■ Women's lacrosse
Lacrosse anticipates debut
match against veteran team
Oregon hosts the premier
Division I lacrosse game
in the Pacific Northwest
BY BEAU FASH'S
OREGON DAILY FREELANCE REPORTER
The players are getting restless.
After a season of fall scrimmages
and a winter of weight lifting, Ore
gon’s 18th varsity sport will official
ly be unveiled when the women’s
lacrosse program debuts Saturday at
12 p.m. against Stanford at
Pape Field.
“We want to see what we can re
ally do,” assistant coach Robert
Bray Jr. said.
Oregon’s lacrosse odyssey began
in July 2003. Following a 21-month
study directed by Senior Associate
Athletics Director Renee Baumgart
ner, the traditionally east coast sport
of lacrosse was chosen as the
Ducks’ 10th women’s varsity athlet
ic program. Head coach Jen Larsen
was hired and handed the task of
assembling a squad to compete in
the Mountain Pacific Sports Federa
tion in fewer than two years.
The Ducks are now just a day
away from taking the field in a
game that will finally count in
the standings.
“It’s going to be amazing to go
out there and play against some
body else,” freshman midfielder
Jenny Browne said.
The Ducks, all of whom will be
getting their first varsity collegiate
experience Saturday, have been
competing with each other day in
and day out since a handful of inter
collegiate scrimmages in the fall.
“(We’re) excited because we’ve
gone through the majority of the fall
season, the whole winter season
and now for three weeks of the
spring just playing each other,” Jen
May, a high school All-American
from Davidsonville, Md., said.
Staying true to Larsen’s “you got
to play the best to be the best” atti
tude, the Ducks open the year with
a veteran Stanford squad. The Car
dinal, 9-9 last season and 4-0 in the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation,
returns 13 players — including last
year’s team points leader Megan
Burker (30 goals, 11 assists), and
three-year midfield starters Nina
Pantano and Kelsey Twist. Under
Michele Uhlfelder, the 2004 MPSF
Co-Coach of the Year, the Cardinal
Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer
Freshman
Jen May and
the rest of her
Duck
teammates
will play in
Oregon’s
first-ever
varsity
lacrosse
match
Saturday
against
Stanford at
12 p.m. at
Papd Field.
became the first west coast team to
be ranked in the top 20 national
rankings in 20(1l. Last year Stanford
started the season ranked No. 14
and narrowly missed a chance to
make the post-season with an unex
pected loss to California in the
MPSF Championship game. The de
feat was the Cardinal’s first loss in
four seasons to a conference
opponent.
Although Stanford appears to be
a heavy favorite entering this week
end’s contest, Uhlfelder refuses look
past the game.
“We approach every game the
same way,” the fifth-year coach
said. “(Actually) we’re as excited as
Oregon is.”
Larsen plans to pressure Stanford
on defense, using man-to-man
coverage that allows players to
jump from opponent to opponent in
the attempt to trap the ball. On the
offensive end, Larsen looks to em
ploy basic fundamentals early on in
the season.
“(We’re) having them understand
the ball needs to move and they
need to move,” she said.
LaFsen and her staff favor a more
flowing and non-scripted offensive
game plan because of the youthful
nature of their team.
“We’re very against scripted plays
because the second something
doesn’t go right we have a group of
freshman that might not be able to
improvise,” she said. Instead of set
plays, the coaching staff has been
working with the Ducks to “be cre
ative, find different looks.”
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