Ducks Fly South For First True Road Games

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon women's lacrosse team hits the road for their first true road games of the season this weekend, taking on Arizona State Friday at 6 p.m. PT followed by No. 12 USC Sunday. The trip to Tempe marks the first-ever meeting between the Ducks and the Sun Devils in ASU's inaugural season.

GAME 6: OREGON (3-2, 1-1) vs. ARIZONA STATE (5-2, 0-1)
Friday, March 16 | 6 p.m. PT
Tempe, Ariz. | Sun Devil Stadium
Live Stats: thesundevils.com
Live Video: thesundevils.com

GAME 7: OREGON (3-2, 1-1) vs. No. 12 USC (3-3, 1-0)
Sunday, March 18 | 12 p.m.
Los Angeles, Calif. | McAlister Field
Live Stats: usctrojans.com
Live Video: usctrojans.com

OREGON SPLITS MAIDEN PAC-12 WEEKEND
The Ducks opened their first-ever Pac-12 game with a bang this past Friday against Cal, scoring four goals within the first four minutes. UO led wire-to-wire against the Golden Bears with Mariah Gatti and Shannon Williams netting four goals each while Cambi Cukar dished out four assists to help record the 12-7 victory. It was an opposite story in UO's second game of the weekend against No. 18 Stanford as the Cardinal jumped out to a 6-0 lead eventually halted by a Williams goal at the 18:32 mark. The Ducks trailed 14-3 at halftime, but managed to play a much more even game in the second half with both teams netting an additional five goals to earn the final score of 19-8. Jill Zubillaga finished with a team-high four goals, but the aggressive defense of Stanford had a marked impact on the Ducks' play forcing 15 turnovers by UO compared to eight from Stanford.

THE THREE AMIGOS
So far this season, the Ducks' attacking trio of Shannon Williams, Mariah Gatti and Jill Zubillaga have been a plague on opposing goalkeepers. The trio have combined to score 76 percent of UO's goals so far this season with Williams and Zubillaga netting 15 each while Gatti is just behind with 14 goals this season.

BILLER HAS GOT IT UNDER CONTROL
Sophomore transfer Lexy Biller continues to be a huge impact for the Ducks in the starting circle. The former Louisville player has already racked up 41 draw controls so far this year, averaging 8.2 per game. The Ashburn, Va., native, currently ranks second in the Pac-12 and fifth in the nation in draw controls per game despite playing two games less than the majority of the field. Biller tied the UO single-game record with 10 draw controls against No. 7 Syracuse. Although very early in the season, she is currently on pace to record 131 draw controls this year, which would nearly double the UO single-season record of 77 set by Carly O'Connell in 2014.

DROPPING DIMES
To no one's surprise, senior Cambi Cukar is once again the Ducks leading distributor with 11 assists across the first five games of the season. Her 2.2 assists per game average currently ranks second in the Pac-12 and tied for 21st in the NCAA. If she can continue her current pace, she will be the only Duck to appear on the UO single-season record list four years running.

WILLIAMS CRACKS CAREER GOALS SCORED LIST AT UO
After netting her fourth goal against California, junior Shannon Williams passed Jess Drummond for ninth all-time on the UO career goals scored list. Williams has been UO's leading goal scorer the past two seasons, scoring 51 goals in 2017 to become Oregon's new single-season scoring leader. So far, she has accounted for 96 goals in her career and needs just nine more to tie Shannon Propst for eighth all-time with 105 career goals. Williams also just passed Jana Bradley for 10th on the Oregon career points list, after recording three points against Stanford to bring her career total up to 136. She needs just 12 more points to tie Theresa Waldron for ninth.

WATCHING THE RECORD BOOK
Currently, senior Jill Zubillaga sits just outside the career top 10 draw controls list. The senior needs to win just four draw controls to tie Cara Mead for 10th with 64 career draw controls.

In her first season as a Duck, transfer Brittany Read has already put up big numbers in the net for UO. Through three games, she has recorded 43 saves placing her 10th on the UO career saves list. Currently, she is averaging just under nine saves per game. If she keeps that average throughout the rest of the season she will break into the top five all-time.

Senior Cambi Cukar is currently Oregon's all-time career assists leader accumulating 135 assists so far in her career at UO. The Pleasanton, Calif., native has begun to put some distance on the rest of UO's top 10 assist leaders, recording 21 more assists than Shannon Propst, who sits in the No. 2 spot, with the rest of the season left to play.

SCOUTING THE DUCKS' OPPONENTS
The Sun Devils opened their inaugural season with a bang going 5-1 in non-conference play. ASU's only loss to start the season was a one-point heartbreaker against San Diego State. No. 12 USC stymied the ASU offense in their conference opener as the Trojans walked away with a 14-3 victory. Junior Kerri Clayton leads ASU, and the Pac-12, with 28 goals so far this season, averaging four per game. The Sun Devils are one of three teams, including Stanford and Colorado, to have scored at least 100 goals already this year.

UO will close out the weekend taking on their second ranked opponent in three games, taking on No. 12 USC Sunday afternoon. The Trojans have one of the top defenses in the country, leading the Pac-12 and ranking tied for eighth in the NCAA with an 8.57 goals against average. USC also averages 11 caused turnovers per game to lead the conference. Offensively, the Trojans are led by sophomore Kerrigan Miller who has recorded 14 goals and three assists so far this season.

SEASON SCHEDULE
The current 2018 season is filled with unique challenges for the Ducks. Apart from playing every Pac-12 team twice, Oregon will take on five teams who made it to the NCAA Tournament last season, Syracuse, Canisius, Towson, USC and Colorado. Four of those teams are currently ranked in the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association's top 25 with Syracuse and Towson in the top 10. This year's schedule also offered two unique venues for the Ducks. The Ducks and the Orange squared off in West Linn, Ore., in a special game played at West Linn High School. Following that game, Oregon returned to Eugene to face Canisius on the campus rec fields.

READ NAMED INSIDE LACROSSE PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
Oregon transfer Brittany Read was named an Inside Lacrosse 2018 preseason second team all-America selection. The all-America nod is only the second such honor in program history for Oregon, and the highest any Duck has been selected by Inside Lacrosse. Jen May is the only other Duck to receive Inside Lacrosse all-America honors after being selected to the all-America third team in 2008. The preseason award is based off Read's 2017 accomplishments which includes 194 total saves and a .512 save percentage ranking her fifth and sixth in the NCAA, respectively.

WORLD CUP PEDIGREE
Head coach Katrina Dowd won't be the only Lacrosse World Cup champion on the sidelines for the Ducks this year. Assistant coaches Michelle Tumolo and Becca Block both earned world cup gold this past summer, the first of their careers. The duo helped team USA go undefeated in tournament play, defeating Canada in the championship match.

LACROSSE BECOMES PAC-12 SPONSORED SPORT
With the establishment of the Arizona State women's lacrosse program, the Pac-12 was able to field the minumum number of required teams to qualify for a conference championship and NCAA tournament automatic-qualifying bid. This upcoming season, each team will play one another twice, home and away, with the first-ever Pac-12 lacrosse championships taking place in Boulder, Colo., Apr. 26-29.

LOOKING BACK AT 2017
In head coach Katrina Dowd's first season as head coach of the Ducks, Oregon recorded a 9-8 overall record, earning a quarterfinal berth in the MPSF conference tournament.

UO had three players named to all-conference teams with Shannon Williams and Bella Pyne earning first team All-MPSF honors while Cambi Cukar received second team accolades.

Three players finished the year ranked in the top five for goals scored in a single-season. Shannon Williams broke the UO single-season goals (51) and points (72) records while Bella Pyne and Mariah Gatti combined for 85 goals to rank third and fifth, respectively.

LOOKING AHEAD
After their games this weekend, the Ducks return to Eugene to host No. 15 Colorado Friday, March 23, live on the Pac-12 Network.