Oregon club racquetball capped off a nice season with a fifth-place finish at nationals in Springfield, Mo.
Like many club sports teams at the University, club racquetball does its own fundraising and works out its own transportation, but it still goes largely unnoticed on campus. The team elected to train this year at Court Sports rather than use the Student Recreation Center on campus. This choice paid dividends at nationals in Missouri, where the team took fifth place.
“The courts at the Rec Center are the wrong size,” club coordinator Arash Afshar said. “We worked out a contract with Court Sports, and it’s better (for us) to practice on regulation courts.”
Afshar was one of a dozen Ducks to play at nationals in Missouri. The tournament represented what the team had worked up to all year long: a chance to put yet another
Oregon club sport on the map.
The top six men and the top six women made the trip for the Ducks. Both groups contributed to the fifth-place overall finish. The women’s doubles forced a tiebreaker with nationally ranked No. 1 Alabama, although they eventually lost. On the men’s side, freshman phenom Taylor Knoth, who won four consecutive racquetball titles in the state of Oregon, ushered the men to a fifth-place finish.
“We all contributed well,” Knoth said. “Team chemistry was big and we all attended each others’ matches. That provides a little extra motivation for us.”
Knoth, who has been playing the game since he was eight years old, represents the bright future of an always improving program.
“This is the strongest and most dedicated group we’ve had in my time here,” Afshar said. “We’ve been in the top 10 (nationally) the last few years. This year, I asked for a top-five finish and I got my wish.”
Afshar and Knoth teamed up as the No. 6 doubles squad in the country.
The women finished sixth individually out of 23 teams at nationals. A difficult draw meant the Ducks faced an uphill battle, but the team surprised many and took No. 1 Alabama to a tiebreaking third set.
“The time commitment isn’t quite as strenuous … but we had a ton of fundraisers and all worked hard to create the strongest women’s team we’ve had this year,” sophomore Staci Wood said.
Although most sports on campus create a rivalry with Oregon State, the Ducks have built a different relationship with their northern neighbors. The two squads actively work together during the season and traveled together to nationals. OSU mirrored the Ducks’ success in Missouri, as it won both the women’s and overall tournament, while taking second in the men’s division.
This season, it appears as if the Ducks, despite a finish behind OSU, may have greater achievements than the Beavers. Oregon can now claim seven All-Americans, an honor given to those who reach the semifinals or better at the national tournament. An improvement over top-10 finishes at nationals in the last few years is attributed to increased conditioning and intense practice three days a week. Coupling a shift in work ethic with the addition of prominent incoming freshmen next fall should put the Ducks close to the top.
“This year was different; it really showed that we all work together as a team,” co-coordinator Elliott Saunders said. “I think we can even produce a better result next year.”
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