There is spring football going on at the Moshofsky Center, and often there have been more people on the sidelines there than at any of the home lacrosse games this season when the Ducks have played at Papé Field.
That’s fine. No one expects lacrosse to ever outdraw football at anything. Chip Kelly’s open spring practices have emphasized that thought.
Maybe it’s because Oregonians are still trying to figure out the sport. It isn’t a mistake there is a “Lacrosse 101” tab under the team page on GoDucks.com; few understand the sport the first time they watch it. But it can be undeniably exciting, and when Oregon is winning, as it has done in nine of its last 10 games, it’s a good product.
The football comparison, no matter how out of place it seems next to a program that didn’t even exist when Joey Harrington was here, is appropriate when it comes to
the postseason.
There’s no way around it. Qualifying for the 16-team NCAA Tournament is brutal for Oregon – possibly even harder than football getting a BCS bid. A lacrosse championship has been contested by the NCAA since 1982, and only once – once – a West Coast team has even made the tournament. That was Stanford in 2006. No team has made it since.
That will all change next year when the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation gets off its probation status and crowns its conference tournament winner with an automatic bid into the tournament. This season, the tournament switches to a one-and-done tournament to prepare the teams for the NCAA Tournament, instead of a consolation round. Until then, the winner has had to hope for one of eight at-large bids.
So if you’re an unknown like Oregon, it’s likely one bad loss and you’re gone from consideration. The year Stanford went, it had a 12-5 record, but lost to four ranked teams. Oregon has only lost three times this season, two coming to ranked Stanford and ranked North Carolina. Its loss to Delaware is not a good one. The Blue Hens are 7-6 this season.
Oregon’s run was supposed to come last year. It had the first senior class in history, and all the momentum to make it happen. Throw in a win over No. 11 Notre Dame in midseason and you can tell how disappointing it was for the team to miss out.
So disappointing, in fact, that after a loss against Cal last season, when I asked head coach Jen Larsen what the team would be playing for with its tournament bid likely stopped, she said neither she nor the team would ever talk to reporters again about the postseason until the Ducks actually get in.
That day, her point was made. She won’t say anything about the playoffs now, either.
But we can. And we should.
Because this team has played every bit like a NCAA Tournament-caliber team since it lost to No. 9 North Carolina on Feb. 20. Since then, the Ducks have lost once, to Delaware, by one goal. The team is enjoying the best run of its short program history, and it’s coming at a most unexpected juncture. Instead of eight seniors, the team is doing this run with 16 freshmen, with four from that class ranking in the top six on the team in points.
Sophomore Alex Breiner is second on the team in points, and has scored 11 points in the last two games. The program’s all-time leader in goals, senior Ilsa van den Berg, who is also tied for the record for points, hasn’t dropped off at all.
I haven’t covered this team for five years, but there is a self-assuredness this season about the team that I didn’t see last year when there was seemingly the best chance for success. Unable to beat Denver for four years, the Ducks improbably did it this season, in Colorado, in the snow.
Go figure.
Larsen spoke about her team’s Senior Day comeback against Virginia Tech with laughs and a wide smile. Was she worried about coming back down 4-1, we asked?
She grinned and shot back a smile. Nope.
And now, Oregon plays two more MPSF games before heading to the MPSF tournament on April 22-26. The most important four-game stretch in UO history? You bet.
You won’t hear a peep about the playoffs from the Casanova Center during that stretch. Instead, they’ll leave it up to the team to continue to make noise.
Andrew Greif
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Lacrosse deserves respect, NCAA berth
Daily Emerald
April 12, 2009
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