SPORTS
FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2018
1B
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NBA PLAYOFFS: RND 1
No. 6 seed
No. 3 seed
NEW
PORTLAND
ORLEANS vs
TRAIL
PELICANS
BLAZERS
(48-34)
(49-33)
Game 1: Best of 7 series
Saturday, 7:30 PM
At Portland, Moda Center
TV: ESPN
Prep roundup
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Hermiston’s Patrick Wicks returns a volley as his doubles partner Thomas McCullough looks on during their match against Capitol
on Thursday in Hermiston.
Golden Eagles swoop in for a sweep
In its pit stop through town,
Capital defeated Hermiston 4-2 twice
By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ
East Oregonian
H
ERMISTON
—
On
Thursday, Hermiston’s Jason
Morris walked off the tennis
court at Armand Larive Middle
School and told his teammates,
“the wind is insane.”
With gusts around 25 miles per
hour, the weather remained a factor
as the Hermiston boys tennis team
hosted Capital (ID) for an early
afternoon dual.
The Golden Eagles were
welcomed by a Bulldog team who
had been on the court the past two
days and by conditions that made
balls linger in the air or sore across
Hermiston’s
Thomas
McCullough
returns a
volley as
his doubles
partner
Patrick Wicks
looks in on
their match
against Capital
on Thursday in
Hermsiton.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
the court — that was up to the
wind.
“Obviously we need to be
mentally tough to be able to play
though these conditions,” head
coach Shann West said after Herm-
iston couldn’t muster up enough
points to topple the visitors. Captial
won the dual 4-2.
After Morris, Hermiston’s
No. 1 singles player, dropped his
match 6-0, 6-1, the No. 1 doubles
pair of Thomas McCullough and
Patrick Wicks were playing simul-
taneously on the other end of the
courts.
They too were affected by
See TENNIS/3B
COLLEGE SPOTLIGHT
Kopacz signs with Wildcats to cap big week
Hermiston alum
headlines this week’s
College Spotlight
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
The 2018 softball season has
been one to remember for former
Hermiston standout Mikayla
Kopacz.
After appearing in only 10
games as a freshman for Columbia
Basin College due to an injury,
Kopacz has become one of the
top hitters for CBC and even the
NWAC as a sophomore. In 16
conference games, Kopacz is
hitting .538 with seven home runs,
nine doubles with 23 RBI and has
scored 22 runs. Her average is
fourth in the conference, and she is
tied for second in home runs.
That performance has helped
Kopacz land an opportunity to
continue her softball career next
spring, as she signed a National
Letter of Intent with NCAA
Division-II Central Washington
University on Thursday.
“I’m beyond excited to get
an opportunity to play at the next
level,” Kopacz said. “It was so
surreal when (CWU coach Mike)
Larabee called me and said he was
interested ... After my injury last
year I contemplated my ability to
play at the next level a lot, consid-
ering I may not come back stronger
than I was. I figured since I didn’t
have much for stats or basically a
freshman season at CBC no one
would offer me.
“I knew I was going to have to
work extra hard to get where I was
before and it slowly paid off and I
have came back even stronger than
I was ... I love CBC and the home
it has given me for the past two
years, but I’m beyond excited for
my new journey at CWU and the
opportunities that are to come!”
Kopacz leads off our new
weekly college spotlight series,
where we will highlight some of
the best performances of week
from local athletes playing a
college sport. For the week of April
4-11, Kopacz hit for a .545 average
(12-for-22) with four home runs,
11 RBI, three doubles and scored
12 runs over six games.
Here’s a look at the rest of the
week’s best performances:
● Hailey Kline (Pendleton),
Eastern Oregon softball — In two
starts, Kline tossed a combined 17
innings with 20 strikeouts while
allowing only three runs in a pair
See COLLEGE/3B
Contributed photo from Mikayla Kopacz
Former Hermiston standout
and current Columbia Basin
College softball player Mikay-
la Kopacz signs her National
Letter of Intent to continue
her collegiate softball career at
Central Washington University
next season.
Buckaroo
girls tennis
sweeps
The Dalles
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Battling
through 25 mph winds and chilly
temperatures, the Pendleton girls
tennis team stayed focused and
earned a clean sweep over The Dalles
on Thursday.
“I was happy with our team for
staying focused in the wind and with
our game,” Pendleton coach Rocky
Dillenburg said. “It (the wind) was a
factor, it was hard to keep the ball on
the court, it made it tough to serve.”
All four of Pendleton’s singles
players — Bethany Flanagan,
Abby Williams, Denae Smith and
Gabby Cuthbert — won handily
in their matches, never dropping
more than three games in a set. The
Buckaroos’ No. 2 doubles pairing
had the toughest match of the day as
they won the first set by a close 7-5
margin and then were tied 6-6 in the
second set before going on to win a
7-0 tiebreaker.
UP NEXT
Pendleton next travels to Herm-
iston on Tuesday.
————
Singles
Bethany Flanagan (P) def. Dalia Mondragon, 6-2, 6-2.
Abby Williams (P) def. Michaela Haight, 6-3, 6-2
Denae Smith (P) def. Arlette Santillian, 6-0, 6-1
Gabby Cuthbert (P) def. Hannah Biehn, 6-2, 6-3
Doubles
Scanlin/Senkerikova (P) def. Contreras/Varland, 6-1, 6-3
Walker/Chambers (P) def. Huila/Guzman, 7-5, 6-6 (7-0)
Bradt/Davies (P) def. Najera/Warren, 6-3, 6-1
Florence/Spicknall (P) def. Lobato/Eziquio, 6-2, 6-0
GOLF
HEPPNER
INVITATIONAL
— At Heppner, the Mustang boys
and girls golf teams dominated the
competition at Willow Creek Golf
Course on Thursday, each earning
first place finishes.
The Mustang boys had the best
day of any team competing, finishing
with a team score of 310. All five
starters carded scores of 82 or better,
led by Kellen Grant’s 75, Reno
Ferguson’s 76 and Cason Mitchell’s
79. Grant finished tied with Grant
Union’s Duane Stokes for first place.
The Heppner JV team did well,
also, shooting a 351 to finish second
among the boys teams.
The Mustang girls team finished
the day with a score of 325, as Sasha
Keown led with a 76 and Sophie
Grant followed with a 77. Rounding
out the Mustangs day was Nicole
Propheter’s 80, Madison Combe’s
92 and Caitlyn Scrivner’s 95.
Sports shorts
49ers’ Reuben Foster charged
in assault against girlfriend
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — San Francisco 49ers
linebacker Reuben Foster has been charged with
felony domestic violence after
being accused of dragging his
girlfriend and punching her in the
head, leaving her with a ruptured
eardrum, authorities said.
The Santa Clara County
District Attorney charged Foster
on Thursday, when he was also
arraigned in San Jose. A judge ordered him not to
have any contact with his girlfriend.
Foster was accompanied to court by 49ers
teammate Richard Sherman. He did not enter a
plea and was released after posting $75,000 bail.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
Whalen will do double duty as
Gophers coach, Lynx star player
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Lindsay Whalen is
going to be busy this year: She has been named
the new women’s basketball coach at Minnesota,
her alma mater, and will continue to play for the
WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx.
Athletic director Mark Coyle announced
Whalen’s hiring on Thursday. The 13-year WNBA
veteran says becoming coach and being a Gopher
again “is a dream come true.”
The WNBA regular season begins in early May
and runs through mid-August. The Gophers won’t
open their season until October.
1940 — Dutch Warmerdam becomes
the first man to clear 15 feet in the
pole vault in a small track meet at
Cal-Berkeley. Warmerdam, the last to set
records with a bamboo pole, will have
43 vaults over 15 feet at a time when no
other vaulter in the world clears 15 feet.
2016 — Kobe Bryant goes out with
a Hollywood ending to his remarkable
career, scoring 60 points in his final
game, wrapping up 20 years in the NBA
with an unbelievable offensive show-
case in Los Angeles’ 101-96 victory
over Utah.
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