About 30-years ago, as a high school senior who had decided on a career in photojournalism, I was looking for photographic subjects outside my everday beat in the halls of my school. Mostly I was looking for a higher level of sports performance and I may have been looking for better light than a high school gym could offer.

Where I went was Macarthur Court at the University of Oregon (after all, it was only a few blocks from home) and the Oregon women’s basketball team. The men’s game was inaccessible without a formal media credential, but for the women’s games all I needed was my camera and, probably, a little chutzpah to plop myself down on the baseline.

My favorite memory was from the next season, I was in community college in Eugene that year, and Stanford was in town (still a few seasons from that program’s first national title). The Ducks had twin towers in their lineup, 6’7” freshman Stefanie Kaskperski and senior Gabi Neumann, and every time a Cardinal player went into the lane one of them seemed to send the ball back out. A small contingent (the crowds were overall small, they averaged 1600 fans in an arena that held nearly 10,000) of student fans behind the Stanford bench would taunt coach Tara Vanderveer, “What are you going to do coach, she’s just too tall!”.

Ever since then I have held an affinity for the women’s game. I carried that with my to college at Boston University where I made sure the women’s program at BU was covered and when I arrived at The Day I “adopted” the UConn women’s program as well.

The 2016-17 Ducks dropped by my neck of the woods this time, playing in the Bridgeport Regional of the NCAA tournament against 3rd seeded Maryland. I certainly don’t recognize this team from my early days. The women’s game has changed and these Ducks are playing at a high level in this tournament, having now upset three higher seeds to reach the regional final. Of course they’ll be facing the team I now cover with a trip to the Final Four on the line.