The Oregon women’s soccer team earned its ninth record-breaking win of the season this weekend, and it was all done on the shoulders of one Duck.
Freshman forward Andrea Valadez scored three goals over the weekend, including both in Oregon’s 3-2 loss to Arizona State on Friday and the lone goal in the 1-0 win over Arizona on Sunday.
“I felt good this weekend,” Valadez said. “I knew I needed to come out flying today and put my chances away when I had them. I think we came out strong, and one goal was all we needed to win the game.”
Valadez led the Ducks in shots on goal with two and shared the team lead of three shots with sophomore forward Mele French. Valadez’s single goal against the Wildcats came in the 50th minute of the second half when she connected from five yards left off a six-yard run from the corner of the box. The assist came from redshirt sophomore Nicole Garbin.
Valadez’s third score on Sunday raised her season total to seven, which places her second-best all-time among Oregon freshmen. She sits only two behind Erin Anderson who set the record in 1996.
“It was a great weekend,” Valadez said, “and the whole team felt excited and prepared coming in. We knew today would be an important win, so it was nice to be able to help get a win. My parents also made the trip, so it was nice to share it with them.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Domenique Lainez also posted an impressive performance, despite dealing with a wrist stress fracture for the third straight week. Lainez posted her third shutout of the season and her second Pacific-10 Conference shutout of her career against the Wildcats.
“Coming into today’s game we had so much energy and ambition to finally win on the road knowing that it was crucial to win the game going into next weekend,” Lainez said on Sunday. “We were able to pull it off. It was definitely a difficult win.”
Oregon (9-9 overall, 3-4 Pac-10) led the game in shots, holding a 12-9 lead over Arizona and edged the Wildcats in shots on goal, 7-4. Arizona held the advantage in corner kicks (5-3), saves (6-4) and fouls (10-9).
“We went in and we did what we needed to do,” Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said. “Our depth and our maturity really carried us against a good team, and beforehand we stressed how important it was for each player to give us everything they had when they were on the field.”
The Ducks didn’t have such success in their game against Arizona State, where they fell in the final minutes after trading goals with the Sun Devils. Valadez again led Oregon with her two scores; yet it wasn’t enough in the loss of Oregon’s final road trip.
Oregon struggled early when Arizona State’s Elizabeth Bogus scored from 12 yards out just eight minutes into the game. The Ducks felt that lapses in the defense hurt them early.
“We had some minor mental breakdowns that the other team executed on,” Lainez said. “It was a very physical game on Friday. All three goals that were scored on Friday, they were just minor mental breakdowns on our part.”
Valadez’s first goal came at 37 minutes, 49 seconds — unassisted on a rebound off the goalkeeper — and she scored again from 20 yards out at 56:18 off an assist from sophomore defender Carlie Ashcraft.
With the game tied at two, Arizona State’s Manya Makoski scored in the 77th minute to give the Sun Devils the game-winning goal.
Oregon returns home this week for their final week of action in the regular season, facing USC on Friday and UCLA on Sunday. Both schools are NCAA veterans.