At least one member of the Oregon women’s soccer team was working out this winter break, and it wasn’t a player.
Ducks assistant coach Keri Raygor was called up to play for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Dec. 17 against Japan. It was the first soccer game ever played at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Ariz., and it ended in a 1-1 tie.
“I was completely surprised when they called,” Raygor said. “I asked if they were sure they had the right person.”
Raygor, who has been an assistant to Oregon head coach Bill Steffen for five seasons, earned eight national team caps as a member of the team’s pool of players between 1991-94. She last played for the National Team in 1994.
The game marked the last for long-time national captain Carla Overbeck, a teammate of Raygor’s at North Carolina in the early 1990’s. The game also reunited Raygor with former Tar Heel teammates Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly.
“[Overbeck] was one of the greats when I came to North Carolina,” Raygor said.
Overbeck came close to ending her career on a high note, but missed two shots in stoppage time that would have won the game for the U.S.
“I was angry that I didn’t get that last one to go,” Overbeck told the USA Today. “But you’ve got to accept that sometimes.”
Raygor made the National Team due to her performance at the player combine for the new Women’s United Soccer Association. She was selected in the second round of the first ever WUSA Draft, by the Boston Breakers, and by the National Team’s coaches for her efforts at the combine.