Oregon daily emerald., October 29, 2004, Image 9

Oregon Daily Emerald
Friday, October 29, 2004
“If you didn’t know he was a freshman,
you wouldn’t know he’s a freshman.’’
Glen Mason | Minnesota head football coach on Michigan quarterback Chad Henne
■ Women’s golf
McCready,
Nealy lead
Oregon to
9th place
Kim McCready placed 8th and
Johnna Nealy finished 9th at the
Kent Youel Invitational in Hawaii
BY CLAYTON JONES & SCOTT J. ADAMS
SPORTS EDITOR & FREELANCE SPORTS REPORTER
Whether it be the beach, the sun or the
course, Oregon’s johnna Nealy must really en
joy playing in Hawaii.
The senior from Grants Pass shot a final
round 74 Wednesday to finish ninth at the Kent
Youel Invitational.
This was her second-straight top-15 finish in
Hawaii — she finished 13th at the same 6,033
yard, par-72 Kapolei Golf Course last season.
Sophomore Kim McCready finished strong
and leaped ahead of her teammate with a final
round 72 to finish the tournament in eighth
place.
It was the Placerville, Calif., native’s second
top-10 finish of the fall season, as she finished
in a tie for seventh at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invi
tational last month.
The play of Nealy and McCready led to a
fourth place finish for the Ducks at 895, 36
strokes behind first-place finisher UCLA.
Oregon finished 17 strokes behind Pacific-10
Conference rival No. 6 Arizona State and two
strokes behind defending national champion
No. 25 Oklahoma.
The Ducks’ final-round 303 put them behind
the Sooners, who took third place on the final
day with a 300.
The individual winner was Amie Cochran of
UCLA, who shot a final-round 72 to finish 4 un
der par for the tournament, edging out two of
her teammates.
Oregon’s Erin Andrews shot a 77 Wednesday
and dropped to 22nd place.
After two rounds of play, Oregon was in third
place in the tournament as three Ducks found
their way into the top 15 of the field. Nealy, Mc
Cready and Andrews found themselves in 10th,
GOLF, page 10A
■ Duck volleyball
Lauren Wimer | Senior Photographer
Oregon's Allison Leavitt (6) challenges two Washington State blockers at McArthur Court on Thursday. The sophomore outside hitter recorded a career-high 24 kills.
Ducks lose heartbreaker to Cougars
Washington State earns its first conference victory and steals the
spotlight from Oregon's Katie O'Neil and her personal-best 43 digs
BY STEPHEN MILLER
SPORTS REPORTER
Washington State knocked Oregon off its
horse in Thursday’s volleyball match at
McArthur Court.
The two teams exchanged blows, alternat
ing wins through the first four games of the
five-game match. Eventually, the Cougars
earned their first Pacific-10 Conference victory
of the season with a 3-2 victory, 26-30, 30-28,
25-30, 30-25, 15-6.
Oregon (9-11 overall, 1-9 Pac-10) dropped its
seventh-straight league match to the worst
team in the conference after winning two of
the first three games.
“We put ourselves in a situation to win ...
We did a lot of right,” Oregon outside hitter
Kelly Russell said. “But in the moments when
we needed to execute to win, we didn’t.”
The Ducks set the tempo of the match but the
Cougars (4-19, 1-9 Pac-10) stayed in step until
they committed a hitting error to end the first
game. Oregon hit at a .328 hitting percentage as
a team in the first game by landing 23 kills and
only committing four errors on 58 swings.
Sophomore Allyson Leavitt ignited Oregon’s
eager attack early. The defensive specialist
turned-outside-hitter broke her previous ca
reer-high of six kills by posting nine in the first
game alone. Leavitt finished with 24 kills on
59 attempts for a .220 hitting percentage. The
Springfield native also posted one of Oregon’s
two double-doubles with 26 digs.
“We had some players have some really
good games tonight and for some reason we
couldn’t pull it together,” senior libero Katie
O’Neil said. “I think they were serving us
tough and our serve-receive (passing) was a
little shaky. We definitely didn’t have it
tonight. We stayed positive and supportive all
night but just couldn’t do it tonight.”
On the other side of the net, another Spring
field native led the Cougars to their win; soph
omore Kelly Rosin recorded a team-high 16
kills from 73 attempts. Her 18 digs also gave
her a double-double.
Defensively, each team finished with five
players recording double figures in digs.
O’Neil proved to be Oregon’s backbone
once again, finishing with a match-high 43
digs. That mark will go down as a personal ca
reer best, shattering her previous high of 27.
Along with that, O’Neil is now third on the
Pac-lO’s all-time list for digs in a match.
“I’m pretty happy to increase as the season
goes on ... This is a huge personal victory,”
O’Neil said. “This is a goal 1 have been work
ing on since I’ve been here and I’m going to
soak it up, build on it and keep letting it in
spire me.
“They’re a cross-court hitting team so I felt
like I got a lot of attempts and then being able
to execute the attempts was good.”
Rallies in each game, except for the fifth, led
to excessive scoring attempts and defensive
showcasing for each team, while providing
nail-biting excitement for the crowd.
Oregon’s defense collapsed in the fifth
game, and its attack lost rhythm.
“In the late game they got runs of points in
VOLLEYBALL, page 10A
Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer
Oregon redshirt sophomore Sabrina DeMonte will look
to help capture the Ducks’ first conference victory this
weekend. She is tied for second on the team in assists.
■ Duck soccer
Untimely injuries continue to hinder Ducks
Redshirt sophomore Andrea Valadez remains questionable for this
weekend's games against Stanford and California in the Bay Area
BY BRIAN SMITH
SPORTS REPORTER
Heading into the fourth weekend of the con
ference schedule, the injury report for the Ore
gon women’s soccer team continues to grow.
Another Duck forward’s participation is
questionable for this weekend’s matches
against Stanford (10-4-2 overall, 4-2-1 Pac-10)
and California (9-4-2, 2-2-1) in the Bay Area.
Redshirt sophomore Andrea Valadez suf
fered a possible season-ending ACL injury
against Washington last week. Doctors were
unclear on the specifics of her injury, but
Valadez will travel with the team and expects
to play this weekend.
Regardless of the extent, Valadez’s injury
will weaken an already wounded offense that
has had problems scoring goals all year long.
Through 15 games, the Ducks have scored
12 goals and are the only team in the Pacific-10
Conference averaging under one goal per
game. In addition, Oregon has only managed
two goals so far in conference play.
The Ducks also rank near the bottom in
shots (158 total, eighth in conference), points
(31,10th), goals per game (0.80, 10th), assists
(7, 10th) and assists per game (0.47, 10th) in
the Pac-10.
Including Valadez, three of the Ducks’ top
scorers in 2004 are out, leaving freshman Kami
Kapaku — the Ducks' leading scorer this sea
son with four goals — with the brunt of the
scoring responsibilities. Kapaku netted the
only two conference goals for Oregon last
weekend.
Surrounding Kapaku will be a forward-by
committee approach with Sabrina DeMonte,
Cristan Higa, Rachel Grushkin, Salina Karia, Va
lerie Mayer, and Gennaka Fox. DeMonte is tied
for second on the team in assists with one, while
Higa is fourth on the team in shots with 10.
“We worked on playing as a team and play
ing faster,” Oregon senior defender Christine
Mintz said. “Because Stanford will be good in
transitioning and playing team defense and
since we don’t have any one big personality
player, we all have to do the work.”
Cardinal defense possesses
shutdown skills
Stanford will do little to help Oregon’s scor
ing woes; the Cardinal is one of the strongest
teams defensively in the conference.
Behind team leader and co-captain goal
keeper Nicole Barnhart, Stanford is ranked first
in goals allowed, giving up a mere 0.50 goals
per game. The Cardinal has given up only
eight goals all season. As a team they have
nine shutouts in 2004, with Barnhart record
ing six of them. She has 34 career shutouts
and 186 saves since 2000.
“Stanford is strong technically,” Oregon
head coach Bill Steffen said. “They get
chances and put them away. We have to try
SOCCER, page 10A