Oregon Daily Emerald
Friday, October 7,2005
“They called it golf because all the
other four-letter words were taken. ”
Walter Hagen, winner of five PGA Championships and
two U.S. Opens in his career as a professional golfer.
■ Duck soccer
Oregon faces Wildcats, Sun Devils
The defense-minded Ducks
get off to the best start in school
history to Arizona this weekend
BY SCOTTI. ADAMS
SPORTS REPORTER
If you made it out to Pape Field recently to
watch the Oregon women’s soccer team practice,
you would not be able to tell it has the two
biggest games of the season thus far next on
its schedule.
All week, head coach Tara Erickson has main
tained a focused but loose tempo for her team,
which opens Pacific-10 Conference play on the
road in Arizona against the No. 23 Wildcats to
day. Oregon plays at Arizona State Sunday.
“Practice has been a little light-hearted but in
a good way,” Erickson said. “We’re not trying to
overemphasize how we play, thinking, ‘Oh my
gosh, this is the Pac-10 opener, we need to do
everything perfectly because now things count.’
There is only so much you can do in two prac
tices and we’re trying to do things right and have
some quality minutes this weekend,” she added.
Oregon is off to the best start in program histo
ry, but there is room for skepticism surrounding
the success. Their opponents have notched vic
tories over teams with wins and/or ties against
top 25 teams, but they have yet to do the same.
This weekend is the biggest opportunity for the
Ducks to legitimize the progress made since last
year’s three-win season. Also, they can take posi
tion in the conference standings. Erickson likes
her team’s chances against the Arizona schools
and understands the magnitude of
this weekend.
“I’d like for us to go in and win, that’s what
we’d like to do obviously. I think we can beat,
and much less play even, with both teams,” Er
ickson said. “This will be the indication of how
well we can compete with other Pac-10 teams,
and it’s a good opener for us to have, even though
it is on the road — it’ll be a good measuring stick
for us.”
Unlike the Ducks, the defending Pac-10 cham
pion Arizona Wildcats (5-3-2) limped through
their non-conference schedule that featured four
top 25 teams. All of which accounted for either a
tie or a loss — the last having come one week ago
at the hands of No. 18 Brigham Young. Despite
Arizona’s rough start, they are still one of the best
teams in the conference under last year’s Pac-10
Coach of the Year Dan Tobias.
Leading the Wildcats in the field is senior for
Andrea Valadez battles for a loose ball in Oregon’s 2-0 win over South Dakota State. Valadez has played a
significant part in helping the Ducks to their best start in program history.
ward Mallory Miller, who already has a team
high 10 goals this season. Miller has played her
best in home games at Arizona’s Murphey
Stadium, where she has posted eight of the Wild
cats’ nine goals. She has helped the team draw
tremendous support from their fans (Arizona
boasts an average of 747 fans per game).
Like their rivals from Tlicson, Ariz., the Sun
Devils (5-4-2) have been up and down in non
conference play, with much of their success com
ing at home. Senior forward Elizabeth Bogus is
two assists away from ranking second in all of
fensive categories. Starting alongside Bogus in
Arizona State’s 11 games has been a trio of fresh
man defenders. Fifth-year head coach Ray Leone
of the Sun Devils has followed suit with Erickson,
opting to call upon his younger players to make
contributions this season. Leone’s freshmen Kylla
Sjoman, Emily Coehlo and Brooke Simons
earned starting spots in the off-season. As of late,
fellow rookies Alex Dunsdon and Christine Nieva
have done the same.
Oregon is riding a seven-game unbeaten streak
thanks to contributions made from the entire ros
ter. They have marked a page in Oregon’s record
book for the best non-conference record in school
SOCCER, page 10A
■ Duck volleyball
Volleyball looks for its first Pac-10 wins
'HtAffcJ
Nicole Barker | Senior photographer
Junior middle blocker Kristen Bitter taps the ball over the net against Stanford last week. Oregon plays at UCLA
today at 7 p.m.
The Ducks look to improve their
currently dismal record in next
games against UCLA and USC
BY JEFFREY DRANSFELDT
SPORTS REPORTER
The Oregon volleyball team visits the City of
Angels this weekend focused on improvement as
they face No. 21 UCLA and No. 17 USC.
Oregon plays UCLA Friday at 7 p.m. and USC 5
p.m. on Sunday. Saturday’s original 6 p.m. start
time was moved to 5 p.m. due to the 12:30 p.m.
start of the USC-Arizona football game.
Oregon head coach Jim Moore’s main message
is that Oregon’s performance will determine the
outcome of the games. What Oregon does, more
so than the actions of USC or UCLA, will deter
mine whether they will earn their first and possi
bly second Pacific-10 Conference win this season,
he said.
“If we take care of our side and we do the
things we’re capable of doing, then we’ll be fine,”
Moore added.
VOLLEYBALL, page 10A
■ Duck tennis
Departure
of seniors
leaves large
shoes to fill
Oregon is optimistic this year,
despite losing top players Sven -
Swinnen and Manuel Kost
BY STEFANIE LOH
FREELANCE REPORTER
He’s still here, but not really. Sven Swin
nen spends his afternoons practicing with
the men’s tennis team as he works toward
finishing his degree, but he effectively ended
his career as a Duck last season.
Now Oregon’s most prolific tennis player
is biding his time until graduation, after
which he will attempt to make a name for
himself on the professional tennis circuit.
Swinnen was to the men’s tennis team
what current Detroit Lions quarterback Joey
Harrington was to Oregon football back in
2001, when Harrington led the Ducks.
In his four years as a Duck, Swinnen com
pletely rewrote the Oregon men’s tennis
record books. Among other things, the
Wurenlingen, Switzerland native brought
the program its first ITA tournament title
(2004 West Regional) and its highest individ
ual player ranking ever when he entered the
2004 season ranked No. 9 nationally.
This year, the Ducks have lost Swinnen
and fellow highly-rated Swiss Manuel Kost.
Second-year head coach Kevin Kowalik is
determined not to allow the loss of the
team’s two best players to stand in the way
of Oregon’s success this year.
Kowalik’s personal vision this season is '
for the Ducks to take their overall win-loss
percentage up to at least a .500. “We’ve been
‘tied for seventh in the Pac-10 over the last
couple of years. This year I’m shooting for
fifth or sixth,” Kowalik said. “That would
hopefully put us within the top 30 in
the countrv.
“It’s virtually impossible to fill Sven’s
shoes with any one player,” added Kowalik,
who cites a conscientious work ethic as an
important building block to set in place this
year. “The goal this season is to help every
body improve about 20, 25 percent, so that
hopefully will help make up for losing such
a big contributor. We’re going to be a blue
collar team; we’re going to go out there and
outwork everybody else and be in better
shape than everybody else. We have to de
velop, we’ve got to get better,” he said.
With five upperclassmen on the roster
this year, the infrastructure of the team is
still intact, so filling the gap left by Swinnen *
and Kost might not be as daunting as
it appears.
“I think we had good leaders last year,”
Oregon junior Vladimir Pino said. “It wasn’t
necessarily just Sven who kept things going.
We had three juniors who were very in
volved in leadership, and they’re all still here
as seniors this year. As for the playing side
of things, I think Thomas [Bieri] or Markus
[Schiller] will have to step up into the num
ber one and number two spots. ”
The team’s three seniors are Bieri, Schiller
and Arron Spencer. Schiller played at the
No. 2 and No. 3 positions for most of last
season, earning a 12-9 overall singles record,
while Spencer rebounded from an injury
two seasons ago to put up a 9-11 record play
ing in the No. 3 and No. 4 roster spots.
Bieri looks set to finally shed Swinnen’s
shadow and have his own breakout season. 1
The Switzerland native spent the summer*
training independently in Switzerland and
France and feels as though he’s just now
TENNIS, page 10A