by Mario Ponce

EUGENE, Ore - Hoop season comes to Eugene once again, as the Oregon Ducks Women’s Basketball program suit up for their 10th season under head coach Kelly Graves. The team comes off consecutive 20 win seasons, but a loss in the Pac-12 quarterfinals to Stanford kept the team off the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2015-16 season. Now the Ducks look to keep up the pace and return to March Madness.

Oregon’s deficiency last season was its conference play, as it had a 7-11 record against Pac-12 opponents. Now that six teams here start the season ranked, and two do so in the Top 5, Oregon must start strong and capitalize on it’s opportunities in a stacked Pac-12. The Ducks will play a series of 11 non-conference clashes to start the season, and won’t take on a conference opponent until a New Year’s Eve game up in Corvallis against the Oregon State Beavers. The team will play throughout all of January and February before closing out the regular season against a familiar foe: the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday March 2nd at MKA.

Most of the squad is experienced at this level and with this coaching staff. Though the program lost a few key players to graduation and transfers, the core players look to run it back under Graves, who is under contract until the 2025-26 at least. Oregon also added four freshmen over the recruitment cycle, so there's still room for the team to grow incorporating these players into rotations. Players to watch this season are sophomore forward Grace VanSlooten, transfer senior Peyton Scott and freshman guard Sofia Bell

The Ducks played an exhibition match against the Southern Oregon Raiders on Sunday the 29th of October, in which the team had a wire-to-wire dominant performance. The Ducks never trailed, and their largest lead in the night was 34 points. All starters in the game played well and gave the team a statement win to give them confidence for the season. Sophomore guard Chance Gray led the team in scoring with 17 points, while freshman starter Bell got 10 points.

I think this team will play similarly to last season. The team has been incredibly consistent under Graves’ leadership and has played some great basketball, and it seems likely that the squad will perform at a similar level going forward. While this isn't the same team that was poised for a National Championship run in 2020 and the Pac-12 is perhaps the most stacked conference in Women’s Basketball this season, Oregon did well overall in similar conditions last year. I predict the Ducks will have their third consecutive 20 win season. The Ducks’ first game is on Monday November 6th against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks at Matthew Knight Arena.