Spring Sports Full Throttle

Oregon spring sports are in full swing this month with fully 9 sports that don’t take place on a diamond in regular action. Here’s a look at some of the early April results.

Acrobatics & Tumbling

The Ducks split their early April matches, traveling to Waco, Texas to take on Baylor in a re-match of a March meet in Eugene, and then returning home to host Azusa Pacific last Friday. Baylor is one of the top A&T programs in the nation, and they had beaten the Ducks in Eugene on March 8 283.305 - 278.910. Oregon’s scoring was the most against the Bears so far this season.

In the re-match in Waco, both teams scoring slipped a bit with Baylor still prevailing 278.520 - 274.990. All of the elements, save Acro and the Team Event, were close, with Oregon winning in the Tumbling event 56.30 to 55.75. The Ducks scored within 0.50 of Baylor in the Compulsory section, Pyramid and Toss.

The Ducks are 4 - 2 overall and have just the National Championships left, coming up April 27 - 29 in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Men’s Golf

After winning their own Invitational in Eugene in late March, the Ducks competed in the prestigious The Goodwin tournament played at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco earlier this month. Oregon faded a bit in the third and final round but still finished a very solid 8th out of 28 teams. Nate Stember led Oregon with an even-par 210 and Grayson Leach was right behind him at 1-over 211. Stember tied for 17th among individual golfers and Leach was tied for 24th overall.

The Ducks begin play in the Western Intercollegiate tournament today in Santa Cruz, California at the Pasatiempo Golf Club. Live TV coverage begins on the Golf Channel this afternoon at 4:00 pm.

Women’s Golf

In their last tournament before the Pac-12 Championships, Oregon’s women finished tied for 6th in the Silverado Showdown, held at the Silverado Resort and Spa course in Napa, California. As a team, Oregon shot 32-over par 896 in the 3-round tournament. The Ducks were led by Hsin-Yu (Cynthia) Lu who tied for 13th overall among individuals with a 6-over par 222. Lu was coming off a top-5 finish at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur held the weekend before the Showdown. Anika Varma and Minori Nagano were next best for Oregon with 7-over scores of 223.

The Pac-12 Championships will be held April 17 - 19 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Men’s Tennis

The Men’s tennis team has gone 1 - 2 so far in April, opening the month with a 4 - 2 road win over Washington, but dropping road matches to Arizona (1-4) and Arizona State (3-4). Against the Huskies, Oregon won the doubles point in the third match to conclude as Joshua Charlton and Quinn Vandecasteele won a 7 - 4 tiebreaker to take the match 7 games to 6. Vandecasteele went on to win the final singles match to close out the scoring as the teams battled back-and-forth.

Against Arizona, Vlad Breazu was the only Duck to take a point, winning his singles match, as the Wildcats dominated. Against Arizona State, the Ducks tried to rally after losing the doubles point and the first two singles matches. Down 3 - 0, Oregon needed to win all the remaining singles matches and nearly did as Ivailo Keremedchiev, Breazu, and Jesper Klov-Nilsson won to even the match at 3 - 3. Vandecasteele went three sets but could not win the third and deciding set and the Sun Devils had the victory.

This coming weekend, the team travels to Los Angeles to take on USC and UCLA.

Women’s Tennis

Women’s tennis is 0-fer in April thus far, having lost to three ranked Pac-12 opponents. The Ducks took no points in losing to #18 Washington in Seattle and #13 Stanford in Eugene. They did score a point against #37 Cal - the doubles point - but fell short in all the singles matches.

After a solid start, the three losses evened Oregon’s Conference record at 4 - 4. The Ducks host UCLA and USC next weekend in Eugene.

Track & Field

Depending on events, the Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams were split between the Brutus Hamilton and Triton Invitational this past weekend, held in Berkeley and La Jolla, California, respectively. As they did through much of the Indoor season, Oregon athletes won events and set school records. The Duck Men went 1-2 in the Decathlon at the Brutus Hamilton with Nathan Poff winning the event with 6,738 points and Arthur Katahdin taking 2nd at 6,548 points. In the Triton, Jorinde Van Klinken continued her assault on the UO record books, throwing 219 feet, 11 inches in the Javelin, good for 2nd in the meet, and the best women’s javelin throw ever at Oregon. Jaida Ross came in 9th in the same event, throwing a personal best 189 feet, 1 inch, good for #3 on the all-time Oregon list.

In the Women’s Heptathlon over at the Brutus, Colleen Uzoekwe won with a personal best and UO all-time #10 finish at 5,349 points. Gianna Bullock was 2nd with her personal best 5,098 points.

Additional results were pending at press time. Starting Wednesday, the Ducks compete in the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut Grove, California and the Bryan Clay Invitational beginning on Thursday in Azusa, California.

Beach Volleyball

Oregon’s Beach Volleyball squad has had a rough April in Pac-12 play. At the beginning of the month, the Ducks traveled to Boise, Idaho to play back-to-back against Boise State and Utah. The Ducks fell to the Broncos 4 - 1 but turned around and beat the Utes by the same 4 - 1 tally. Oregon struggled after that, taking only 3 matches out of 20 against 4 Conference opponents. In the Pac-12 North Invitational hosted by Stanford, the Ducks unsurprisingly were dominated by #2 USC and #10 Stanford, losing those matches 5 - 0 each. Against Arizona State, Oregon won two of the first three matches with the teams of Zoe Almanza/Chloe Brown rallying to win their match after a first set loss, and Natasha George/Ashley Schoeder winning the third set of their match for the victory. Ultimately, ASU would win the final 2 matches for the 3 - 2 victory. In its other match in this tournament, Utah would turn the tables on Oregon, beating the Ducks 4 - 1. Valerie Peterson/Batia Rotshtein took Oregon’s only point in a straight-set win in the first match.

The Ducks play in the Husky Invitational in Seattle next weekend in their final road action before coming home and playing University of Portland in Eugene. The Pac-12 Championships will be held April 26 - 28, hosted by Stanford.

Lacrosse

The Ducks suffered a heartbreaking loss on April Fool’s Day to Colorado at home. Oregon led 14 - 12 with 2:30 to play in the game when Colorado stormed back with 2 late goals to send the game to overtime. The Buffaloes then scored a “Golden Goal” in the extra period to walk off with the victory. Gabby Cleveland led Oregon with 5 goals and Madysyn Sweeney added 3.

The Ducks were back at it last Saturday, playing another close, exciting game against UC Davis. This game also went to overtime, but Oregon found the goal it needed and walked off with the 13 - 12 win. Oregon trailed 5 - 2 after the first period, but got going in the second, knotting the game at 7 by the halftime horn. Oregon again trailed 12 -10 with just 2 minutes to play, but Morgan McCarthy and Haley Taylor scored to tie the game, and McCarthy scored again in overtime for the Duck win. McCarthy had 4 goals (25 now on the season) in the game and Taylor and Lauren Rismani each scored 2.

Oregon (4-7 overall, 0-5 Conference) will play Arizona State and USC this weekend in Eugene.