By late tonight, some pretty important questions surrounding the Oregon women’s basketball team may finally be answered.
Can the Ducks win without Shaquala Williams? Which player will emerge as the new leading scorer? Can inexperienced point guards feed the post effectively? And how will the Ducks manage their depth at the guard spot?
Oregon faces RTU Clondica, a national team from Riga, Latvia, at 7 p.m. at McArthur Court in the defending Pacific-10 Conference champion’s first exhibition game of the season. The matchup provides the Ducks’ first chance to flap their reconstructed wings in a game-time atmosphere.
“In practice we can read each other and know what we’re thinking, so we’re just excited to get out there and start playing,” starting point guard Kourtney Shreve said.
“We’re getting a lot more confident right now and putting some of the little things together that are making some of the bigger things happen,” senior forward Angelina Wolvert said. “I definitely think we’re ready to play someone else because I’m tired of Jenny Mowe beating up on me and I know she doesn’t want me to beat up on her anymore.”
Unlike last season when Oregon entered its first exhibition game full-strength en route to a 74-59 win over Lokomotiva Kosice, the Ducks have faced a few preseason setbacks.
During the summer, backup point guard Karen Piers quit the team. In mid-September, Williams tore her anterior cruciate ligament in a pickup game with teammates at McArthur Court. Then starting senior guard/forward Lindsey Dion sustained a knee injury while running drills. Sophomore Courtney Moore, a promising forward, quit the team to be at home with her mother, who has cancer.
Despite the injuries, the Ducks don’t stop at thinking they can remain competitive in the Pac-10.
They still believe they can win it.
“I’m still a little upset that Stanford got chosen over us,” Wolvert said. “I don’t think we’ve been picked first in the Pac-10 since I’ve been here and that really irritates me because we’ve won it two years in row.”
“I think our guards have been doing a great job of stepping up and making plays,” Mowe said. “It will probably be a season-long process of getting them to be confident with us.”
Today’s exhibition game will also be the first time for fans to see freshmen Katy Polansky, guard, and Cathrine Kraayeveld, forward, in action.
While head coach Jody Runge was in California for the conference media day, her Ducks met at McArthur Court Thursday afternoon under the guidance of assistant coach Fred Litzenberger for one last practice before the game. Some good news for Oregon was that Dion practiced for the first time since her recent injury.
This season is the last dance for five seniors: forward Brianne Meharry, guard Camber Ellingson, Wolvert, Mowe and Dion.
“It’s different having five seniors. We’ve been talking about it — it’s definitely a goal we share to have a great year,” Mowe said. “It’s just different this year. It’s your team, and everybody’s looking up to you as a senior. This is the last time, the last year we’ll be playing here. Everything’s the last thing — the last day before the first game, stuff like that.”