Amidst Sunday’s celebration of the Oregon volleyball team’s NCAA Tournament bid, attention quickly shifted to the NCAA Tournament’s snub of the Oregon women’s soccer team.
Oregon’s soccer program placed second in the Pacific-10 Conference and were still left out of the NCAA Tournament.
Volleyball coach Jim Moore and soccer coach Tara Erickson share many similarities. Both took over their programs the same year and both are trying to change a history of losing.
“It’s ironic now that this didn’t hold true to be the same,” Erickson said.
Monday afternoon, Erickson was pleased at hearing Moore’s team made the postseason.
“The Pac-10 is such a strong conference and they had a great overall season,” Erickson said.
Volleyball ended its season on a seven-match losing streak while the soccer team shredded the Pac-10 competition and ended the season with the victory against the Bruins.
“I think it will be great to build on for them,” Erickson said. “It will help them, but we probably experienced that same type of thing.”
The night before the selection show, Moore was unsure of his chances.
“I was still pretty sure we were in,” Moore said. “I just believe that (in) the Pac-10 you should be. If you’re above .500 and eligible for the NCAA Tournament, I think you should go.”
“There’s always that seed of doubt and you have to be cautious and you have to be real, for sure,” Moore said. “You just can’t know that’s going to happen and it didn’t help to watch the soccer team go through what they went through and there was no doubt in my mind they were in. I felt terrible. I told Tara for sure she was in, and I was wrong in that case.”
At the Sunday press conference, middle blocker Kristen Bitter was asked if seeing what the soccer team went through made her question whether the same thing might happen to the volleyball team.
“Every year there’s teams like that,” Bitter said. “I wanted the soccer team to get in more than anything and that was a killer. We’re all one in the athletic department.”
Pac-10 honors
Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen announced Monday that Moore was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year.
Moore led Oregon to a 17-11 record overall, including a tie for sixth-place in the Pac-10 at 7-11. Oregon had a 12-18 record overall and 1-17 in the Pac-10 in his first year in 2003.
Freshman outside hitter Sonja Newcombe was named All-Pac-10 honorable mention and was picked for the Pac-10 All-Freshman team. Setter Nevena Djordjevic and hitter Neticia Enesi, both received Pac-10 All-Freshman honorable mention.
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