Football may get all the hype, but when it comes to accomplishments over the past few years, cross-country and volleyball have it beat. The men’s cross-country team is the defending NCAA Division I national champion, and the women’s cross-country team is NCAA Division I runner’s up. The volleyball team returns all of its starters, including its top 12 letter winners, and is currently ranked 13th in the nation.
Fourth year coach Jim Moore has his volleyball team playing at a level previously unheard of in Oregon history. For most of the program’s history, the team has been the bottom end of the Pac-10, but after a run to the Sweet 16 and a national ranking of No. 9 to end last year, Oregon volleyball is no longer taking anyone by surprise.
The most shocking fact of Oregon’s current ranking of 13th might be that they are still picked to place sixth in the Pac-10, behind No. 3 Stanford, No. 5 Cal, No. 6 UCLA, No. 7 USC and No. 9 Washington. The Pac-10 is an extremely competitive league, and it sent three teams to the Final Four year.
So far this year, the volleyball team has played well, going 3-1, with wins over No. 23 New Mexico State, North Carolina and the University of Central Florida. Their lone loss came against Illinois in the final match of the State Farm Illini Classic on Aug. 30.
Ahead for the team are matches verse Kansas, Utah Valley and UC-Irvine, before they open up at home on Sept. 12 for the Oregon Classic.
The Oregon cross country teams are picking up right where they left off after last year’s great finish at nationals. At their opening meet in the Pre’s Trail Run here in Eugene, the men swept the top six spots and the women had the top two.
Senior Chris Winter crossed the finish line of the 7,000-meter course in a time of 22:29.24 to lead a pack of Ducks who all crossed within half a second of each other. In the team scoring, the men defeated Portland State 15-48.
For the women, All-American transfer from Georgetown Melissa Grelli finished the 4,850-meter course in 16:25.50, half a minute ahead of teammate Mattie Bridgmon. The women’s team tied with Oregon State 28-28.
Women’s soccer rounds out the results of fall sports teams that don’t play at a place called Autzen. Going into tonight’s game against Utah, the Ducks are 1-2, with a 1-0 win against Utah State on Aug. 29. Their two losses are against ranked opponents, number six Portland and number 25 Purdue.
The team was picked to finish seventh in the Pac-10 this year, but with 12 returning starters, the Ducks hope to improve on their 1-4-4 league record and 8-8-4 overall record.
They are now one year removed from their impressive 12-6-2 finish in 2006, when they finished second in the Pac-10. After tonight’s game against the Utes, the Ducks play at home on Sunday at Papè Field against Saint Mary’s.