Ducks Weekend Sports Lollapalooza!

It was an active sports weekend for the Ducks, both in Eugene and on the road. Here are brief reviews of some of the Oregon teams in action.

Friday - Track and Field – Arkansas Qualifier

Oregon’s Women’s track and field athletes continued their assault on personal and program records in Fayetteville last Friday. The Ducks dominated the mile run and won the Distance Mile Relay in program-record times.

The Distance Mile Relay is a relatively new hybrid NCAA event, in which 4 athletes each run different distances in relay fashion. The first leg is 1200 meters, the second 400 meters, the third 800 meters and the last leg 1600 meters. The entire race therefore covers about 2.5 miles. Oregon’s Arkansas Qualifier relay team consisted of Klaudia Kazimierska, Ella Clayton, Mia Moerck and Izzy Thornton-Bott. The group ran the 2^nd fastest time in Oregon program history, clocking in at 10:49.27 and winning the race.

Kazimierska and Thornton-Bott also competed in the Mile race along with teammate Maddy Elmore. Kazimierska won the race in a time of 4:32.03, her personal best and the second fastest mile ever run by an Oregon female athlete. Thornton-Bott was right behind in 2nd place, running 4:32.69, also her personal best and #5 on Oregon’s all-time list. Elmore also set a personal best time and finished 4^th in 4:35.65.

The only other Oregon competitor was Ella Nelson in the 800 meters, and she also set a personal best at that distance, turning in a time of 2:06.51.

Next weekend, the team is scheduled to travel back to Seattle to participate in the Ken Shannon “Last Chance” Invite.

Men’s & Women’s Tennis

Oregon’s Tennis program welcomed a total of four opponents to Eugene last weekend with the Men struggling and the Women earning a split decision.

The Men took on Washington and San Diego on Friday and Sunday, respectively. NCAA rules provide for three doubles matches of a single set each, and the team that wins at least 2 of those gets one point toward the final score. All 6 singles matches – which are played best-of-three sets - receive one point each, meaning a total of 7 points are available.

The Ducks got off to a great start in the doubles with Ivailo Keremedchiev and Ray Lo turning in a dominating 6 – 0 victory. The Huskies came back to tie the score by winning the second doubles match. The third doubles match would be the decider, and both teams played at a high level, struggling for control. The set went to 6 – 6 in games, bringing on a tie-breaker that was also tightly played, with Washington coming out on top 7 – 5 to take the set 7 games to 6 and earning the doubles point.

The teams began the singles matches and the Huskies quickly built a lead, winning the first and second matches completed to jump out to a 3 – 0 overall lead. Needing to now win all the remaining singles matches to gain the team victory, the Ducks stormed back. Quinn Vandecasteele needed a second-set tie-breaker to claw back a point, 6 – 3, 7 – 6 (8-6). Vlad Breazu got the Ducks within one with a straight-set 6 – 2, 6 – 4 victory. Oregon completed the comeback to tie the overall match 3 – 3 as Jesper Klov-Nilsson won 6 – 3, 6 – 3. The final, deciding singles match was close throughout but Joshua Carlton lost 4 – 6, 5 – 7 and the Huskies had the 4 – 3 win.

The Ducks got off to an even better start Sunday against San Diego, winning the first two doubles matches to take the single point and the lead into the singles. In the singles, the Ducks won the first match to go ahead 2 – 0 but could not keep up that pace. The Ducks lost tie-breakers in the 2^nd and 3^rd singles matches completed and San Diego had tied the overall match. San Diego then won 2 matches that went to 3 sets, including another tie-breaker to close out the match 4 - 2.

Oregon fell to 6 – 3 overall. They next face UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo next weekend in California.

Women

On Friday, the Ducks dominated Boise State 6 – 1. Oregon lost no doubles matches and only one singles match. Only one singles match went more than 2 sets, which Oregon’s Karin Young came from behind to win. In addition to Young, Ares Teixido Garcia, Uxia Martinez Moral, Jo-Yee Chan and Misaki Kobayashi each won singles matches to lead Oregon to the victory.

On Saturday, Fresno State came calling and gave Oregon a much sterner test. In the doubles, Ares Teixido Garcia and Jo-Chee Chan earned the Ducks the lead with a 6 – 0 win. But Oregon couldn’t take advantage and win the doubles point as the Bulldogs won the other two matches by identical 6 – 2 scores.

Oregon took a 2 – 1 lead in the early singles, as Uxia Martinez Moral and Chan won straight set matches. Fresno State tied it at 2 by winning the #1 singles match and then went ahead again in the #6 match, which included a marathon 7 – 6 (11-9) first set with tiebreaker. Garcia tied the match again at 3-all with a come-from-behind 2 – 6, 7 – 5, 6 – 3 win, setting up the final match for all the marbles. Another 3-set match which included a 7-5 tie-breaker in the final set, ended in a Fresno State win and an overall 4 – 3 victory.

The Ducks (6-3) travel to Santa Barbara next weekend where they will face Mississippi State and UC Santa Barbara.

Acrobatics & Tumbling

Oregon moved its season record to 2 – 0 with a road win over Asuza Pacific. The Ducks won the Compulsory events 38.10 – 37.55, but the Cougars prevailed in the Acrobatics events 28.35 – 27.85. The Ducks came back to win the Pyramid events 29.30 – 28.90 and the Tumbling 56.05 – 55.825 while Asuza Pacific squeeked out a 28.45 – 28.30 win in the Toss events. The Ducks prevailed in the Team Event by 92.91 – 90.20, to reach their winning margin.

The Ducks (2-0) are off until Friday, March 3 when they host the Gannon University Golden Knights in Eugene. Gannon is located in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Women’s Lacrosse

On Saturday, Oregon hosted the Niagra University Purple Eagles in Eugene. The Ducks were coming off a dominating season-opening victory over Xavier (17-6) on February 11, and looking to build on that early success.

The Ducks got off to a slow start, yielding 4 goals to Niagra in the first quarter, while netting just two. Morgan McCarthy and Katie Collins scored for the Ducks.

Oregon came back to tie the game by halftime, tightening up their defense and yielding just one goal in the 2^nd period while scoring 3 themselves. Lauren Rismani, Haley Taylor and Alyssa Wright scored in the period for the Ducks.

The teams played a very tight contest in the 3rd quarter. McCarthy scored an unassisted goal just 36 seconds into the 3^rd period and gave Oregon a 6 – 5 lead. Niagra was having none of it, however, and scored 3 goals over the next 8 minutes to retake the 8 – 6 lead. Collins scored again with just 11 seconds remaining on the clock in the third quarter and the Ducks went into the final stanza trailing just 8 – 7.

In a wild 4^th quarter, Niagra scored 4 straight goals over 7 minutes to take a seemingly insurmountable 12 – 7 lead. The Ducks weren’t done, however, as McCarthy scored 3 straight goals to close to 12 – 10 before Oregon ran out of time.

Oregon (1-1) plays again on Sunday, February 26 when the Kennesaw State Owls visit Eugene at Noon.