As a young girl, Zoe Hasenauer fell in love with soccer.
She remembers waking up early Saturday mornings with her father to watch the brilliant tika-taka passing of F.C. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavier Hernández.
She attributes some of her top skills, vision and knowledge of the game to her time spent watching soccer.
“She really grew up on the sidelines,” Hasenauer’s mother, Kim Hasenauer, said. “Both of her older sisters played in college. Zoe wasn’t just the sitter. She would always want to pass with her dad, or I would sit in my chair, throw the ball at her head and she’d do headers back to me.”
As Zoe Hasenauer steps on the pitch for the final two games of her Duck career, her legacy in the program is secured. She has the most starts in program history and is tied for the lead in assists. She’s also in Oregon’s top 10 in shots, points and yellow cards.
“I always felt like I was going to make a mark here,” Hasenauer said. “That’s what I came here for. I had a lot of other schools that I could have gone to. Outside of soccer, I love the school in itself. I’m happy I made my life here. I knew it would happen. I just needed to get the chance.”
She played striker in highschool and when she first arrived in Oregon. Her time spent as an attacker has helped rack up 18 assists. She understands what kind of pass she would want to receive as a forward.
“It’s so fulfilling,” Hasenauer said on the feeling of hitting an assist. “I think that it’s beautiful, especially transionsitionaly wise, it just does a lot of damage to teams. To be able to catch them off guard like that.”
For Hasenauer, there’s an art behind a well-hit assist. She must calculate many factors, such as weighing the force to hit the ball correctly, being on the same page as a teammate, having cohesion, and understanding their run so they can take it in stride so they can put it in the back of the net.
“If you think too much you usually mess up,” Haseneaur said on what goes through her mind with the ball at her feet. “That is what all the training is for, so that it’s muscle memory. By the time you get on the field and everything, you can execute in the blink of an eye.”
She knew playing at UO was going to be hard when she joined the program. Her first two years were tough, she said. The team went seven games without a win her sophomore year. The adversity made her stronger and helped her lead the team through rough patches this season.
“Savor the moment” is Hasenauer’s advice for incoming freshmen. “Make sacrifices where you need to make sacrifices to leave your impact.”
Hasenauer can’t believe how fast this went by, which she said sounds cheesy. “But you get in and you get out before you realize.” She admits to missing out on things socially but doesn’t regret it because they got her to where she is today.
Hasenauer’s time here has made her more patient and a better leader. She’s learned how to communicate with teammates to bring them up.
“As a young immature club player,” she said. “I would rag on people instead of helping them along. I would like to be someone my teammates want to go to for help rather than feel intimidated.”
Hasenauer said the “want to compete” has changed in the women’s soccer program in the last five years, And she credits head coach Graeme Abel for the team’s evolution.
“We definitely all had the skills that we needed to go through,” she said. “We never could put it all together. I don’t think we had the innate desire to want to win. When I first came in, the team was known for slacking off. When he came in, we decided that we’re tired of losing.”
Oregon is known for being excellent in all athletics and the players were tired of being the one team that never does anything, Haseneaur said. In Abel’s first year, Oregon beat Pac-12 powerhouse Stanford, got a taste of winning and never wanted to let it go.
“She’s always had a big personality,” Abel said on what sets Haseneaur apart on the field. “She’s such a tough kid on the outside and such a soft kid on the inside. What I mean by that is: she’s such a good person, but she plays the game on the edge.”
She has grown in her ability to make various types of passes and be technically sound with both feet, Abel said.
“Some of the passes I’ve seen her make since I’ve got here have been phenomenal,” Abel said.
Hasenauer wants to continue her career professionally. She will be entering the 2023 NWSL draft at the end of January. She wants to go play overseas if she doesn’t get selected. She is nervous about being a rookie on a professional team in a new environment after her five years playing with Oregon.
Now Hasenauer will be on the television screens, inspiring young players to pursue their dreams of playing professionally just as she did watching F.C. Barcelona with her father.
