Coming from one of the toughest regions in the country, the Club Sports women’s ultimate team will be representing the Northwest beginning today.
The Ducks begin round robin play at the national championships this morning. The three teams in Oregon’s bracket are Yale, Bucknell and Carlton.
In their last trip to the national tournament in 2000, Oregon placed 15th out of 16 teams.
The Ducks said they are a completely different team this year and enter today ranked fifth. Colorado is ranked first followed by San Diego in second and then Stanford, also representing the Northwest, is third. Carlton is ranked fourth.
But according to Oregon captain Izzy Stohler, it was very difficult for the rankings to be decided.
“I almost feel that we are underrated,” Stohler said. “We are hoping for quite a few upsets.”
The Ducks qualified for the national tournament April 28 in the regional tournament. The women consider Stanford their biggest rival, primarily because the Ducks and the Cardinal represent the same region.
Through the regular season competition, Stanford led the best of three series against Oregon, 2-1.
“We’ve worked so hard to get to where we are now and I really think we have the ability to beat them,” coordinator Serena Woods said, in reference to Stanford.
Oregon will compete today through Sunday.
Crew teams end season
The Club Sports men’s and women’s crew teams finished their seasons during the weekend in a respectable fashion.
The Ducks competed in the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships on Saturday and Pacific-10 Conference Championships on Sunday. The conditions were far from desirable as Oregon experienced a 20-mph headwind for PCRCs and heavy rain in Pac-10s.
But the Ducks were not about to let Mother Nature rain on their parade as the women’s open weight four went on to win the gold medal in PCRCs in a time of 8:55.40. The added glory came from defeating both Stanford and UCLA while winning the gold.
Also in PCRCs, the women’s varsity light weight boat walked away with the bronze after taking third.
With Oregon being slightly sore the next day for Pac-10s, they did not take away any medals but the men placed seventh in their varsity open weight four race. The Oregon men had another disadvantage as they only raced a novice boat in that category.
Also for Oregon, the women’s novice eight and the women’s varsity eight placed fourth and second in their heats.
“We definitely met our goals,” coordinator Erin Koenig said. “Many boats had to overcome emotional obstacles. Everyone was happy in the end and that is what’s important.”
The Oregon men and women said they are content with the ending of the season and consider the year a success.
“It was a really amazing year,” Koenig said. “The team had to overcome a lot of obstacles, but we were able to pull it together and have a successful season.”
Jesse Thomas is a freelance reporter
for the Emerald.