Senior Katie Tarlow and her parents have visited the Oregon campus every year from Lake Oswego since Katie was five years old.
Her dad, whom she has watched games with at McArthur Court and Autzen Stadium every year since, went to law school and her mom earned her general science degree in Eugene.
When high school graduation rolled around at Lake Oswego High School in 2003, Tarlow’s decision of which school to go to had long been decided.
“I have always known I wanted to come here,” Tarlow said. “I like the down to Earth feel, the size and it was familiar. I knew I would fit in.”
But out of the 28 other women Tarlow played with on the Oregon lacrosse team this year, she was the only one who was actually from Oregon.
Thirteen of the 22-year-old’s teammates were Maryland natives and six others were Californians.
Tarlow, the only undergraduate student on the squad who will walk this spring, didn’t mind taking on the role of ambassador on and off Papé Field, which could have very easily been mistaken for the University of Maryland-Eugene.
“It’s been really fun,” said Tarlow, who’s from Lake Oswego. “I love showing them what Oregon is all about. I got to take them home and give them the tour of Portland and make them realize how great the place this is.”
Through the highs and lows, Tarlow got the chance to meet some of her best friends in Eugene – her teammates – and travel to places like New York, Maryland and North Carolina to compete against the nation’s best schools, including three-time NCAA Champion Northwestern.
Tarlow played the role of defensive linchpin for Oregon throughout its evolution into a competitive squad. But she may have never been a part of any of it if a friend had not taught her how to play in high school.
Tarlow didn’t actually know how to play lacrosse until her best friend taught her how to during her sophomore year of high school.
“I didn’t even really know what the sport was,” Tarlow said. “I thought it looked funny. Then I learned how to throw and catch and it is a combination of a lot of different sports. I’ve played soccer since I was five and there are tons of similarities.”
She caught on fast, lettering her junior and senior years on the varsity squad while playing the defensive midfielder position.
When Tarlow arrived on campus as a freshman for the 2003-04 school year, the University only had an active club team. Just about everyone on that squad was an Oregon native, too, Tarlow said.
“It was great to come and find another team and meet new people right away and girls who were welcoming,” Tarlow said.
Current head coach Jen Larsen, who had recently been named coach of the then-upcoming Oregon Div.-I varsity squad, visited the club practices about once a week that year to assess the team and stay involved in coaching, Tarlow said.
That summer, Tarlow worked out with the varsity team as it was forming. She tried out for and made the squad.
Throughout her career at Oregon, Tarlow has battled at venues that have spanned the country and watched the team improve every year. In 2007, the Ducks’ 12-7 overall record and 5-2 finish in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation marked program highs. The season ended with a victory against the Golden Bears in a consolation match at the MPSF Tournament in Davis, Calif. This season, Tarlow started in all 19 games, picked up four ground balls, had five draw controls and caused seven turnovers.
Statistics won’t describe how well Tarlow is doing when she works in France for two months teaching English at an immersion camp this summer. After teaching, she said she is going to travel around Europe for another two months. Tarlow speaks more Spanish than French, but said that is the point of the camp.
“If you don’t speak French then you can constantly feed English to them and they can learn faster that way,” Tarlow said.
But before that, she will have to pick up her diploma. She’s ready to be done, but said she will miss the college experience.
“I am a little excited and apprehensive,” Tarlow said. “I hate to leave, but am also very excited because this is the time for me.”
Tarlow will return to the U.S. this fall and plans to research graduate school, possibly to study child development. She’ll make the trips back to the place where some of her fondest memories occurred: Papé Field. Beginning this winter, Tarlow will cheer on her teammates as they restart another fresh season. From the stands, she’ll watch the women whom she considers life-long friends and she’ll get reminders of just how rare – and how precious – team camaraderie is.
“I am going to miss practice and seeing the same thing every day,” Tarlow said. “You might not be best friends with everyone, but you will still do anything for them. I love that feeling. There is such a feeling of satisfaction with that. Even in the workplace, I don’t think it can be recreated.”
Like the other third-year players, a goal this year was to help the younger players grasp the importance of dedicating themselves to the program. From the developments she’s witnessed, Tarlow feels the Ducks will be OK without her.
“This year the upperclassmen showed the freshmen where we want to go and show how much playing for Oregon means,” Tarlow said. “I think I did a good job of setting an example and there will be plenty of people who will be able to replace me.”
One thing Tarlow won’t miss is math – in fact, that’s why she became a psychology major. She began her academic career at Oregon as a pre-business major. After solving formulas for a year, she decided she couldn’t take any more.
“I am not a math-oriented person,” Tarlow said. “I was looking for something different. I took some of the psychology gen-eds and they intrigued me. It is a major that suits me.”
Because Tarlow did not come to Oregon on an athletic scholarship, she believes she appreciated the athletic experience even more.
“I had the best of both worlds because I came in as a quote-unquote normal student and realized what an opportunity it was to be an athlete,” Tarlow said. “It is just such an honor to be able to go to the Casanova Center every day and be a part of such an honored team. We are just so lucky and I think every one of those athletes realize it.”