Oregon Daily Emerald
Monday, March 14, 2005
“I don’t want to catch anything. That
thing has been passed around more
often than Paris Hilton. ”
Boston general manager Theo Epstein on the World Series trophy
■ In my opinion
CLAYTON JONES
SEVENTH INNING STRETCH
Taking time
for the team:
My March
Madness role
Spring break is around the corner, and
college students all over the country are eager
to start their time off with beaches, bikinis
and booze.
For students like me who don’t have plans
and get to spend their break in fantastic
Eugene, there is one event that will make
spending the time here bearable.
March Madness.
My television will be dialed-in to CBS and
the men’s NCAA Tournament for the next
couple of weeks as I watch hour upon hour
of college basketball with the pizza delivery
person as my only contact with the
outside world.
Liter upon liter of Mountain Dew (feel free
to send me a free promotion for the advertise
ment) will be drank as I watch to see if Wash
ington can live up to the No. 1 seed it received
and can represent the Pacific-10 Conference in
a positive way.
There will be hours upon hours of research
put into tournament teams like Delaware
State, Bucknell and Vermont (when I should
be studying).
During the few hours of sleep I will get
between games, I’ll be dreaming of Billy
Packer and Greg Gumbel breaking down
the tournament.
But now I have the daunting task in front
of me that millions of people must face in
the next few days: Filling out the
tournament bracket.
In the past I always did some research
before putting my final bracket in stone.
And in every bracket pool I played in, I al
ways got burned by a top-team choke (i.e.
Arizona), and my chances of winning went
right down the drain.
Last year, I didn’t have time to do the kind
of research I generally do, and — of course —
I almost won my pool.
While I still haven’t devised a strategy
for how to attack this year’s bracket, I know
one thing for sure ... don’t depend on a
Pac-10 team.
So, sorry Washington, Arizona, UCLA and
Stanford ... I don’t plan on putting you guys
going past the round of 16.
Another breed of team I’ve been burned by
in the past is one that has an unbelievable
season — like Stanford and Saint Joseph’s last
season — then proceeds to take a total dive in
the postseason.
Obviously that means I’m not taking
Illinois and its 32-1 season. While I do think
they have a chance of making it to the Final
Four, they won’t win it all.
My pick to win the championship this sea
son may seem a bit conservative, but North
Carolina will be the team to beat (yeah, I
know, a big stretch).
So while my Spring Break won’t bring
me to the beach or any other exotic location,
I do get to relax and take in some
March Madness.
claytonjones@ daily emerald, com
■ Women’s lacrosse
Oregon
surrenders
early lead
to Colgate
The Red Raiders went on a 7-0
first-half run and never looked
back, defeating the Ducks 15-9
BY BEAU EASTES
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
In front of almost 400 fans on an
unusually bright and slightly breezy March
afternoon, the Oregon women’s lacrosse
team, in familiar fashion, lost again.
The Ducks (0-5 overall, 0-3 Mountain Pa
cific Sports Federation) took an early lead,
went on a scoring drought and then battled
back valiantly to no avail in a 15-9 home
loss Saturday against Colgate (4-1, 1-0
Patriot League).
LACROSSE, page 14A
Lauren Wimer | Senior photographer
Freshman Oregon attacker Erin Gaebe looks to score against Colgate’s Lauren Price in the Ducks’ 15-9 loss
Saturday at Pape Field. Gaebe had her fourth goal of the season in the loss.
Kate Horton | Photographer
Oregon junior Jamie Marshall was defeated by Princeton’s Joanna Roth, 64,6-3,
in the Ducks’ 4-3 victory Sunday at the Student Tennis Center.
■ Women's tennis
Women up record
to 11-2 with win
against Princeton
Doubles duo Dominika Dieskova and Daria
Panova opened the dual with an 8-0 victory
BY ALEX TAM
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
Before entering Sunday’s game
against Princeton, the Oregon
women’s tennis team had won
21 of its past 22 dual matches
in non-conference play. After
defeating Princeton, 4-3, at the
Student Tennis Center, the Ducks
(11-2) can now add another win
to their impressive record. They
also improved their home record
to 8-1 on the season.
“We battled hard,” Oregon head
coach Nils Schyllander said. “We
got a lot of people playing sick
right now, but they were sucking
it up.”
Despite several ill athletes, the
Ducks were able to jump out to a
1- 0 lead after taking two of the
three doubles matches.
The doubles team Daria Panova
and Dominika Dieskova led the
Ducks after making quick work of
Princeton’s Jessica Siebel and
Stephanie Berg, 8-0, at the
No. 1 position. The Oregon duo
upped its record to 10-3 on
the season.
At the No. 2 position, Dieskova
upped her singles record to
10-3 while helping Oregon take a
2- 0 lead. The 20-year-old defeated
Princeton sophomore Darcy
Robertson in straight sets, 6-1,6-2.
Princeton cut the deficit to
2-1 when sophomore Joanna Roth
triumphed over Oregon’s Jamie
Marshall, 6-4, 6-3. Marshall came
back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set
to tie up the score at 4-4, but the
junior from Las Vegas could not
keep up her momentum through
the rest of the matches, and her sin
gles record fell to 4-7.
The Ducks quickly came back
and took a commanding 3-1 lead
when Panova bested Siebel in a
hard-fought three-set match,
4-6, 6-0, 6-1. Panova, 22, said she
mixed up her game after the first
set, incorporating both forehand
and drop shots aces that
frustrated her opponent.
“I didn’t expect the girl to play
that well in the first set,” Panova
said. “Her serve was very good,
and 1 didn’t play my best. I wasn’t
ready mentally, but in the second
set, I started making more balls
and just started hanging in there
and eventually, she broke down.”
Ester Bak then clinched the vic
tory for Oregon as she beat Prince
ton sophomore Laura Trimble at
the No. 6 position in another three
set battle, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. Bak was
down 0-2 in the second set before
winning 12 of the last 14 games to
boost her singles record to 8-3.
“(TYimble) came out really big
and hitting a lot of winners and
came out fired up,” Bak said. “I was
just being patient and playing every
point, game by game. I was able to
pick it up and change the momen
tum. 1 think 1 was a little bit more
consistent (in the second and third
TENNIS, page 14A