Bills takes home top women’s honor
Andrea Bills was named most valuable player of the Oregon women’s basketball team at an annual awards banquet at the Eugene Hilton on Saturday.
After a season-ending knee injury to All-American candidate Cathrine Kraayeveld, Bills stepped up her game and led the Ducks in scoring (321 points), rebounding (225), field goal percentage (.472) and blocked shots (17). The junior center from Moreno Valley, Calif., was named honorable mention All-Pacific-10 Conference for the first time in her career.
Freshman Eleanor Haring was voted the Ducks’ most improved player, averaging 8.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. The newcomer from Mullaloo, Western Australia, became a constant in Oregon’s starting lineup by season’s end.
Junior Kedzie Gunderson took home defensive player of the year honors for her work against some of the Pac-10’s top offensive players. In March, the Bellevue, Wash., native’s defensive pressure on Nicole Powell was key in a win against No. 10 Stanford.
Kraayeveld was also presented with the Oregon Green & Gold Award for her contributions on and off the court.
— Jon Roetman
Oregon men, women finish regular season
The regular season ended in dramatic fashion for the Oregon women’s tennis team.
The 34th-ranked Ducks (16-8 overall, 2-6 Pacific-10 Conference) defeated No. 36 Pepperdine, 4-3, in Malibu, Calif., Saturday for their fourth consecutive victory. The 16 wins is the fourth highest win total in the program’s history and is the team’s best record since the 1992-93 campaign.
Senior Davina Mendiburu sealed the victory for Oregon, despite losing the first set to Pepperdine’s Karin Schlapbach, in a three-set thriller, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2.
“There is not enough you can say about the way the team performed,” Oregon head coach Nils Schyllander said. “Davina had to save three match points and the rest of the team played with tremendous heart. It was a phenomenal way to end the regular season.”
The Ducks started the dual match off well after sweeping the three doubles matches to earn the first point. The No. 43-ranked tandem of junior Daria Panova and senior Courtney Nagle started things off with an 8-3 victory over Carolina Raba and
Charlotte Vernaz.
The doubles point proved crucial as the teams split the six singles matches. Panova continued her singles dominance at the No. 1 position when she overcame 33rd-ranked Natalie Braverman, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, to improve her record to 29-11.
Sophomore Anna Leksinska continued her impressive late-season play when she defeated Eva Dickies at the No. 5 position in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. The victory gave Leksinska her 17th win on the year.
On Friday, the women squeaked by Long Beach State, 4-3, behind freshman Dominika Dieskova’s 19th win of the year, a straight sets defeat of Kelly Chan, 6-4, 6-2, at the No. 2 position.
The 49ers dominated early on,
winning each of the three doubles matches. Oregon’s only hope was to win at least four singles matches
and it did.
Senior Ester Bak clinched the match when Long Beach State’s Claudia Argumedo retired in the second set, 6-4, 5-4.
“I give a lot of credit to Long Beach, they played really hard,” Schyllander said. “We were down early but we battled back and won the match on a day where we didn’t play our best tennis.”
On the men’s side, Oregon failed to defeat No. 22 Washington for the second time this season with a 6-1 loss in Seattle.
The Ducks won the doubles point but ended up losing all six singles matches.
“I am extremely proud of our guys,” head coach Chris Russell said. “Washington played about as well as anyone — we just could not get any breaks.”
— Alex Tam
Duck men finish eighth
The Oregon men’s golf team did all it could do this weekend.
Needing a good showing in the final tournament of the season before the Pacific-10 Championships, the Ducks delivered an eighth place finish at the U.S. Intercollegiate, held on the 6,786-yard, par-71 Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif.
More importantly, Oregon beat most of the teams it needed to beat to have a chance at securing one of the final three automatic bids to next month’s NCAA West Regionals. The Ducks finished ahead of five of the seven teams in contention with three solid rounds of golf, something that they have not been able to do all year.
“I think we certainly helped our case by beating those five teams, but there are certainly a couple of others in the mix as far as regionals are concerned,” Oregon head coach Steve Nosler said. “We just need a good showing at Pac-10s and anything we can do there will help our cause.”
The biggest surprise for the Ducks was the play of sophomore Justin St. Clair. St. Clair carded his third top 20 of his career and led the Ducks with his 72-73-72-217, good for a 4-over par tie for 19th.
“There were some pretty good players in this field,” Nosler said. “So for Justin to go out and finish in the top 20 is a pretty good accomplishment.”
Senior Mike Sica and sophomore Gregg LaVoie finished tied for 29th, at 7-over par 220. Freshman Matt Ma rebounded from an opening round 79 with a 72-73 to finish tied for 44th. Sophomore Kyle Johnson finished tied for 84th with a 233.
Individually, San Diego State’s Aaron Goldberg took home medalist honors with his 4-under 67 on Sunday, to finish with an 8-under 205. Goldberg finished three strokes better than UCLA’s John Merrick and four better than UCRiverside’s Brendan Steele.
UCLA took home the team title by shooting a 14-under 838. San Diego State finished second at 855, followed by No. 17 California at 867 and UCIrvine at 869. Tournament host Stanford and No. 7 Texas finished tied for fifth at 872.
The Ducks will now turn their attention to next week’s conference championships, held April 26-28 at The Gallery Golf Course in Marana, Ariz.
— Brian Smith
