The Oregon women’s soccer team came away with a split this weekend in Los Angeles, losing against No. 2 UCLA on Friday before rebounding to defeat USC on Sunday.@@roster checked@@
The Ducks (6-5-1, 1-2-0 Pac-12) escaped with a 2-1 victory against USC (3-9-0, 0-3-0 Pac-12) on Sunday afternoon, snapping a three-game losing streak and earning their first win of the Pac-12 era.
Oregon took a 1-0 lead just over half an hour into the game after freshman forward Bri Pugh was taken down in the box, earning a penalty kick for the Ducks. Junior Scout Libke converted the spot kick to score Oregon’s first goal in conference play.
The Ducks held the lead through the halftime break, but USC drew even 56 minutes in as Kristina Noriega headed home a corner kick served up by Brittany Kerridge.
Six minutes later, Pugh scored from six yards out, taking a pass from fellow freshman Shanelle Simien and earning the first game-winner of her career.
Though Pugh had a large impact on the game, head coach Tara Erickson said that the Ducks’ win was the result of stellar play on both sides of the ball.
“It was a really good team effort in terms of defending and attacking,” Erickson said. “I don’t think it was just Bri on her own; the entire team made a big difference.”
The Ducks were outshot by the Women of Troy by a 14-9 margin, but Oregon did have a 4-3 edge in shots on target.
In goal, freshman Abby Steele’s two saves were good enough for her second win of the year, and her first since the Ducks beat UC Davis 2-1 on Sept. 16.
On Friday, however, the Ducks once again failed to score, falling to UCLA by a 1-0 score. Oregon held UCLA (10-0-1, 3-0 Pac-12) scoreless for most of the game thanks to a five-save night from Steele, but the Bruins eventually scored the game’s only goal in the 80th minute, with Kylie McCarthy scoring off a header for the eventual game-winner.
The Ducks once again fielded a freshman-heavy starting lineup, with six first-year players starting, and two others seeing time off the bench. Despite the loss, Erickson told GoDucks.com that she was impressed by her team’s play against the Bruins.
“We made the No. 2 team in the country earn every bit of the game,” Erickson said. “It was a phenomenal game full of us competing and battling on every possession with them. Abby (Steele), L.T. (Lauren Thompson) and Shanelle (Simien) had a good afternoon for us on the back line and held up for us. It was also great to get Bri (Pugh) back and competing for us more and to get Brynne (Konkel) valuable minutes in her first match of the season.”
The Ducks were badly outshot by the Bruins, with UCLA managing 17 shots to the Ducks four, with only one of Oregon’s shots coming on target.
Erickson said there is still work to be done for the Ducks as they prepare to travel to the desert for this weekend’s games against Arizona (0-8-2, 0-1-1 Pac-12) and Arizona State (5-6-0, 1-2-0), and the Ducks need to continue to get more players involved in the attack and focus on being less one-dimensional.
According to Erickson, playing a team like Arizona presents a different set of challenges than playing a top-five team, because the Wildcats will be so hungry for their first win of the year.
“You have to go into every game expecting it to be a battle,” Erickson said. “And I think if I was in Arizona’s place, I would be desperate for a win.”