Second-year Oregon coaches Jim Moore and Tara Erickson both enter the fall with new recruits and difficult schedules to match their high expectations.
Volleyball
Entering his second season, volleyball coach Moore has his team facing two NCAA Tournament teams, Long Beach State and Utah State, to prepare for Pac-10 play.
The Ducks (12-18 overall, 1-17 Pac-10) start the season in the Oregon Kickoff Classic with matches against UC Irvine (10-20) and Portland State (21-9) on Aug. 25 and 27, respectively.
Oregon then travels to California, where Moore faces his alma mater, Long Beach State (25-7), on Aug. 30. Long Beach State spent six weeks last season ranked in thetop 25 of the CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches poll.
“They are always good,” Moore said. “It is without question one of the strongest programs in the country. There’s not very many programs even in the Pac-10 outside of Stanford basically that can say they won three national championships.”
Oregon follows Long Beach with a day off and then visits Northridge, Calif., to play Cal State Northridge (4-23) and Utah State (21-13) on Sept. 1 and 2.
The Ducks return to McArthur Court to play Fresno State (7-21), San Diego State (16-14) and Portland (5-22) from Sept. 8-12. The Ducks participate in the Boise State Tournament featuring matches against Boise State (8-18) and Gonzaga (10-21) on Sept. 15 and 16, respectively.
The non-conference opponents have a combined 127-168 record, but several teams, including Irvine and Cal State Northridge, should be improved next season, Moore said. He said Oregon’s young roster, including four freshmen and two sophomores, is going to need the early challenge.
“We have to play some teams to not just get us ready, but to know what level we have to play at when we do start Pac-10 play,” he said.
Last season Oregon started Pac-10 play on the road at the Arizona schools without injured outside hitter Jaclyn Jones. Two straight sweeps started Oregon’s slide to a 1-17 conference record.
This fall, Oregon welcomes UCLA, USC and rival Oregon State to begin conference play Sept. 21.
“We just have to make sure that the results are advantageous for us so we feel real good about things,” Moore said. The Ducks were 7-8 at home last season, but only 2-10 on the road. Oregon was 3-0 on neutral courts.
Oregon welcomes back powerful middle blocker Mira Djuric, middle blocker Kristen Bitter, outside hitter Erin Little, setter Heather Madison, libero Katie Swoboda and middle blocker Karen Waddington.
Soccer
The soccer team’s 2006 schedule was released Friday and has the Ducks facing 15 teams that notched winning records last year with seven of those coming off of NCAA Tournament seasons.
Oregon will also play Portland and UCLA, both of which reached the NCAA championship match in 2005.
Even with a few gimmies in sight, Erickson welcomed the tough schedule, which she said will be a proving ground for her younger players.
“We play a lot tougher teams this year than we did last year, but this is going to better prepare us for conference play,” Erickson said. “Hopefully we can build our confidence with those tough early games on the road … it’ll be a good test for us, but especially for our younger players.”
After hosting its season-opener against 12-game winner Long Beach State on Aug. 25, Oregon begins a six-game stretch on the road beginning with UC Riverside (11-5-5 last season) on Sept. 1 and Loyola Marymount (6-10-4) on Sept. 3.
Oregon returns to the Willamette Valley the following week to play New Hampshire (9-8-2) and Iona (10-8-1) at the OSU Nike Invitational.
The Ducks then head to Washington for Gonzaga (12-4-4) on Sept. 14 and Eastern Washington (4-11-3) Sept. 17.
Oregon hosts Nevada (11-7-2) and Idaho (3-16-0) on Sept. 22 and 24, respectively, and then play Portland State (5-11-2) on Sept. 29 and NCAA champion Portland (23-0-2) on Oct. 1 on the road to wrap up non-conference play.
By then, Erickson feels her team will be primed for its Pacific-10 Conference opener against Arizona (11-8-3) on Oct. 6. The Ducks held an 8-1-1 mark after non-conference play last season before losing eight of their final nine games.
“We sorta hit a brick wall coming off of non-conference play last year,” Erickson said. “This time around we’ll be better prepared for Pac-10 teams like UCLA and Cal … obviously Portland will be a tough match but so will Portland State. They come from a good conference.”
The Ducks visit Arizona State (9-8-3) on Oct. 8 then come home for three games at Papé Field. Oregon faces Washington (0-17-3) and
Washington State (11-7-2) on Oct. 13 and 15, respectively. Less than one week later Oregon has Oregon State (10-8-1) on Oct. 20.
The Ducks travel to the Bay Area to play California (16-4-2) and Stanford (10-7-3) the last weekend of October.
Conference champion UCLA (22-2-2) and USC (13-6-2) come to Eugene on Nov. 3 and 5, respectively, to complete Oregon’s fourth 20-game schedule in the program’s history. The 1997, 2000 and 2003 teams all played 20 games.
Although Erickson admits that the Ducks’ quest to notch the school’s first winning record will be difficult in 2006, she also feels her team is up to the challenge.
“The road got tougher for sure,” Erickson said. “But we’ve improved since last season and couldn’t be more ready heading into summer.”
Oregon ended last season at 9-9-1 as only the second team in program history to finish .500.