
are top-level players. ”
California (10-6, 5-2 Pac-10) relied
on consistency from more than just a
pair of high-caliber attackers.
The Golden Bears had four play
ers post double-digit totals in kills,
BEN
AFFLECK
JAMES CHRISTINA
GANDOLFTNI APPLEGATE
CATHERINE
O’HARA
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Starts Friday, October 22 At Theatres Everywhere
Oregon's
attack was
without
sopho
mores
Sarah
Mason (17)
and Erin
Little (10)
because of
injury and
illness. The
Ducks lost
to Stanford
and
California
last
weekend.
Erik R.
Bishoff
Photographer
including senior Camille Leffall,
freshman Angie Pressey, and
juniors Jenna Brown and
Gabrielle Abernathy.
For the match, Cal hit at a .195
clip, but in the third game, the Gold
en Bears registered a .341 team at
tack percentage. Oregon hit .058
through four games.
To compensate for the loss of Ma
son, Russell displayed some resilience
with a match-high 18 kills and a team
best .237 hitting percentage.
After recording 27 kills over the du
ration of the Bay Area trip, Russell leads
the Ducks with 201 kills this season.
Despite its winless conference
record, Oregon remains optimistic
about the upcoming schedule.
“I thought we did a tremendous
job of coming out prepared,” Ferreira
said. “We have a tough stretch of
matches coming up so it was impor
tant to play with mental toughness. I
felt we did a good job. ”
stephenmiller@ daily emerald, com
Oregon's
Devan Long
sacks Ari
zona’s
backup
quarter
back
Richard
Kovalcheck.
The sack
mcved
Long to
seventh
alktime at
Oregon with
17 sacks.
TIm
Bobosky
Photographer
Football: Penalities continue
to hinder offensive production
Continued from page 7
limiting penalties. The Ducks, who
lead the conference in penalties,
were penalized 11 times for 114
yards, and one of them cost punt re
turner Justin Phinisee a touchdown.
“Somewhere down the line these
penalties are going to get to us,”
Phinisee said. “Until we can
eliminate those penalties,
when you think about
big bowl games, we’ll be just
another team.”
The penalties that occur during a
play don’t bother Bellotti as much
as the ones received before and af
ter a play.
“I think there were some penalties
by some people that were plain and
simply stupid and selfish,” Bellotti
said. “I’m going to find a way to get
that across to them.”
Despite the penalty woes, Oregon
has crawled its way back to a 3-3
overall record and a 2-1 conference
record.
“We feel very good about being 2
1 and still being in the hunt,”
Clemens said. “I think some
people might have thrown the
towel in for the 2004 season,
but we said the heck with
it, we’re going to go out and
play every game like it’s our
last one.”
claytonjones@ daily emerald, com