Your name is Cathrine Kraayeveld and you’ve averaged 10.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game during Pacific-10 Conference play.
The Pac-10 Tournament is over, and the Ducks are resigned to playing in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
If you’re the sophomore from Kirkland, Wash., what do you do next?
Kraayeveld answered that question with a simple layup at McArthur Court. Only, it wasn’t that simple.
Tied with the Houston Cougars, 52-52, entering the last 20 seconds of the WNIT Championship on Wednesday, the Ducks turned to Kraayeveld for help. Two weeks earlier, the Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention honoree led the Ducks to a 50-48 win over Oregon State with game-winning shot after garnering the game’s last rebound.
It would only be natural for her to become the star once again.

With 2.4 seconds left, the WNIT’s Most Valuable Player cut through the paint and beautifully finger-rolled the ball into the cylinder, clinching Oregon’s 22nd win of the season, and first postseason championship since a WNIT title in 1989.
“I wasn’t even thinking about (it being a game-winning shot),” Kraayeveld said. “I just took it to the hole, because that’s the only thing I thought would work.”
The game marked Oregon’s fifth straight win. The Ducks had defeated St. Mary’s (Calif.), Oregon State, Washington, and Michigan State en route to the WNIT Championship game.
Against Washington on March 20 in Seattle, the Ducks were staring down the barrel of a gun. For the fourth time this season, Oregon was to battle its conference foe, already having won two-of-three games against the Huskies.
With two teams so evenly matched, the law of averages were in Washington’s hands. The Ducks had lost to the Huskies in the teams’ only other matchup at Bank of America Arena.
Senior Jamie Craighead had something to say to the doubters.
In her final collegiate game in her home state, Craighead was 5-of-13 from beyond the three-point arc, including three in the final 2:15 of the game. Her last one, with 41.6 seconds left, gave the Ducks enough of an oomph for a 77-73 win over Washington.
“I was glad to step up and shoot big shots,” Craighead said after the closely contested game. “I had a rough start, but knowing that I am a senior, and that this could be my last game at any time, I was not going to stop shooting the ball.”
The traditional rivalry lived up to expectations, providing the same intensity that was seen at the Pac-10 Tournament. Every rebound was a fight and every shot was contested.
“I know our team gets pumped up to play them, and I’m pretty sure they get just as excited to play us,” Washington guard Giuliana Mendiola said. “We knew coming in it would be a battle, and it was again tonight.”
Their win over the hated Huskies earned Oregon a trip to the WNIT Final Four. The Ducks were to take on Michigan State, a school they had never played before.
After one game, the Ducks lead the all-time series. Their 65-54 win over the Spartans on March 23 vaulted Oregon into the WNIT Championship.
Michigan State failed to post more than 30 points in either half, and with the Ducks netting 40 in the game’s final stanza, the Spartans proved to be no match for Oregon’s resurgent offense.
Despite failing to earn an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time in nine seasons, Oregon was more than happy to be in the lesser-known tournament’s final game.
“It may not be the NCAA, but it’s the NIT and 32 teams entered this tournament,” junior Shaquala Williams said. “And to say that you’re the best means something.”
The Ducks are now able to share a distinction that only two-of-96 postseason-bound teams can now claim. Along with NCAA Champion Connecticut, Oregon finished its postseason with a win.