Sports
Oregon Daily Emerald
Friday, October 21, 2005
“Everybody talks about Clemens and Andy,
but they have another one that throws the
ball better than them— Oswalt. ”
Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen
Katie
Swoboda
is fifth in the
Pacific-10
Conference in
digs in her
freshman
season with
Oregon.
Nicole Barker | Senior photographer
■ Duck volleyball
Swoboda plays with passion
After signing with the University in April, Katie Swoboda
has become one of the Pac-10 conference's best players
BY JEFFREY DRANSFELDT
SPORTS REPORTER
Calm and collected, Katie Swoboda
makes dive after dive, her 5-foot-5
frame taking the brunt of the impact.
Each time Swoboda goes down, she
gets up, always the competitor as she
develops into one of the next great
liberos of the Pacific-10 Conference.
“You have to carry her off (the court)
to take her out,” Oregon head coach
Jim Moore said.
A concussion. Tom cartilage. Bleed
ing and bruised hips. Goose eggs on
her elbows. You name it, she’s had it.
When she was a junior in high
school, Swoboda suffered a concussion
when she hit a wall during a match.
Two days later, after being checked at
a hospital and her mom assured she
was okay, Swoboda was playing again.
This determination has helped
catalyze her development into a top
notch player. She has quietly risen to
fifth in the Pac-10 Conference with 4.53
digs per game.
“I’ll do anything to get the ball, so
sometimes it kills my body, but it’s
what I love and what I’ve worked on
my whole life,” Swoboda said.
Moore saw Swoboda’s potential
early, watching her as a high school
sophomore while he was coach at
Northern Michigan. One year later
and needing a libero, he saw she re
mained uncommitted and considered
contacting her.
VOLLEYBALL, page 12A
■ Duck soccer
Ducks and Beavers meet
in Corvallis for Civil War
After four straight losses, Oregon's seniors take on Oregon State
for the final time of their collegiate careers Friday at Lorenz Field
BY SCOTT J. ADAMS
SPORTS REPORTER
Oregon travels up 1-5 to Corvallis today for a
Civil War contest with rival Oregon State.
The Ducks are still in search of their first con
ference win under head coach Tara Erickson
and need a victory over the Beavers to keep
alive their hopes of reaching the NCAAs.
Although Oregon State (8-5-1 overall, 1-2-1
conference) does not feature the same level of
talent as Arizona or UCLA, team captain Katie
Abrahamson of the Ducks assures they are not
to be taken lightly.
“It’s definitely going to be a challenge,” Abra
hamson said. “We’re very familiar with playing
them and expect a lot of fouls and a fight until
the end. We have the mentality that we can win
any game and we’ve been that way all year.
This game is crucial, we only have five games
left and we need to win as many as we can.”
Today marks the final Civil War game for
Abrahamson and the other seniors on Oregon’s
roster. The Beavers hold a 2-1 edge over the
senior Ducks, who have not scored a goal
against Oregon State in two years.
“They beat us last year here and are up 2-1
over us,” Abrahamson said. “It’s time to level
the playing field.”
After posting an impressive 8-1-1 record to
start the season, the Ducks have been in a
tailspin as of late, dropping the past four games
to start conference play. They now have an
identical record with the Beavers, who have
also struggled against Pacific-10 Conference op
ponents. They lost to both Arizona and UCLA,
but topped Arizona State and battled to a 0-0 tie
with USC.
In her first year as head coach for Oregon, to
day marks the first Civil War game for Erickson,
who is no stranger to the heated rivalry be
tween the two schools. Playing at Washington
and coaching for Portland State gave her a
chance to sample Oregon and Oregon State soc
cer, which she feels is one of biggest rivalries on
the west coast.
“I came from Portland State and we saw our
games against Oregon State as rivalry games,”
Erickson said. “Anytime you play a rival you get
up for it and coaching her has given the rivalry
a whole new meaning for me. It’s a traditional
rivalry and I anticipate a heated game, it seems
like every year the score is close.”
In their past three meetings, the away team
has walked away the victor with latest being
the Beavers, who blanked Oregon 3-0 last sea
son in Eugene. In 2003 the story was different
in Corvallis. Seniors Andrea Valadez and Nicole
Garbin each scored goals to lead the Ducks to a
4-3 win in overtime. Mele French, now
SOCCER, page 12A
Tim Bobosky | Photo editor
Sabrina DeMonte of Oregon battles for possession with Caitlin Ursini of UCLA. DeMonte has been both a starting
defender for the Ducks this season and has filled in for the injured Cristan Higa as of late.
■ Club men's lacrosse
Oregon ranked first in Pacific Northwest League polls
With two returning first-team All-League players the Oregon club
lacrosse team is hoping to better last year's mark of 11 wins
BY JACOB MAY
FREELANCE REPORTER
After finishing the season among the top
eight club teams in the nation the past two
years and building a roster with more than 40
athletes, it is safe to assume that the men’s
lacrosse team is not an average club team.
The team is ranked No. 1 in the Pacific North
west League pre-season polls, thanks in part to
the return of first-team All-League members Ju
lian Coffman, Kyle Tolzman and second-team
members Matt Connors and Nate Cordova.
This year the team is looking to improve on
its 11-4 record from the previous season,
where it was the Pacific Northwest League
champion and finished sixth in the nation.
Michigan beat Oregon in the quarterfinals of
the national tournament.
On the team’s quest to gain more national
exposure it faces stiff competition from its
schedule. Major opponents this year include
the usual league rivals Washington, Oregon
State and Simon Fraser. On the national level,
however, the team will play perennial Top-25
teams that include Texas, Missouri, Minneso
ta Duluth, BYU, Chico State and national run
ner-up Sonoma State.
The Chico State game is one of the games the
team is most eager to play. Last year was the first
time the men’s team defeated Chico (11-10) and
in turn, exacted revenge on the team that has
proven to be most disrespectful in the past. In
previous years after a victory, the Chico team
would place their stickers on the turf field
lightposts in order to humiliate its opponents after
a defeat, proving that there can be heated rival
ries in a club lacrosse game.
The Sonoma State and BYU games are the
team’s best chances to prove they should be men
tioned among elite lacrosse teams. After the Sea
wolves crushed the team 16-6 last year it hopes
to redeem itself by playing at a higher level.
“It’s a big game because we have something to
prove,” Club Coordinator and senior goaltender
Nate Cordova said.
Cordova also believes that the team simply did
not show up ready to play last year and hopes the
team will play at a more consistent level when
facing challengers.
BYU may prove to be the team’s greatest chal
lenge as it was the number one seed heading into
the National Tournament last season. The men’s
team will travel to BYU to play in a nationally tel
evised game, something that is extremely rare
among club sports.
Cordova explains that the team travels fre
quently because it is trying to be as competitive
as possible. The Pacific Northwest League has
proved too easy a schedule and the team needs
to play against the best teams in order to be rec
ognized nationally and have a better chance of
advancing through the national tournament. The
frequent traveling explains why the team’s dues
are among the highest of the club sports.
Because of the program’s popularity, the team
is able to recruit some of the best players from the
region. Cordova believes that the lacrosse team
is the best in the Northwest because the school
has such an attractive program and is capable of
competing at a Division II to Division III level.
“It’s close to home and most of these players
don’t get noticed from East Coast schools,” Cor
dova said.
The lacrosse team will host the Oregon Fall
Classic Tournament which will include Oregon
State, UC Davis and Linfield on Oct. 29.