The Oregon women’s soccer team suffered two tough losses this weekend as they hosted the Washington Huskies Friday night and the No. 21 Washington State Cougars Sunday afternoon. The losses dropped the Ducks record to 8-9-1 overall and 0-7-0 in Pacific-10 Conference play.
“I thought we battled hard today,” head coach Tara Erickson said on Sunday. “In no way did I think that Washington State was a 2-0 better than us team today performance-wise.”
Oregon’s 2-0 loss came in one of the more physical matchups the team has played all season with only one yellow card being given out, though it proved detrimental for the Ducks. With less than five minutes remaining in the second half sophomore midfielder Taylor Jones was given the yellow card after grabbing WSU’s Kiersten Dallstream by the hips and nearly pulling her to the ground.
The Cougars responded with a goal by sophomore Ali Fenter off a strong pass from Jacquelyn Roth on the ensuing penalty kick.
“You can’t take plays off against good teams or they’ll punish you,” Erickson said.
Just over a minute later the Cougars found the back of the net yet again, this time coming off of the powerful foot of senior Carly Dobratz, who was able to drive the ball over the head of Oregon senior goalkeeper Jessie Proulx from 25 yards out.
“Obviously this isn’t exactly what we’d hoped for,” senior defender Danielle Sweeney said. “But, I mean, it felt like we had two lapses, which unfortunately they capitalized on, but I felt like we fought and tried hard the whole time.”
WSU took its 2-0 lead into halftime and never looked back as it improved to 12-4-1 on the year, though it was outshot on goal by the Ducks 10-9 with six of Oregon’s shots on goal coming in the last 20 minutes.
“I think we created some chances and had some pretty good looks at the goal,” Erickson said. “All three of our forwards that played up there today did a good job for us.”
Freshman forward Julie Armstrong, who leads the team with six assists, watched the entire game from the bench, though Erickson said that it was a “coach’s decision” and that junior Bree Rowe deserved the time after a good week of practice.
Sunday’s contest also featured a short pregame introduction of the team’s four seniors who were accompanied by their families out on the field where their respective numbers were painted in yellow on the Pape Field grass.
“This has been the time of my life,” Sweeney said of her collegiate career. “I’ve loved every minute of it. Our coaches and players are awesome, I couldn’t ask for a better coaching staff or teammates. We’re all one big family.”
Friday’s contest proved to be a tough one as well for the Ducks. The lone bright spot for the Ducks came in the 57th minute as junior Jen Stoltenberg recorded her team-high eighth goal of the year. The Huskies offense proved to be too much for Oregon to handle, as they knocked in three goals in a 10-minute span 75 minutes into the contest to seal a 3-1 victory. UW improved to 11-3-3 overall with the win and 3-1-2 in Pac-10 play.
Oregon will travel south to take on the Arizona Wildcats on Friday and the Arizona State Sun Devils on Sunday for what will be the Ducks’ final two games of the year.
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Final homestand for seniors ends with defeat, effort
Daily Emerald
November 1, 2009
Jack Hunter
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