The University’s Club men’s water polo team is heading to the home of Touchdown Jesus and the ghost of the Gipper in search of a national title.
Oregon claimed a spot this weekend in the
National Collegiate Club Championships in South Bend, Ind., at Notre Dame Nov. 19-21.
The 14th-ranked Ducks, who are first in the Northwest Division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association, won three matches this past weekend in the Northwest Division Championships in Puyallup, Wash., including a 10-9 championship game against archrival Oregon State.
“The win is the most important the program has ever had,” coordinator George Slavich said.
It was the first-ever divisional championship finals appearance for the Ducks.
“It’s a feeling of complete elation,”
Slavich said.
The national tournament has been a goal since the start of the season, Slavich said, but “it’s always surreal when it happens.”
The victory was also sweet payback for the 10-1 Ducks, their only loss of the season
coming to the Beavers in the teams’ first game.
“Not only were we avenging a loss,” Slavich said, “but we beat our rival for the first time ever.”
The Ducks started off the five team regional with wins over Western Washington and Portland. Oregon defeated the Vikings 18-11 in the opening round and the Pilots 21-4 later that day.
Slavich attributed the success of the season and the tournament to team defense and an efficient offense.
“We deserved it,” Slavich said. “We wanted it more.”
Club hockey splits with California
The University’s Club hockey team also found success on the road this weekend,
splitting two games with Pacific-8 Conference leader California.
“Anytime you can get a win on a road trip,
it’s pretty good,” forward Justin Keeland said.
In a unique scoring twist, the Ducks tied the Golden Bears 3-3 in regulation Friday night, earning each team one point in the American Collegiate Hockey Association standings. But because Pac-8 rules require a winner for
conference games, Oregon and Cal went to a shootout to decide the winner. Cal won the
offensive tiebreaker, giving them the Pac-8 win.
“It was disappointing we couldn’t pull it out,” said Keeland, also the club coordinator. “We felt we should have scored a lot more.”
Cal opened the first period with an early goal, but the Ducks answered with three quick goals to pull ahead 3-1. The Golden Bears rallied late, scoring two goals in the third period, the tying shot coming with 28 seconds left in regulation.
Senior center Mike Tornabene led Oregon
offensively with two goals in the contest and junior forward Justin Savich added a goal and two assists. Defensively, freshman goaltender Matt Nuernberg stopped 38 of 41 shots for the Ducks.
In Saturday night’s contest, the Ducks
rebounded from the previous night’s defeat by again jumping out early. Oregon, riding on freshman Cal Brackin’s two goals, took an early 4-1 lead from which Cal would be unable to recover.
“We came out ready to skate,” Keeland said.
Cal scored two late goals in the third period, to make the final score 4-3.
“We feel we proved something,” Keeland said.
Sophomore defenseman Mike Roley had two assists in the win that also saw junior defenseman Jordan Guffin and Savich each score a goal. Nuernberg allowed the three goals on 35 shots.
For the weekend, the 11th-ranked Ducks outshot their Berkeley counterparts 85-76.
The Ducks host College of the Canyons this weekend before they travel to No. 10 UCLA Nov. 19 and 20 for their next Pac-8 matchup.
Eap wins Club Cross Country meet
Sopagna Eap won the University’s Running Club’s first home meet of the season, Pre’s Trail Cross Country Open, Sunday.
Eap, a graduate student, won the women’s 5K in 18 minutes, 29 seconds, 12 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. The women’s running club had four athletes finish in the top 10 with Tiffany Beechy placing fourth (18:45), Liisa Heinonen seventh (19:44) and Meriel Hartling ninth (19:57).
In the men’s 8K, Oregon’s Carlos Trujillo finished seventh (26:17) on the course at
Alton Baker Park to lead the male runners.

Beau Eastes is a freelance reporter
for the Daily Emerald