A casual observer of the women’s basketball team might not notice Victoria Kenyon. She does not fill up box scores, and her game lacks the flash of players like Taylor Lilley or Nia Jackson. Look closer, however, and Kenyon’s contributions become more noticeable. She frequently guards whoever is inbounding the ball, and her considerable reach often keeps the ball from even entering the court. She is also shooting .420 from three-point range, which is good for third in the Pacific-10 Conference. Simply put, the Ducks would not be where they are without Kenyon’s presence. The Emerald caught up with the redshirt junior from Australia last week after practice.
Oregon Daily Emerald: So did you play any other sports in high school besides basketball?
Victoria Kenyon: In Australia I played netball — it’s kind of like basketball but you can’t dribble the ball. It’s all about passing and seeing where the player is going and passing to the space. I played that, and then I just played softball, a little swimming. Not competitively, but this was just with your friends or with your school sports team.
ODE: Was basketball always your favorite out of all of those?
VK: I actually enjoyed boy’s basketball and netball. But … you couldn’t go to college with netball, and you could with basketball. So that was part of my deciding factor, and I also felt like basketball was more of a complex sport, and you had more of a chance to do both offense and defense. Whereas (in) netball you’re assigned; you’re either (on) defense
or attack.
ODE: What are you majoring in?
VK: We had to declare at the end of last year, and I declared with journalism. So I did Info Hell last year … and I’ve selected PR (public relations) as my focus.
ODE: Do you have any idea what you want to do with PR going forward?
VK: I enjoy events management and also talking one-on-one with people, being the link between a company and the customers. I enjoy that conversation. So I might actually go into advertising, but currently I’m in PR.
ODE: Do you think you’ll stay here, or do you think you’ll go back to Australia?
VK: Well, I actually recently got engaged in September. So, I’m being married in July, and then he’ll come back, but then after that it’s kind of wherever life takes us.
ODE: What do you enjoy doing outside of basketball?
VK: Well, we don’t really have much free time. But with the free time I have, I enjoy going to church on Sundays and that’s pretty much the only time I have, though. And then studying obviously, shopping, watching movies. I enjoy just relaxing, so if you’re just by a nice quiet lake or river. The Willamette is really pretty.
ODE: So do you like camping?
VK: I’ve camped I think once in my life, but it’s always been something I’ve loved to do, or I wanted to do.
ODE: So you say you like movies, have you seen any good ones lately?
VK: Yes, “Avatar” in 3-D — only in 3-D. I haven’t seen a movie that’s gotten me that excited after watching it for years. I went with my fiancé, and we were so excited over Christmas break to see it. We went and watched it, and I had really low expectations, but then after I saw it, I was so pumped.
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