Nicole Canepa leapt for the jump ball and fell awkwardly.
The resulting sprained right ankle left her sidelined for much of the last three weeks. Since the injury, which came in the Oregon women’s basketball team’s trip to Cancun last month, Canepa has sat on the bench, itching to get back onto the court.
“All injuries – they suck no matter what,” Canepa said. “I just did all the things I needed to do to make it stronger and I’m still getting it stronger, but it feels so good to be out there on the court doing everything that I could do before.”
Canepa, a bag of ice wrapped around her ankle Tuesday, had made it through two full practices this week and declared herself ready to go. She can run sprints and has been spending more time working on post moves.
California is up first today in Berkeley, Calif. Oregon travels to Palo Alto, Calif. to meet Stanford on Saturday.
Friends, family and home cooked meals await the 6-foot-5 freshman who came to Oregon from St. Ignatius Prep in San Francisco. Oregon flies home Saturday and Canepa is staying an extra day to visit her family.
Along with the familiarity of her old stomping ground, is the realization of the competition awaiting Oregon in the post.
Ashley Walker. Devanei Hampton. Jayne Appel. Kayla Pedersen.
All are elite post players within the Pac-10 and lead the frontlines for Cal and Stanford. Canepa had the chance to see both programs in person in high school, and kept tabs on them when she could.
“I know they’re both great teams, but I think that they’re taking our team for granted thinking that it’s just going to be a blow-by but we’re definitely up for the challenge and we are not backing down at all,” Canepa said.
She made short appearances last weekend – playing seven minutes in each game, which coach Bev Smith said was because she had yet to go full-court in a practice.

“We’re trying to slowly get her back in the lineup, but we will use her,” Smith said.
Canepa will help against Hampton, who in six games this season, is averaging 12.8 points a game and 6.7 rebounds as she regains her form after undergoing surgery to repair torn cartilage in her right knee last fall.
“She’s really starting to allow her presence to be felt,” Smith said of Hampton. “I think Ashley Walker really took over for them for a while in the preseason and is playing well and is fit.”
Walker leads the Cal offense with 16.7 points a game, while pulling down 10.3 rebounds.
One large difference from last season’s Cal team is guard Alexis Gray-Lawson, now healthy after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee, and is providing scoring from the perimeter with 12.5 points a game and 29 three-pointers on the season – tops on the team. Cal also has guard Lauren Greif, who has continued her consistent play of last season, with 8.1 points a game and 21 three-pointers.
Oregon spent the entire month of December on the road prior to returning to McArthur Court for the Arizona schools. The Ducks went 3-3 during that stretch. Now, they are preparing for another lengthy road stretch with six of the next eight games away from home.
“We are definitely mentally tough where we can go into any gym and just be like ‘Hey, this is just another game,’” guard Taylor Lilley said. “We can get each other pumped. I think it’s going to be good.”
Even so, it will be a tough task this weekend to win at Stanford, where the last Oregon win in Maples Pavilion came in 1987.

Stanford slips

Many might have predicted Stanford might have a dominate run through the Pac-10 Conference following an upset of defending national champion Tennessee during non-conference play.
Two upset losses last weekend at UCLA and USC have left the Cardinal looking up at Cal and Arizona State, both 4-0 in the Pac-10.
Cal coach Joanne Boyle realizes the bull’s-eye is now squarely on Cal and made her players aware of that.
“It’s just when you get into conference, I think all the rankings and everything go out the window because these teams know us so well,” Boyle said in a conference call. “I think there’s a respect of teams but I don’t think anybody’s scared of anybody in this conference.”
UCLA (six freshmen) and USC’s (three) upsets of Stanford, if anything, have given Oregon (six) hope that they can do the same.
“I think they both showed us that there is some light,” Smith said. “UCLA is a very young team, much like we are, and USC’s a pretty young team.”
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