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O N S P O R T S Women’s Basketball The sad news: legendary coach Jim Sollars retired in March, after nearly 600 wins as a college coach. See below. ¶ Good season for the women, who were 14-12 at presstime, led by three players averaging double figures. ¶ Former Pilot All-American (and Academic All American) Laura Sale O’Connell ’96 was inducted into the West Coast Conference hall of fame this spring. Laura, fifth all-time for the Pilots in total points, led the Pilots to three NCAA tournament berths and was the WCC Player of the Year in 1996. Fittingly Laura is now a teacher and…a basketball coach. Men’s Basketball Fine season for the men, who were 15-11 at presstime, led by senior forward Ryan Nicholas (top rebounder in the league) and wing Kevin Bailey (17 points per game). Not once but twice this year the students stormed the court after terrific wins, against Gonzaga and BYU. Go to youtube for the sweet wild hilarious scene after the Gonzaga game. ¶ Coach Eric Reveno, we note, is not only closing in on 100 wins in seven years, but 100% of his players have graduated, his teams have a perfect 1000 rating in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate, and 11 of his players have been Academic All-WCC selections. Whew. Track & Field Junior Ryan Poland set a new Pilot men’s record in the mile: 4:01.38. Three-time AllAmerican Scott Fauble was just behind, at 4:05. Madison Leek set a new 400-meter school record (57.70) in her first meet ever as a Pilot, and junior Melissa Baller ran 25.99 in the 200-meter dash, second all-time. ¶ The University once again opened the Chiles Center track for Tuesday nights at the races in January and February, a great idea for all comers age 13 or older; this year there were even indoor shot-put competitions. Whoa. Baseball Chris Sperry’s men opened the season with a bang, shutting out defending national champ UCLA in Los Angeles; they’ll finish a 50-game season in mid-May. Back for the Pilots are All-Americans Travis Radke (on the mound) and Turner Gill (outfield), and infielder Cody Lenahan, who hit .300 last year. The Pilots welcome 13 new faces, 11 of them freshmen. For the whole schedule (featuring Oregon and Oregon State) see
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portlandpilots.com. Volleyball New coach for the women: Brent Crouch, who coached USA Volleyball and both indoor and sand volleyball at Saint Mary’s College in California (and who earned a doctorate in philosophy, hmm). The University is seriously pondering a sand volleyball team, no kidding. Wouldn’t that be cool? Tennis Highlights for the men: backto-back sweeps of Seattle and Liberty U. to open the home slate; a sweet alumni celebration in the LP Center; and a good recruiting year that will bring brothers Mathieu and Pierre Garcia (France), Steffen Dierauf (Germany) and Jamie Fisher (Corvallis) to The Bluff this fall. Fisher, from Crescent Valley High, is the state 5A champ. ¶ All-WCC Maja Mladenovic is back for the Pilots, who will welcome Amanda Zuidema from Anaheim this fall; she is ranked in the best 50 players in California and won gobs of United States Tennis Association matches as a junior. Rowing The women start their spring season this month, and will be in Seattle, San Diego, and Oregon’s Dexter Lake (the vaunted Covered Bridge Regatta), before heading to California for the Western college championship meet, or maybe the NCAA finals, in May. Women’s Soccer Drafted by the Seattle Reign in the American women’s pro league: All-American Amanda Frisbie (seventh pick overall) and All-WCC Ellen Parker (30th). They’ll join alumnae Stephanie Cox, Danielle Foxhoven, Megan Rapinoe, Elli Reed, and Keelin Winters there; back for the league’s defending champion Portland Thorns are Christine Sinclair and Angie (Woznuk) Kerr. ¶ Among the new Pilot faces this summer: all-Kansas Madeline Dieker, all-Oregon Hannah Griffiths Boston (from Grant High) and keeper Taylor Luty (Sunset), all-Washington defender Maddie Seckman, and allColorado defender Kaycie Young. ¶ Among the returnees for the Pilots, who ranked as high as sixth nationally last year: sophomores Ariel Viera and Allison Wetherington (the WCC freshman of the year) who were both called up to the U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team training camp this winter. The team is coached by Pilot alumna Michelle French. Men’s Soccer Midfielder Eddie Sanchez was named to the AllAmerican freshman team, and won the WCC’s freshman of the year Portland 12
award, after leading the league in points (27) and goals (12). New faces for the men this fall: all-Oregon Cristian Arntson and keeper Marco Gonzalez-Yanez, both from Central Catholic High in Portland; U.S. National Youth Team veteran keeper Paul Christensen (Woodinville, Washington); Jacob Hanlin and Kurtis Young, who trained with the professional Colorado Rapids’ youth academy; Oregon 5A player of the year Michael Hobson from Woodburn; and Quinn Mello-Bastida from San Jose, who spent his summers training with Argentina’s legendary River Plate club. Women’s basketball coach Jim Sollars retired in March, after 28 years and nearly 400 wins with the Pilots. Blunt, funny, honest, and a gifted raconteur, Jim also taught history on The Bluff, was WCC coach of the year five times, and saw forty of his players earn WCC All-Academic honors. “We will miss Jim’s humor and work ethic, his wry wit and competitive fire,” said University president Father Bill Beauchamp, “but most of all we will miss a very fine teacher here on The Bluff.”