Oregon women’s soccer (0-15-2, 0-9-0) fell 1-0 to Washington (8-5-4, 3-4-2) in the final minutes of Thursday’s match.
The Ducks were playing in their second to last home game of the season. After playing some of the best teams in the nation, they faced off against a Huskies squad positioned at the bottom half of the Pac-12. It was as good of a match as any for Oregon to secure its first win of the season.
It didn’t happen.
Washington had the better opportunities of the two teams early on. It had four corners in the first 20 minutes but only shot the ball five times.
The Ducks became more active later in the first half. Livvy Moore recorded the first Oregon shot attempt in the 32nd minute. Not much later, the Ducks had their first three corners of the game.
“We’re in a super hard position this season. There’s no doubt about it,” Moore said. “So to come back out here and battle game after game like we’ve been able to do is really awesome.”
The Huskies responded to the Ducks’ surging energy with a pair of near-goal opportunities in the 42nd minute. The crossbar deflected the first attempt. Oregon goalkeeper Maddy Goldberg secured the diving save on the follow-up opportunity.
The Ducks once again found themselves level with their opponent at halftime. The feeling they would face at the end of the game, however, ended up being familiar.
Oregon played aggressive to start the second half. Strong play by its defense led to several counter opportunities. Unfortunately for the Ducks, striker Ajanae Respass found herself running alone on several of those plays.
In the 61st minute, Moore collided with a Washington player in the defensive third. The play caused Moore to exit the game temporarily due to injury.
“[The lack of calls is] frustrating, but every game is gonna have calls where it’s not gonna go your way,” Moore said. “So we just got to stick to the game plan and get the ball and do what we know how to do.”
The Huskies came out of the stoppage with all the momentum. Washington finally struck the ball into the back of the net in the 64th minute, but the referees called an offsides.
Oregon responded with a trio of its own shots about 10 minutes later. Several shots narrowly missed, including one by Cameron Bourne in the 85th minute.
The Ducks, inches away from putting themselves in position to win their first game, found themselves on the losing side once again. Grace Thomason was the player to break the deadlock for the Huskies in the 88th minute. Oregon failed to record a clean sheet.
“If you turn it into a transition, the game gets stretched. It’s kind of a story of our season,” Oregon head coach Graeme Abel said. “I thought we did some really good things tonight. We just got caught on the other side of it.”
The Ducks’ last opportunity to win at home will be Sunday against Washington State at 1 p.m. They will honor their only senior, Jordan Snyder, at the match.
