Oregon’s women’s basketball team opens the 2012-13 season with an exhibition game against Southern Oregon on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena.
Under head coach Paul Westhead, the Ducks were 15-16 overall and finished ninth in the Pac-12 with a 7-11 record last season. In the Pac-12 coaches poll for the 2012-13 season, the squad was picked to finish 11th, behind Washington State and ahead of Arizona.
The women are returning 10 letterwinners and two starters from the previous season.  However, the team will need to replace almost half of last year’s scoring production due to the loss of three of their top four scorers to graduation.
Last season, the women averaged 7.7 3-pointers per game which ranked first in the Pac-12 and ninth nationally. Oregon has led the Pac-12 in 3-pointers made per game in each of the last three seasons.  As a true freshman, Jordan Loera made 45 shots from behind the arc, a team best. Loera, a Washington native, is the top returning 3-point shooter for the Ducks in the upcoming season.
Senior Laura Stanulis and junior Danielle Love were named this season’s co-captains. Stanulis, the starting point guard, is Oregon’s only senior and topped the team with 61 assists last season. Love, who was one of the two Ducks to start in all 31 games last season, averaged 29.4 minutes per game.