The University women’s club ultimate Frisbee team is in the midst of having one of the strongest seasons in the program’s recent history. Heading into last weekend’s Stanford Invitational tournament in Ripon, Calif., the Oregon women, referred to as “Fugue,” had a record of 12-1 with a No. 1 position in the electronic rankings, and No. 2 in the National Ultimate Media Panel rankings.
The overall experience of the squad – seven seniors, three juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen – is what looks to be the helpful advantage throughout this part of the season.
“I think we have a very nice balance of upper and lower classmen,” said head coach Lo Burruss.
Oregon left Eugene on Friday and began competition early Saturday. The team found itself in good position at the end of the day, with three wins over Texas, Colorado and UCLA.
“We were justifiably confident going into Saturday and played poorly as a result,” Burruss said.
The following day Oregon matched up with Western Washington in one of its closest contests of the tournament.
“We played terrible on offense,” Burruss said. “We committed more turnovers in that game than we had all day on Saturday.”
In the end Oregon got the 9-8 win and managed to keep the ball rolling as it beat Stanford, 12-10, to advance to the championship round against California-Santa Barbara – a team that has been in the national title game the last two years. Santa Barbara proved too much for the Oregon squad to handle, edging the Ducks 12-15 to give them their second loss of the season.
“We gave a very good, very experienced UCSB team too many chances,” Burruss concluded.
Fugue will take a small break during the next couple weeks and regroup after spring break with focus in four major areas: conditioning, breaking the mark, developing first-and second-year players and short-yardage offense.
Men’s Club Ultimate
The University men’s team, meanwhile, is having an equally impressive season. “Ego,” as it is more commonly known, had put together a 10-1 record heading into the Stanford Invite. With eight seniors leading the way, Ego looked to make a run at the championship round of the tournament, hoping to earn even more national recognition.
“As with all tournaments, we go in expecting to win,” said senior Kevin Minderhout. “We know that we have one of the best teams in the country and that we can run with anyone.”
Throughout Oregon’s first four contests it put exactly 13 points on the board each game. Its first two wins came against Texas and UCLA, followed by a 13-10 win over Georgia and a nail-biting match up with Stanford that resulted in a 13-12 Oregon victory.
“Four-and-oh gets you in the door, but it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t finish on Sunday,” Minderhout said.
The next morning, Ego had another tough match-up with the squad from the University of Michigan. Michigan, which went 1-3 on Saturday, came out firing and held the lead throughout most of the contest, but junior Cody Bjorklund made multiple big plays for the team to keep things close. After the Oregon men were able to tie it up late in the game at 14-all, Bjorklund came up big twice more. He picked off a Michigan in-cut, which led to a strong swing pass from senior Eli Friedman that hit Bjorklund in the endzone for the win.
The Ducks advanced to play the University of Washington after their fifth win of the weekend.
The two teams battled back and fourth throughout the game with multiple lead changes in the second half. After trading points for several minutes, the Oregon defense nearly put up a few more goals on breaks but couldn’t convert each time. Ego went on to lose the contest 15-13.
Oregon played one final contest with California-San Diego, ending the weekend on a high note with a 15-13 victory. The win gave them a seventh-place finish in what was a fairly questionable tournament format, seeing that Stanford – a team with the same record that Oregon beat – was able to play in the third-place game.
“The Northwest region is back,” Minderhout said. “It’s going to make this year’s regional tournament extremely exciting.”
The regional tournament will take place in Corvallis, Ore., on May 2-3.
Oregon Bass Team
The University Bass Fishing team recently returned from a strong weekend at the FLW National Guard Western Division Bass Fishing Tournament at Clear Lake, Calif. Oregon sent four teams to the tournament, which featured 27 teams total representing 15 schools across the West Coast.
“We started preparing for this tournament months in advance,” sophomore Marcus Johnson said.
Oregon’s leading team was the duo of Johnson and senior Christopher Stamm. Johnson and Stamm were able to reel in five fish weighing in at 15 pounds and 14 ounces total, which was good enough to earn them a fourth-place finish in the tournament.
“Being from Oregon, cold weather fishing and finesse bass fishing are tactics that are kind of our bread and butter,” Johnson said.
“We figured it would take about 15 pounds to place and over 20 pounds to win it, which ended up being the case.”
With the top-five finish, they brought in $3,000 for the University, as well as a qualifying spot in the regional championships in September.
Other finishers included Ross Richards and Reed Frazier, who took ninth with 13 pounds, one ounce; club president Carter Troughton and his brother Ryan Troughton, who took 16th with nine pounds, five ounces; and Josh Marthaller and Joe Cote, who took 20th with five pounds, 12 ounces.
With bass fishing growing in popularity and stature, the possibilities of what young anglers could win is skyrocketing. The Oregon men will participate in three other divisional tournaments this spring, with the payouts increasing all the way up to $10,000. And if all goes well at the regional championships, they will even have a chance to win $50,000 and a boat decorated in the University colors.
“The money is nice, but it is not incentive to win. We are out there traveling, meeting new people and representing our school, all while getting to do something we love,” Johnson said.
The team will participate in three more division tournaments throughout the spring, and may also have a few local tournaments around the Lane County area.
[email protected]
Ultimate, bass team seize weekend
Daily Emerald
March 11, 2009
0
More to Discover