It was a historic weekend for Oregon Club lacrosse.
A week after the women’s team secured a spot at the National Championships, the men followed suite as they defeated Simon Fraser University in the final game of the Pacific NW College Lacrosse League playoffs.
With an undefeated league record (13-6 overall, 8-0 Pacific Northwest Division), the Ducks went into last weekend’s tournament as the No. 1 seeded team and were given a bye in the first round of play.
At Mercer Island High School in Seattle, Oregon took on Washington in the semi-finals and easily handled the Huskies as it came away with its first win of the tournament, 15-7, and assured its place in the PNCLL championship game.
Oregon expected to see Simon Fraser — six-time PNCLL champion — in the final game. The Ducks played their “best game of the season” according to midfielder Jon Opet, and outscored the Clansmen by 10 goals to win the PNCLL Cup, 19-9.
The victory gave Oregon its first berth in the US Lacrosse Men’s Division Intercollegiate Associates National Championships, which will be held in St. Louis at the Anheuser-Busch Sports Centre on May 11 through 15. Twenty-nine players will make the trip to St. Louis to represent the eighth-seeded Ducks.
“It’s our first year at Nationals, and we want a good showing,” Opet said. “We will see teams like Michigan, Brigham Young and Colorado State. Every team is going to be competitive.”
Oregon’s first-round game is scheduled for Tuesday against No. 9 Boston College, the winner of the Pioneer Collegiate Lacrosse League title. The tournament, hosted by the St. Louis Chapter of U.S. Lacrosse, will be run in single-elimination format.
Opet said the Ducks, because of the single-elimination format, know how important their first game will be against the two-time Pioneer Conference champions.
“We are expecting Boston College to be very competitive.” Opet said. “We have played top teams before, and so we know what to expect. We feel like we can really do something this year at Nationals.”
Before the Ducks make the trip to St. Louis, Opet said, the team would like to fine-tune a number of things and forget about the pressure. Mentally, he said, Oregon has the potential to pick up its level of play.
“We would like to cut down on some penalties,” Opet said. “We were penalized heavily during the playoffs and just made some mental mistakes.”
Midfielder Joshua Waldman said the Ducks play their best lacrosse when they do not take the game and the outcome too seriously.
“I think we need to make light of the situation and we need to realize that when we play without pressure it helps us play better, and we have the most successful time on the field,” Waldman said.

Lucky Ducks
After winning two of its last three games against Western Washington in Bellingham, Wash., last weekend, the Oregon Club baseball team (17-8 overall, 13-5 Pacific Mountain Conference) secured the wild-card spot and will join three other teams in the National Collegiate Baseball Association Regional Tournament held May15 and 16.
The location of the playoffs is still undetermined, but the Ducks already know their competitors — UC Santa Cruz, Weber State and Western Washington. The winner of the NCBA regional playoffs will receive a berth in the NCBA’s World Series held in Bradenton, Fla., on May 26 through 31 at McKechnie Field, otherwise known as the spring training site of Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates.
“We have worked really hard to get to this point,” catcher Jon Loomis said. “The team deserves this chance.”
Oregon will take on defending NCBA National Champions Weber State in first round action.