The Oregon women’s soccer team managed a 0-0 tie against California on Friday, but No. 17 Stanford proved too much for the Ducks on Sunday afternoon.
The Cardinal beat Oregon (10-6-2 overall, 4-1-2 Pac-10) 1-0 on a 64th minute set piece goal from Stanford defender Rachel Buehler that effectively ended Oregon’s undefeated Pacific-10 Conference streak at six games.
“Of course I would have liked a win, but I’m not disappointed in the way we played today,” Oregon coach Tara Erickson said. “We played two really good, defensive-minded teams this weekend. So I think this trip was successful in terms of playing hard and believing we could compete with Cal and Stanford.”
The Ducks thought they’d gotten ahead in the first half against Stanford (13-5-1, 6-1-1) when forward Nicole Garbin netted a goal in the 27th minute, which would have put Oregon up 1-0.
But a late offisides call against Garbin negated the goal, which would have been Garbin’s 32nd career goal and would have given her sole possession of the Oregon school record for career goals that she currently shares with Chalise Baysa.
Oregon managed a season-low five shots against the Cardinal, a team that Oregon has never managed to beat.
Against Cal (9-4-5, 2-3-3) on Friday, Ducks’ goalkeeper Jessie Chatfield faced 16 shots, made four saves and recorded her eighth shutout, which broke her previous single season record of seven.
“Jessie was definitely our player of the game,” Erickson said. “She made some key saves when the moment came up.”
Chatfield’s gravity-defying heroics between the posts led a solid Oregon defense that was determined to maintain the Ducks’ undefeated Pac-10 streak.
“I think overall, our defense played great,” she said. “I can think of only three dangerous chances that we gave Cal, and Jessie came out and stuffed all of them. She made one save late in regulation, diving on the ground to her right and knocked the ball off the goal line.
“I don’t know how she gets down to ground so quickly.”
The Ducks are now in third place in the Pac-10 standings, five points behind league leaders Stanford and UCLA.
Oregon is ahead of fourth place Washington State by four points, with two games remaining in the season.
The top three teams in the Pac-10 have received bids to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last eight seasons, so at this point the Ducks stand a very good chance of postseason play.
Oregon will play its final two matches of the regular season at home this weekend. The Ducks face UCLA at 7 p.m. on Friday and USC on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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