The Oregon women’s soccer team’s two-match winning streak came to a halt during the weekend.
The Ducks dropped their first two conference matches of the year with 2-0 and 6-0 losses to Southern California and UCLA,
respectively.
Both matches were marked by Oregon’s inability to capitalize on its opportunities, while watching its opponents capitalize on
advantages.
“We weren’t playing that bad,” Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said. “We just shot ourselves in the foot.”
UCLA’s Billingsley nets hat trick
UCLA’s scoring outburst on Sunday began in the 10th minute with a goal by senior Kim Devine, who scored on a shot from deep in the right corner of the field. The Bruins scored again at the 26:37 mark when sophomore Bristyn Davis was dragged down inside the Oregon box. Senior Kendal Billingsley put in her first goal of the day on the resulting penalty kick, giving the Bruins a 2-0 advantage.
The best opportunity for the Ducks to score came in the 17th minute with senior defender Christine Mintz taking a penalty kick. However, her shot hit the crossbar and bounced back into play.
Billingsley scored her second goal of the match in the 47th minute when she capitalized on a loose ball in the Oregon box following a UCLA corner kick. Davis gave the Bruins a 5-0 lead on her second goal of the game, a ball up the middle from junior Jill Oakes.
Billingsley completed the first hat trick of her career at the 86:25 mark, the 16th time that a Bruin has scored three goals in a game during the 12-year history of the program.
For the match, the Bruins outshot the Ducks 20-7.
“We’d get around them, or behind them, and our shot would go wide,” Steffen said of Oregon’s opportunities during the match. “We’d do very good things, but we just need to keep it going.”
Women of Troy capitalize
Oregon failed to secure its first-ever victory against USC on Friday. The Trojans defeated the Ducks 2-0 at McAlister Field by capitalizing on some
opportune moments in the second half.
USC junior forward Tina Sutorius scored her career-high fourth goal of the season, with a header off a corner kick in the 46th minute by teammate Jocelyn Leche. Sophomore Jocelyn Hein added an insurance goal for the Trojans, with her kick — off a deflection by Sutorius — into the right side of the net.
“They threw a lot of people forward into their offense, so we felt pretty good being able to withstand that in the first half,” Steffen said. “In the second half, they caught us at an inopportune time early in the half, then did it again a little bit later. The stats didn’t indicate the level of play between the teams, which I thought was fairly even.”
The Trojans outshot the Ducks (15-4), leading in shots on goal (6-3),
corner kicks (6-5) and fouls (13-8).
For Oregon, redshirt sophomore Andrea Valadez led the Ducks with two shots, both of them on goal. Sophomore Sabrina DeMonte and junior Cristan Higa both added
one shot.
USC redshirt freshman goalkeeper Veronica Simonton recorded her
second shutout of the season.
She recorded three saves to improve
to 5-0-1 with .60 goals against
average.
USC moves to 9-0 all-time against Oregon.
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