Kayla Steen hasn’t been a quiet leader for Oregon, and she certainly didn’t leave McArthur Court with a quiet game.

Steen, Oregon’s only senior to be celebrated before Saturday’s victory against California, isn’t the sort of take-charge leader who is also typical of a basketball team.
Typical isn’t a word to describe the guard. It also doesn’t describe her play Saturday.
The Portland native has averaged 2.6 points per game this season. She scored 13, one shy of her career high, in her Mac Court finale.
When Steen returned to the Oregon bench for the final time Saturday after playing 26 minutes in her second start of the season, she received a standing ovation from the crowd.
But all thoughts were still on the game, a 77-62 win against California.
“(The emotion) got to me a little bit when we first started warming up,” Steen said. “But I tried to forget about it and just focus on the game, our game plan and what we needed to come out and do.”
If Oregon head coach Bev Smith’s game plan was to send Steen off in style, then the Ducks played the plan to a “T.”
Literally. A technical foul on California head coach Caren Horstmeyer, called after she screamed at a referee, was the loudest thing in Mac Court on Saturday.
The second loudest was Steen’s leadership.
“She is a tremendous leader,” Oregon’s starting point guard Corrie Mizusawa said. “To go out there and talk to everybody and get everyone fired up, Kayla is probably the best on our team that can do that.
“Everyone looks to her and listens to her and responds to what she has to say.”

In her two years at Oregon, Steen has battled teammates for playing time. She has battled injuries. She has battled opponents. Essentially, she’s a fighter.
In her junior season — her first as a Duck after two years at Clackamas Community College — Steen was slowed by a back injury. In the 2002-2003 regular season finale, she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. After offseason surgery, she returned in November. Shortly after she took to the court, Steen was left as the lone senior when Cathrine Kraayeveld tore her ACL.
Steen, a point guard by nature, averaged 11.3 minutes this season. She shot 84.2 percent from the free-throw line and contributed five steals and 20 assists. Steen wasn’t the largest presence off the Oregon bench, but she still made her mark.
“It’s also what Kayla does when people can’t see it,” Smith said after Saturday’s victory. “In practice, the communication, the care, the passion that she has. It’s real unfortunate that we don’t have her for another couple years, she is the consummate team player and a very fine Duck.
“She is a Duck that we think defines what it is to be an Oregon Duck.”
Perhaps Smith should petition the Webster’s Dictionary board to add an entry. Smack between “Oregon” and “organ” on page 423 of the paperback version:
“Oregon Duck: gritty, determined, vocal leader, battles back. See also: Kayla Steen.”