The Oregon women’s basketball team is heading north for its regional rivalries against Washington and Washington State today and Saturday.
And the Ducks need to come home with at least one check in the “w” column after their trip to Seattle and Pullman.
“We need to put our confidence back up,” sophomore Andrea Bills said. “We need to lay it all out there right now, and if we get a win, it will really help us mentally.”
A lot can be said about Oregon and the adversity that it’s had to face. And with things just not going their way, they can side in the comfort that history bodes well for the Ducks.
Prior to a Husky victory last February, the Ducks had a 12-game winning streak against Washington, and they have won 14 of the last 15 overall facing the Dawgs.
“You look at that and feel good about the program’s success, and you see that this team has been successful against them,” Oregon head coach Bev Smith said. “At times, we focus a little too much on the history, because each year has its own story and each game has its own story.”
Oregon has written a few successful chapters in the storybook recently, as the Ducks stopped Washington in its tracks more than once last year. The Ducks knocked the Huskies from the second round of the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament in Eugene and in the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament at Seattle.

But Oregon (6-10, 2-5 Pac-10) has lost four of its last five games and is off to its worst start in conference play since the 1992-93 season. As for Washington (13-3, 5-2 Pac-10), the Huskies recently lost to top-ranked Stanford but prior to that, defeated both Cal and Arizona as the Dawgs rank third in Pac-10 standings.
“We are pretty motivated, and we have been more mentally focused,” Duck junior Kayla Steen said. “If we become a lot more physical against UW, then we will be fine.”
After the war is waged in Seattle, the Ducks will travel to Pullman to face the struggling Cougars.
Washington State (0-15, 0-7 Pac-10) is a team that is hungry for its first win and looks to each new opponent as the perfect opportunity. The Cougars really have nothing to lose, and Oregon is aware of this.
“They are very, very close to winning a game,” Smith said. “This is a team that is very competitive, and if you go up there thinking about their history, they are going to make you their history.”
So as Oregon trudges forward into the second half of the season, they continue with a young squad and only nine players to fight the battles.
After the Ducks face off with the Washington schools, they will have faced every conference opponent. From there, Oregon has nine Pac-10 games left, with a chance to face each conference team again and a chance to change the tides.