For the fifth straight year, Oregon lacrosse begins a new season trying to one-up itself.
Oregon won its 13th game last season in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation season-ending tournament, marking the fourth consecutive season the Ducks won more games than the previous season. From six wins in the team’s inaugural season in 2004, the stakes have been raised this season again. If the Ducks want to continue with tradition and win 14 games this year, they’ll have 16 regular season games, and at least one MPSF tournament game, to do it.
The Ducks’ season-opener and conference-opener against Stanford is Saturday at Papé Field in Eugene at 3 p.m. Oregon has opened the season against the Cardinal every season, with an all-time record against the team of 1-4.
For all its success last season, which included Jen May, now an assistant coach, being recognized as the program’s first All-American and a ranking that was as high as No. 12, the Ducks didn’t win the MPSF title even with its first senior class of eight.
Now with 16 freshmen, head coach Jen Larsen’s team will attempt to improve its success again while teaching more than half the team about Division I lacrosse.
Oregon was picked to finish fourth in the seven-team MPSF last month in a conference coaches’ poll, a ranking Larsen didn’t pay much attention to.
“I know that it’s there, I know where the ranking was, but I don’t give too much thought to it,” Larsen said. “The focus is really getting us prepared for postseason.”
While Oregon won’t return the bulk of its offense from last year – five of the top eight scorers were seniors – it will return its best weapon.
Senior Ilsa van den Berg established new Oregon records for points (64), goals (46), shots (101) and free position goals (11) for a single season last year while starting all 20 games.
The Reistertown, Md., product has scored at least one point in each of Oregon’s last 21 games, and has led the team in points scored since her sophomore season, but must adjust to more defensive pressure as one of the only major options to return this season.
In contrast, Larsen said she believes van den Berg will have a better supporting cast around her this season than ever before.
“I think there’s a lot more supporting members that she can lean on,” Larsen said. “She’s not going to have to carry as much weight as people think.”
Fellow seniors Casey Rector, an accurate shooter coming off the bench last season, and Alicia Burkhart, who made the U.S. Lacrosse women’s national team pool last August, will be counted on for a presence in the midfield on defense and offense.
Oregon will also have one of its top players back in goalkeeper Anna Poponyak, who shared team MVP honors the past two seasons. The redshirt senior helped the program average the fewest goals allowed in history, and was fourth in the MPSF with 140 saves.
Sophomore Alex Breiner will continue to see her role expanded this season after a freshman campaign where she appeared in all 20 games, starting three, and scoring the sixth-most points on the team with 27.
Even with the presence of the six seniors, the team will rely on its freshman unit that will see a lot of playing time and expectations from their coach. Larsen called the class’s size a “luxury” that allows more substitutions.
“We’re definitely going to have to rely on a lot of the freshmen making an immediate impact,” Larsen said. “Don’t worry about being a starter or a reserve, recognize how much time you’re actually getting. We’re going to be subbing people a lot.”
Four opponents are ranked in the Lacrosse Magazine preseason top 25 poll. Starting with No. 19 Stanford, Oregon faces No. 10 North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Feb. 20, No. 20 Johns Hopkins on March 15 at home, and No. 18 Denver on April 4 in Colorado.
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