Lily Crane, a third-year journalism student,wrote about the youth of the Oregon women’s soccer team and what that could mean for the team’s future. Crane said that it can be difficult to be the best reporter for a sport that isn’t performing as well while writing for an athletics-focused readership.

“Sometimes it can be a struggle to find a good story,” Crane said. “But I’m also a little bit of an optimist, so I dug into why this team isn’t getting the best results right now.”

Crane wanted to find “a balance between telling the blatant truth and being positive,” she said, so she looked past the youth of most of the team toward the experience of the rest. The fact that junior and senior players are typically the ones appearing in media interviews worked in Crane’s favor as her piece began to focus on the mentorship role they were taking on, she said.

Crane said she hopes the story will inspire readers to keep an eye on the women’s soccer team, because “even if it’s not a successful team at the moment, it could be better with more support and time.” Everyone loves an underdog story.

Crane has been a sports reporter for the Daily Emerald since September 2022 and this is her first cover story of a Daily Emerald edition.