The Oregon women’s soccer team will send off two of its most experienced players this weekend as the Ducks host Arizona and Arizona State at Papé Field.
Senior co-captains Christine Mintz and Kelly Baird will play their final two matches in an Oregon uniform and will leave as two of the better players in Duck history.
Between them, they have started in 97 matches over seven seasons.
Mintz, after transferring from Connecticut her freshman year, became a team leader with her tough and composed presence in the backfield. She ranks ninth all-time for the Ducks in career starts with 54. She recently had her consecutive games started streak snapped at 47 after receiving a red card against Wyoming last month.
“She transferred from a nationally known program,” Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said. “She was giving up some things (tournament berths). She had to step into a different role (on the team) and had to change and I appreciated that.”
Mintz is second on the team this season with 1,304 minutes played, and last year in 2003 was the only member for the Ducks (and only one of five in the Pacific-10 conference) to play all 1,816 minutes of the season.
“She’s played steady and solid,” Steffen said. “The minutes she has given us have been really good for us.”
Mintz scored the first two goals of her career earlier in the year — the first came in the 85th minute of their win against Weber State and the second came against then-No. 5 Portland.
For her career, Mintz has 19 shots, two shots on goal, two goals, four assists and eight points.
In the backfield with Mintz is
fellow senior Baird. Despite battling numerous injuries throughout
her career, Baird has played in 65 matches and has started 43 of those.
“(Baird) has always had injury-related challenges,” Steffen said. “She never really had a year like she had envisioned and she had to work hard to overcome (the injuries).”
Baird suffered a serious ankle
injury this spring but has returned to play in 13 matches this season
for the Ducks, tallying 614 minutes and two shots — both of them on goal.
For her career, Baird has 18 shots, nine shots on goal, one goal, one assist and three points.
The Ducks also have one other
senior on the team but after a spring knee injury, Elise Minvielle redshirted this season and will return in 2005.
Oregon’s defense
struggles with injuries
Because of all the injuries this year, the Ducks have been unable to make up deficits during matches. Only once this season has Oregon been able to come back and tie a match. While this problem can be directly related to the fact that Oregon ranks last in every statistical category in the Pac-10 because of injuries, the lack of defense compounds the problem. The Ducks are the only team to have a negative scoring margin (-1.76).
Oregon is last in goals allowed (43) and shutouts (1). Conversely, they are ranked first in saves (94). Goalkeeper Domenique Lainez is third in the conference in saves (78) and is second in saves per game (4.88).
Arizona goalkeeper named player of the week
In the Pac-10, Arizona freshman goalkeeper McCall Smith was named the conference’s player of the week for Oct. 26 – Nov. 1.
Smith led the Wildcats’ defense to a pair of shutout wins against Southern California and then-No. 5 UCLA last week. Smith had six saves against USC which gave her nine shutouts on the season. She repeated her performance against UCLA, posting four saves against the team that leads the conference in goals scored with 37 for the season. Her 10th shutout marked the first-ever win for Arizona against UCLA in the 10-game series.

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