Softball Closes Out Pac-10 Season At Home Vs. Stanford And California
COMING UP
The Regular Season Finale
Stanford (41-15 overall, 11-7 Pacific-10 Conference) heads to Eugene to face Oregon on Friday at 2 p.m. in a game that will be nationally televised on Fox Sports. The Cardinal enter the weekend alone in second place in the conference and will be looking to maintain their advantage over California, UCLA and Washington, all of which have just one more loss than Stanford. The Bears (43-11, 10-8) will look to separate themselves from a pack of teams standing with eight losses with Oregon right behind with nine. Cal and Oregon face off in a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK
Oregon had a difficult trip to the desert last week falling 5-0 to No. 1 Arizona Friday before dropping a pair of games (1-0; 3-0) at Arizona State. Against the Wildcats, senior Jenn Poore, junior Erin Goodell, sophomore Beth Boskovich and freshman Suzie Barnes accounted for a hit each. Oregon sophomore Amy Harris pitched 4 and one thirds innings in the loss while Lindsey Kontra pitched one and two thirds innings in relief. On Saturday, the game went nine innings as the Sun Devils scored on a single by Katie Cobos in the ninth inning. Senior Anissa Meahintubby came in to relieve Ani Nyhus and took the loss, but struck out seven and walked one in just three and two thirds innings pitched. Oregon had nine hits, including two each by Ashley Richards and Breanne Sabol, but were unable to score a run, leaving five runners on base. On Sunday, the Ducks were again shutout, leaving eight runners on base in a 3-0 loss.
NYHUS SELECTED TO CANADIAN NATIONAL TEAM
Junior Ani Nyhus was one of 15 players selected to the Canadian National Team that will compete at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
HEAD COACH KATHY ARENDSEN
Now a member of eight different Halls of Fame, second-year head coach Kathy Arendsen brought her success as both a player and a coach straight to Oregon when she led the Ducks to a 10-11 (T3) Pac-10 record in her first season, which is Oregon’s highest finish Since the 1990 season. This season the Ducks got off to their best conference start since 1998. The Zealand, Mich., native returned the Ducks to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2000 and the team went 5-2, falling one game short of a trip to the Women’s College World Series. With its hot start in 2004, Oregon will make its second consecutive trip to the NCAA Regionals. Her presence at Oregon was felt immediately as Oregon knocked off four ranked opponents in the 2003 preseason and was 16-13 vs. top-25 foes despite being picked to finish last in the Pac-10 Conference. Along the way, senior Andrea Vidlund earned third-team all-america honors and three players earned Pac-10 player of the week honors. The Ducks have had three player of the week honors again in 2004. Arendsen was inducted into the Michigan Hall of Fame and is the only American in the class of 19 who will be inducted into the International Softball Federation Hall of Fame on Nov. 11, 2004.
