Oregon's Salling Chosen to Canadian Olympic Team

As a freshman for UO in 2007, Salling rattled off one of the most amazing seasons in Pac-10 history.

Jenn Salling Photo courtesy: goducks.com

EUGENE, Ore - University of Oregon All-America shortstop Jenn Salling received official confirmation last week, that she was among 15 players chosen to the Canadian team for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The Olympics will be hosted by Beijing, China on Tuesday-Thursday, August 12-21, 2008, and the announcement validated the hard work of the first-team All-American who started for the Canadian national squad that took the silver medal in the recent China Cup tourney in Beijing.

“It’s quite an honor to represent your country against the world’s best players,” Salling said. “I thought I had a decent chance to be selected, but it’s a very talented team, and the coach is trying some new things so you couldn’t take anything for granted. There’s a lot of other young players on the team, too, and we all went into prepared to try as hard as we could and not let our guards down.”

The Port Coquitlam, B.C. native started all five of her China Cup games and went 2-12 at the plate in the third and fourth spots with a triple, had one RBI and walked twice. As a team, Canada went 5-3 and staked wins vs. Australia (4-0, 3-0), China (5-2) and Chinese Taipei (6-0, 3-2),

The Canadian team is currently ranked fifth in the world based on their finish at last year’s ISF World Championships.

During the summer, they registered wins vs. four other top-five ranked squads - Japan (second), Australia (third) and China (fourth) – and the squad also scored medals in 2007 in the World Cup (bronze), Pan-American Games (silver) and Universiade (gold) tournaments.

“The final selection decisions were difficult,” Canadian head coach Lori Sippel said. “We have increased the depth of our program and the competition for positions on the team was a reflection of that. I would like to thank all the players who put themselves on the line for a spot on the roster; we will be a better team for their efforts.”

The Canadian squad will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada in late January to begin centralized training and play several games against NCAA competition.

They then head to Australia in March where they will continue their training at the site of the 2000 Olympic Games in Blacktown, Australia and will play against the Australian and Japanese national teams.

April and May are set aside for specialized training before the team re-groups in early June. The exact schedule from that point on is being finalized and will include the Canada Cup in Surrey, B.C., July 12-20.

“Now our focus is squarely on August 12, 2008 and the start of the Olympic tournament,” Sippel said. “We are putting together an excellent preparation program and I know that our players are committed to being at their best for the Olympics.”

As a freshman for UO in 2007, Salling rattled off one of the most amazing seasons in Pac-10 history.

The 2007 Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year ranked second nationally in batting (.481) and first in the Pac-10 in RBIs (73).

She also was busy rewriting the Oregon history books with single-season records for batting (.481), slugging (.837), on-base pct. (.590), RBIs (73), total bases (138) and walks (46). She was also a first-team All-Pac-10 selection and one of seven All-Pac-10 honorees for UO.

“The entire program is incredibly proud of Jenn,” Oregon softball coach Kathy Arendsen said. “She’s living the ultimate dream to be an Olympian. She’s worked extremely hard to achieve this honor, and we’ll cheer her on all the way. She’ll have a long lead-up with her Canadian teammates starting in January so we’ll get to see them at various tournaments here in the U.S. along the way and that makes it extra special.“

Salling is the second Duck to make a Canadian Olympic Team, as former All-Pac-10 first team pick Ani Nyhus pitched in the 2004 Olympiad in Athens and helped the squad finish fifth.
Source: goducks.com

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