Before Thursday’s practice, Oregon head coach George Horton discussed the surgery Scott Heineman recently underwent and inserting Trent Paddon into the starting rotation. Heineman tore his labrum earlier this season.

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Earlier this afternoon, reports surfaced that Oregon wide receiver Bralon Addison left Wednesday’s football practice on a cart after making a non-contact injury on his knee. Aaron Fentress of Comcast SportsNet Northwest reported later this afternoon that Addison tore his ACL, likely causing him to miss the entire 2014 season.

Addison was second among Oregon’s receivers last season in receiving yards (890) and receiving touchdowns (seven). He was also one of the top punt returners in the nation, averaging 14.1 yards per return and scoring two touchdowns.

If Addison does miss the upcoming season, the Ducks will be without both of their top receivers from last season. Josh Huff, who compiled 1,140 receving yards and 12 touchdowns, was a senior in 2013 and will enter May’s NFL draft.

Keanon Lowe will likely become Oregon’s No. 1 receiver, with B.J. Kelly, Chance Allen, Darren Carrington and Dwayne Stanford contending for the other top targets for quarterback Marcus Mariota.

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Oregon men’s basketball guard A.J. Lapray will transfer to Pepperdine, he tweeted Thursday afternoon. The athletic department has not confirmed the transfer yet. (Update: Dana Altman confirmed Lapray’s transfer Friday morning)

Happy to announce that I'll be playing at Pepperdine next year! #GoWaves

— Angelo (@AJLapray) April 10, 2014

Lapray played in two games last season for the Ducks, getting five total minutes and missing the only shot he took. The Salem, Ore., native suffered a hip flexor injury on Nov. 24 which caused him to miss the rest of the season.

With Larpray leaving, Oregon will have 13 players on scholarship, the NCAA limit. The Ducks had 14 after Joseph Young announced on Tuesday he’d return for his senior season.

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After Wednesday’s spring practice, Oregon defensive coordinator Don Pellum spoke to the media about the linebackers and the defense facing Oregon’s dynamic offense in practice. Pellum specifically discussed inside linebackers Rodney Hardrick and Derrick Malone and the wide receivers, who he said are tough covers and solid blockers.

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– The Oregon baseball team handled Portland Tuesday night 15-10, but not all news was positive for the Ducks. Starting pitcher Matt Krook will receive an MRI Friday after he injured his throwing arm on Saturday versus Washington. While Krook’s long term future is still up in the air, his status for this weekend against UC Riverside has been decided. Normal Sunday starter Jeff Gold will move into Krook’s slot, with Trent Paddon pitching on Sunday. Among Oregon pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched, Krook has the lowest ERA (1.79). He also leads the team in strikeouts (60).

– The Oregon softball team earned its first No. 1 national ranking in school history on Tuesday, leap-frogging previous No. 2 Tennessee and No. 1 UCLA. The Ducks won two out of three games against the Bruins over the weekend. “It’s a great place to be,” head coach Mike White told the Register-Guard. “It just can’t change anything about what we’re doing.”

– Kelly Graves was welcomed as the next Oregon women’s basketball head coach on Tuesday. He spoke to fans and media at a press conference held in Matthew Knight Arena. Graves said he wants to emphasize defense and plans on making Ducks practices open.

– Oregon men’s basketball junior guard Joseph Young decided to stay at Oregon for his senior year. Young, the Ducks’ leading scorer last season, announced his decision over Twitter on Tuesday:

Great talk w/ the fam. Decided the best thing for me is to get my Degree and play my last year as an Oregon Duck #1moreyear #Ducknation

— joeyoung (@joeyFlapps3) April 8, 2014

– Oregon lacrosse goalkeeper Caroline Federighi won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation defensive player of the week on Monday. This is the second time in her career Federighi has won the award, the first coming on April 22, 2013. The senior helped lead the Ducks to two wins last week, the first coming against California and the second over St. Mary’s.

– Oregon’s Laura Roesler was named the Pac-12 Conference Outdoor Women’s Track Athlete of the Week on Tuesday. Roesler ran the 800 meters at the Pepsi Dual Meet over the weekend in a meet record time of 2:01.10. It’s also the fastest time posted in the NCAA this season.

– Oregon men’s tennis senior Robin Cambier moved up to No. 59 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s national singles rankings. Cambier, who beat the No. 3 singles player in the nation on March 28, was No. 103 in the previous rankings. The Ducks, however, fell 12 spots to No. 39 in the national team rankings.

– Emerald Associate Sports Editor Justin Wise appeared on KWVA’s Quack Smack Tuesday night to talk Oregon baseball. The show aired during Oregon’s game against Portland. While the Ducks throttled the Pilots, Wise, host Travis Teich and panelists Chris Clayton and Andrew Bantly (also an Emerald sports reporter) discussed some concerns surrounding the Ducks’ play in recent weeks and whether or not they can respond down the stretch. Quack Smack airs from 6-7 p.m. Monday through Friday and will continue to feature an Emerald sports reporter every Tuesday. KWVA also airs Friday Night Spotlight from 7-9 p.m. each week.

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After Monday’s spring football practice, Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich spoke to the media and discussed two offensive positions: center and running back. Hroniss Grasu has earned first-team all-Pac-12 honors the last two seasons, so barring anything unforeseen, he will be the starting center next season. But the Ducks still needs backups and Helfrich discussed some of the players who could receive those roles. Helfrich also talked about the running back competition between Byron Marshall and Thomas Tyner.

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Oregon men’s basketball senior guard will be joining the football team this coming season as a wide receiver, according to GoDucks.com editor Rob Moseley.

Loyd will dawn No. 10 this upcoming season, the same number he wore for the basketball team. Quarterback Damion Hobbs is No. 10 on the current roster but he will switch to No. 2, according to Moseley and Assistant Athletic Director Andy McNamara.

He'll wear No. 10, but today No. 19 was none other than @youngloyd24 #GoDucks #WTD pic.twitter.com/WdhmshlJjU

— Andy McNamara (@McNamaraUO) April 7, 2014

College athletes are allowed five years of competition. Since Loyd never redshirted, he has one more season of eligibility. This was news to former Oregon wide receiver Josh Huff, who just completed his final season for Oregon and will enter May’s NFL draft.

@Huff_Era_1 @CamStuerle Run track, or make an NFL paycheck. Your choice

— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 7, 2014

Loyd, a cornerback and returner for Las Vegas’ Bishop Gorman High five years ago, is coming off his best season on the basketball court, averaging career-highs in points per game (7.0), assists (4.7) and shooting percentages (45.9 percent from the field, 34.6 from three, 82.4 on free throws).

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The No. 30 Oregon women’s golf team was tied for sixth place after a first round 291 (+3) on Friday at the PING/ASU Invitational. However, the Ducks stumbled the next two rounds and finished in 10th place in a 15-team field that feature 12 teams in Golfstat.com’s top 35. Seventh-ranked South Carolina won the tournament with an total score of 853 (-11).

Leading the way for Oregon was Cassy Isagawa, the only Duck that didn’t shoot over par in the tournament. She shot 70-73-73 (even-par) to finish tied for 12th in the 81-player field.

Marcella Pranovia shot 73-73-74 (+4) and finished second among the Ducks’ participants. She also ended up in 32nd place alone.

Caroline Inglis finished just a stroke behind Pranovia, shooting 72-75-74 (+5) and finishing tied for 33rd.

The performances dipped for Oregon after the first three. Cali Hipp shot 78-75-78 (+15) and finished tied for 67th.

The worst performance for the Ducks came from Cathleen Santoso, who shot 76-82-76 and finished tied for 69th.

As a team, the Ducks shot 291-296-297 — 884 (+20), 31 strokes behind South Carolina.

The other teams to finish ahead of Oregon: No. 6 Arizona State (-5), No. 11 Washington (-5), No. 3 Duke (-5), No. 9 Arizona (+4), No. 2 UCLA (+8), No. 8 Stanford (+12), California (+17) and Texas (+19).

The Ducks return to action on April 14-15 at the Silverado Showdown, which they’re co-hosting with Colorado. They tournament will be held at the Silverado Resort in Napa, Calif.

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On one end of the Student Tennis Center, the Utah men’s tennis team sat in a circle, stretching, laughing and chatting nonstop. On the other side, Oregon’s players also stretched, but not of them made a sound. They stared blankly into space, looking physically and emotionally defeated.

The two teams had just finished one of their tightest matches of the season, and the outcome was crystal clear based on the teams’ stretching circles. The Utes (13-5, 1-2 Pac-12) came back to beat the Ducks (14-4, 0-3 Pac-12) 4-2 Friday afternoon in Eugene.

“I felt like we backed off,” head coach Nils Schyllander said after the match. “We put ourselves in positions we didn’t need to be in and didn’t play the big points aggressively enough.”

The Ducks started off well, controlling the doubles matches from the opening serve. In the No. 1 doubles match, Oregon’s duo of Robin Cambier and Kevin Farin took an early 4-1 lead and traded sets the rest of the way, prevailing 8-5 over Utah’s Slim Hanza and Cedric Willems.

The other two groups for Oregon took early 3-0 leads and didn’t let up the rest of the way. Oregon’s No. 3 team of Jayson Amos and Daniel Sardu won 8-5 over Matt Cowley and Alejandro Medinilla to give the Ducks the doubles victory, putting the team up 1-0 early.

The No. 2 group Joey Swaysland and Daan Maasland led Ben Tasevac and Devin Lane 7-2 when the No. 3 match concluded.

Oregon continued to play well at the beginning of singles play. Sardu controlled the No. 4 match, beating Willens in straight sets 6-2, 6-4.

But the tide turned after that.

Swaysland battled but couldn’t take a set from Lane, who won 6-4, 6-4 to cut the Oregon lead to 2-1.

After losing the first set 6-3 to Hamza, Cambier dominated the second 6-2. The third set was much closer, and Cambier held a 3-2 lead. But Hamza won three of the next four games to take the set and the No. 1 match, tying the overall score at 2-2.

The final three matches went down to the wire.

Farin took the first set 7-6 over Tasevac in the No. 2 singles, but Tasevac came back in the second to win by the same score. The two consistently traded games and break points during the first two sets.

In the final set, Farin trailed 4-5 with the game tied at 40-40. Tasevac hit a close shot down the line and Farin challenged, but the official overruled it. That was the second time a Farin challenge was overruled during the match, thus giving Tasevac two points and the match. Farin looked disappointed but showed no anger towards the call.

The Ducks trailed 3-2 at this point, meaning they needed to win both of the final matches while Utah needed to win just one.

Maasland, in the No. 3 match, was playing in a tight third set, although he’ll likely be thinking about the first set for a while. With a 5-1 lead, Maasland needed to win one more game to take the first set, while his opponent, Medinilla, needed to win six straight. Medinilla did just that for one of the most important set victories of the entire match.

Maasland bounced back, though, winning the final three games to take the second set 6-3.

While Maasland and Medinilla were engaged in a tight third set, Amos was making a Medinilla-esque comeback. Amos lost the first set to Cowley 4-6 but tied the match up with a 7-6 second set victory. In the third, Amos trailed 5-1 but won four straight sets to at least give himself two more. Cowley and Amos traded the next two sets to set up a tiebreaker.

Amos took an early 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker, thanks in part to a two-point play in which Cowley’s had a challenge overruled for the second time in the match. But Cowley roared back, winning six straight points, needing just one to gain the decisive victory. After Amos took the next two points, the two players had a fairly long rally, but Amos hit the net on a return, sealing the match and the team victory for Utah.

“(Amos) did a good job fighting back, but he needed to play to win in the tiebreaker,” Schyllander said. “Hopefully he’ll learn from that.”

Maasland was down 6-5 when Amos lost, and his match went unfinished.

The Ducks will take on Arizona (11-11, 0-3) Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Eugene.

“Tomorrow’s huge,” Schyllander said. “We’ll be ready to go.”

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Oregon offensive coordinator talked to the media after Friday’s practice. He discussed the new leadership roles for players like wide receiver Bralon Addison and how they’ve handled it so far. He also discussed the offense’s tempo, specifically why he was so against the proposed rule to prohibit offenses from snapping the ball before 10 seconds had elapsed on the play clock (the rule was not passed).

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