Oregon Daily Emerald
Thesday, October 11, 2005
“They say a tie is like kissing your
sister. I guess that is better than
kissing your brother. ”
Former college football coach and current ESPN analyst
Lou Holtz on games that finish in a tie.
■ In my opinion
LUKE ANDREWS
EXCESSIVE CELEBRATION
It was a sad
day for the
Emerald
sports desk
For the first time in, well, ever, I am happy to
say it: I suck.
Apparently, as it was pointed out to me some
300 times over the course of last Saturday’s
game by loyal Duck fans, I picked the Arizona
State Sun Devils to beat the Oregon Ducks.
Needless to say, I was wrong. Oregon pulled
off the 31-17 upset.
And unlike Duck fans out there who were
also worried about Oregon’s chances against the
Sun Devils in Tempe, my worries were printed
in 8,500 copies of this paper.
Even worse, I picked against my own school
and had my picture right above it.
I’ll see everyone in a few weeks; I’m entering
the witness protection program.
I guess I could blame my shaky-at-best per
formance on jitters, as it was my first time mak
ing Pacific-10 Conference selections.
But, then again, there is no excuse for correct
ly picking only one out of four games.
I chose California to beat UCLA. I was wrong.
I picked Washington State to beat Stanford —
wrong again.
In fact, the only game I picked correctly was
USC over Arizona, but everyone and their dog
picked the Trojans last week.
After all, USC entered the game winners of 26
straight and Arizona, which had lost 11 of its last
14 conference games, really had'no chance.
To put my performance in perspective, jour
nalism academic advisor Sally Garner, who by
her own admission knew little about any of the
games on Saturday, correctly picked three out of
four eamps
Her only loss came because pesky Stanford
upset Washington State.
Congratulations Sally. Maybe we should
switch jobs.
Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not bitter.
I was more pleased than anything that many
of my conference picks went against me.
I was glad to see Cal finally play a quality op
ponent. Now Jeff Tedford and his Bears have
been exposed after easily getting conference
wins against Washington and Arizona and gen
erously climbing the national polls.
I was also elated to see Stanford rebound with
a win on the road at Washington State. The
Cougars look very susceptible, and remember,
Pullman is arguably Oregon’s toughest remain
ing road trip this season.
And, of course, it was the biggest win of the
season for the Ducks against the No. 17
ranked Sun Devils. Saturday’s game in Tempe
just may be the defining moment for this Ore
gon team in search of a return trip to a promi
nent bowl game.
But, you know how I am with predictions.
So if I happen to do something crazy like pick
the Washington Huskies to beat the Ducks this
weekend in Autzen, please don’t badger me
about it — I did it for Oregon’s good.
landrews @ dailyemerald. com
■ Duck volleyball
Volleyball swept in Los Angeles
The 0-6 Ducks will face Corvallis
Friday and attempt to gamer their
first Pacific-10 Conference win
BY JEFFREY DRANSFELDT
SPORTS REPORTER
When he took charge of the Oregon volleyball
team, head coach Jim Moore emphasized that it
would take time to elevate the Ducks to the Pacific
10 Conference elite.
This was never more evident than last weekend,
when Oregon’s high hopes of stealing a match
against ranked opponents evaporated with consec
utive sweeps to UCLA and USC.
Oregon’s six consecutive losses to start Pac-10
Conference play has the team looking forward to
facing unranked rival Oregon State on Friday in
Corvallis. OSU will be Oregon’s first unranked op
ponent after playing five consecutive
ranked teams.
Even so, Oregon State won’t be an easy win,
having beaten Arizona State in five games in
Tempe, Ariz. To open the conference schedule the
Sun Devils swept Oregon.
It doesn’t get any better after Oregon State —
Oregon has a two-match homestand against No. 2
Washington and then Washington State on
Oct. 21 and 22.
The opportunities are there for Oregon to win
matches, it just has to take advantage of them,
Moore said.
“We have to compete every night,” Moore said.
“We didn’t do that Friday night (against UCLA)
and that has to change.”
Measuring whether they are improving or win
ning is secondary to getting a consistent effort,
he said.
“Right now, we can’t measure whether we’re
improving or not if one night we don’t show up to
compete and the next day we do,” Moore said.
Kristen Bitter, Oregon’s 6-foot-4-inch middle
blocker, said getting the experience of playing in a
hostile environment helped.
“It’s really important that we’re able to play with
the same level away that we do at home,”
Bitter said.
Oregon started slowly against UCLA, losing its
first game 30-15. UCLA started with a 9-2 run and
Oregon only got within five the rest of
the game.
To begin game two, Oregon (10-7 overall,
VOLLEYBALL, page 6
Nicole Barker | Senior photographer
Mira Djuric, fourth in the Pacific-10 Conference in kills per game, serves the ball against Stanford Sept.
30. Djuric had 11 kills against UCLA on Friday.
■ Duck soccer
Soccer can't net first Pacific-10 win
Darcie Gardner is one of the many freshmen that head coach Tara Erickson
has started this season. She has started in seven of the Ducks’ 12 games.
Hat trick, second-half spurt downs the Ducks
who face No. 4 UCLA at Pape Field on Friday
BY SCOTT J. ADAMS
SPORTS REPORTER
The Pacific-10 Conference
schools of the Grand Canyon State
proved too tough for the Ducks
over the weekend, who lost on the
road to both Arizona and Arizona
State by a combined score of 7-2.
On Friday, Oregon fell 4-2 in its
conference opener against the
Wildcats and was blanked by the
Sun Devils 3-0 on Sunday.
Going into their game against
Arizona (7-3-2 overall, 2-0-0 con
ference), the Ducks (8-3-1, 0-2-0)
were riding high after winning
Wyoming’s UniWyo Shootout Oct.
2 en route to posting the best start
in program history. Not seen out of
Oregon this weekend were the two
essential parts of its game that
have led to its eight wins — an of
fense that scores at least once an
outing and a defense that seldom
allows more than one goal.
The loss to Arizona State (6-5-2,
1-1-0) was especially uncharacter
istic of the Ducks under first-year
head coach Tara Erickson, who
saw her team’s drive fade in the
second half under the desert sun.
“We played a good half, but we
didn’t play for 90 minutes,” Erick
son said. “I think fatigue was a fac
tor, but we didn’t fight through that
and take care of the little things
that allowed us to be successful
earlier this season.”
Led by their young but reliable
freshman goalkeeper Jessie Chat
field, the Oregon defense held the
Sun Devils at bay through a score
less first half, but buckled early in
the second. Seniors Lara Kezer and
Brittany Cooper drew first blood
SOCCER, page 6