The Oregon men’s club water polo team will face steep competition at the Duel in the Desert this weekend.
The Ducks will travel to Tucson, Ariz., to go body-to-body against eight other teams. The field includes Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado, among others. The Ducks’ toughest competition will come from the Washington/Cornell team, which is comprised of athletes from both schools.
“We are expecting very healthy competition and hope to be strong ourselves,” Oregon coordinator Anthony Tran said.
Oregon is currently third out of the seven teams in its conference. The Huskies, who the Ducks could face this weekend, are one of two teams ahead of Oregon.
The Ducks said they don’t know what to expect because they haven’t faced any of the teams in the tournament this year. But the men say they are confident they will place high, despite the tough competition.
“We have a lot of new talent and are stronger than we were in the fall,” Oregon junior Justin Steel said. “We hope to be in the top-three.”

Cricket looks to bounce back
The Oregon men’s club cricket team is heading to Portland this weekend in hopes of raising its record to .500 .
Sunday, the Ducks will play the Multnomah Cricket Club in just their second match of the season. The men are coming off a loss last weekend in their season-opener to the Gresham Cricket Club, but say they realized the mistakes they made and know how to improve.
“We need to concentrate on our batting performance,” batsman/ wicketkeeper Lain Johnston said.
Along with improved batting, the Ducks say they can be more dominant by improving their fielding. Johnston said last weekend’s loss was caused by simple errors, both mental and physical. He said that if the men improve on those areas they will be hard to beat.
“We are looking for a good performance all around,” Johnston said. “We are going to do well.”

Other club sports in action
Sailing is traveling to Seattle, Wash., cycling is going to Walla Walla, Wash., and men’s lacrosse heads to Vancouver, British Columbia.