Women’s tennis

finishes No. 33
The Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranked the Oregon women’s squad No. 33 in the nation in its final poll, as the Ducks finished with their highest ranking in the program’s 29-year history.
Oregon won seven of its final nine matches, six of those victories coming against ranked opponents, to finish the year 14-11. The Ducks, who went 5-17 a year ago, advanced to their third NCAA Tournament in the past four years, defeating No. 18-ranked UNLV before losing to No. 11-ranked USC last month.
It also marked the first time in school history the Ducks have defeated two top-20 teams in the same year, as they also defeated No. 19 Washington in April.
Oregon, which lost three seniors to graduation, will return five letterwinners off last year’s team for the 2002-03 season.

Smith named Coach of Year
On Friday, the Pacific-10 Conference announced that Oregon men’s track and field head coach Martin Smith was named conference track and field Coach of the Year.
It was the first Pac-10 Coach of the Year honor for the fourth-year Duck mentor, who guided Oregon to a second-place conference finish (125 points) and a conference-best five individual titles and three runner-up honors.
At the national level in 2002, the Duck men’s squad scored ninth (15 points) in the NCAA Indoor Championships with three All-American honors among its four entries, and outdoors followed with a 35th-place NCAA team finish and two All-America honors among its seven individual entries. The Duck men also ranked ninth in the U.S. Track Coaches Association dual power rankings outdoors in 2002 (www.team-power.org).
Under Smith’s guidance last fall, the men’s harriers added 13th in the NCAA Cross Country Championships with three top-100 individual placers, after third-place conference and regional finishes.

— from staff and wire reports