Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, March 10, 2005
“It doesn’t make a difference how
many runs you win by as long as you
have one more than your opponent. ”
Kathy Arendsen | Oregon softball head coach
■ In my opinion
JON ROETMAN
ROUGHING THE PASSER
Lowly Ducks
should take
NIT invite,
despite year
I have to admit, when the idea of the
Oregon men’s basketball team accepting a bid
to the National Invitation Tournament first
came about, I didn’t think too highly of it.
A spot in any postseason tournament is
something you’re supposed to earn, and the
Ducks didn’t earn anything.
Oregon blew several opportunities to
qualify for the Pacific-10 Conference
Tournament — road losses to California
and Oregon State and home losses
to Washington and Stanford stand out —
and finished with a disappointing
6-12 conference record.
But the more I thought about it, the
fact that Oregon even had a chance to win
those games is impressive.
The Ducks lacked leadership. They had
five freshmen, six sophomores, three
juniors and no seniors on their roster
to start the season and lost one of those
juniors when Ian Crosswhite was dismissed
for an unspecified violation of Athletics
Department policy.
Of the five freshmen on the squad,
head coach Ernie Kent relied on three of
them — Malik Hairston, Bryce Taylor
and Maarty Leunen — for big minutes
during most of the season, and all five —
including Chamberlain Oguchi and Ray
Schafer — were major contributors by
season’s end. When the youngsters struggled,
there were no veterans to pick them up.
Sophomore Aaron Brooks, who missed
10 games during his freshman campaign
with a broken bone in his right wrist,
experienced many things for the first
time. Crosswhite struggled before his
dismissal and was actually a liability at
times on the floor.
This left a talented but inexperienced
group of players on the court to try and
figure things out for themselves. When
that’s the case, heartbreak and frustration
are imminent.
For those reasons, Oregon should accept
an invite to the NIT if one is offered after
Selection Sunday.
Give the freshmen a chance to get
some postseason experience. Give Brooks
an opportunity to continue improving
his leadership skills. And most importantly,
give a young team with loads of potential
one more chance to put together the kind
of run it was always so close to starting
during the season.
This team will be much better next season,
especially if Kent can recruit a player with
an inside presence to take the place of
Crosswhite. This team will be a legitimate
NCAA contender in two years barring injury
„or an early NBA departure by Hairston.
The NIT wouldn’t be the most glorious ending
to a season that started with so much hype.
But it would certainly be a building block
for the future.
jonroetman @ dailyemerald. com
■ Women's lacrosse
.PACKAGED
aDEAL
When recruited, best friends Jana Bradley, Kate
Fleming and Anna Poponyak were inseparable.
Now, as freshmen, the trio is more than capable
BY BEAU EASTES
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
Jana Bradley, Kate Fleming
and Anna Poponyak get by with
a little help from their friends.
The three female lacrosse
players all hail from La Costa
Canyon High School, a coastal
community school of about
3,000 students approximately
halfway between Los Angeles
and San Diego.
Bradley and Fleming, best
friends since kindergarten, met
Poponyak their freshman year in
high school. The three have
rarely been apart since.
“We knew from almost the
very beginning (of recruiting) it
was a packaged deal,” head
coach Jen Larsen said.
The beginning started in
December of the girls’ senior
year. Lacrosse had always been
“a fun season” for the three, as
field hockey and soccer were the
more serious sports in their
beach community.
But prior to their final lacrosse
season, La Costa Canyon hired
Kristy Gallagher and Katie Dolan,
former Richmond lacrosse
players, to coach its lacrosse team.
The two All-Atlantic-10 athletes
completely overhauled the pro
gram and gave their seniors the
confidence they needed to look at
playing beyond high school.
“They got us to realize we
were good enough to play on the
college level,” Poponyak said.
The girls, who had only
picked up the sport as ninth
graders, sent out highlight tapes
to schools all along the West
Coast. Larsen, who had already
signed 17 athletes when she
received the trio’s highlight reel,
began calling to gage interest.
She soon realized she was
recruiting not just one or two
athletes, but all three.
“I would make one call and all
three would get on the phone,”
Larsen said with a smile.
But the future Ducks still
weren’t convinced they were
Division I material. They traveled
to Eugene in February for a
lacrosse clinic, but still didn’t
know what the future had in store
for them. Then Larsen visited.
The girls who used lacrosse as
a fun interlude between other
seasons now had a big-time head
coach travel almost 1,000 miles to
see them in person.
“It was crazy,” Fleming said.
The move paid off. Bradley
signed immediately and
Fleming eventually chose the
Ducks over California, in part
because of Larsen’s trip south.
Poponyak then gave a verbal
Erik R. Bishoff | Photographer
Freshmen Anna Poponyak, above, Jana Bradley and Kate Fleming all hail from
La Costa Canyon High School in Encinitas, Calif. The three friends all play crucial
roles in Oregon's inaugural lacrosse season.
commitment, and the pals from
“So Cal” were set.
“We never thought we’d all go to
college together,” Poponyak said.
Three 'sisters' with
three different talents
Although the Ducks describe
themselves as “more like sisters than
friends,” they are far from identical.
Bradley, the team’s leading scorer
with eight goals, is as quiet
and modest off the field as she is
aggressive and determined on it.
"She brings a lot of speed,”
Larsen said. “She’s the leader of
our (transition).”
When pressed about her five-goal
break-out game against Denver,
Bradley shrugs it off as a fluke. Of
the three friends, she is the quietest,
LACROSSE, page 14
■ Duck softball
Ducks use 6th-inning run to edge PSU
Lovena Chaput's run scored on Suzie Barnes'
single helps Oregon slip past Portland State, 2-1
BY CLAYTON JONES
SPORTS EDITOR
Oregon’s 21 st-ranked softball
team had plenty of chances to put
away Portland State, but it came
down to Suzie Barnes’ fisted
single up the middle in the
bottom of the sixth inning to
put the pesky Vikings away
2-1 Wednesday at Howe Field.
The Ducks put runners on base
every inning, but only mustered
two runs and left 10 people on
base during the game.
But for Oregon (11-8), getting
the win was all that mattered.
“It wasn’t pretty, but it goes
down as a win in the score
book, and that’s all we care
about right now,” said Oregon
pitcher Amy Harris, who picked
up the win in relief. “Hopefully
in the near future, we will be
able to shut teams down by a
bigger margin.”
Oregon head coach Kathy
Arendsen said all the team
cares about at this point is
getting the victory.
“It doesn’t make a difference
how many runs you win by as
long as you have one more than
your opponent,” Arendsen said.
“Nobody goes back and says,
‘You beat them by seven,’ or ‘You
beat them by one.’ Who cares?
You beat them. ”
But Portland State didn’t make
it easy for the Ducks.
Oregon held a 1-0 lead going
into the top of the sixth inning,
but the Vikings tied the score
on an array of Duck mistakes.
Portland State’s Kimi Daniel
reached first on an error by
second baseman Kristi Jorgensen,
who was trying to field a ground
ball. Daniel advanced to second
and then third on consecutive
wild pitches by Oregon starter
Alicia Cook. After a conference
on the mound, the Vikings’ Lacey
Gorman laced a ball to left field
for a hit, scoring Daniel and tying
the score at one.
Arendsen said Cook pitched
well — she gave up three hits and
struck out four in five innings
of work — but just got a little
out of sync.
Danielle Hickey | Photo editor
Oregon’s TJ Eadus attempts to bunt during the Ducks' 2-1 victory against
Portland State on Wednesday at Howe Field. The freshman hit a double and
extended her hitting streak to seven games.
“It was just kind of bizarre when
she hit the sixth inning,” Arendsen
said. “I have no idea what
happened with those (wild] pitches,
but she knows. It happens.”
Harris took the mound after
Gorman’s hit and retired the next
three hitters to get the Ducks out
of the inning.
In the bottom half of the inning,
freshman Lovena Chaput drove a
single to right field and stole second
base, all with two outs. Barnes
stepped up and was jammed by an
inside fastball but got enough of it to
have it float into center field for the
game-winning hit.
“It wasn’t a solid hit,” Barnes
said. “But it got the job done.”
Harris struck out the side in the
seventh to pick up her fifth win of
the season.
claytonjones@dailyemerald.com