After the Ducks’ emphatic 3-1 victory Sunday over USC – a team that ended the season fifth in the Pacific-10 Conference standings but received a tournament bid Monday – Oregon was so sure of its postseason chances that coaches cautioned the Ducks to take care of homework because they would be traveling Friday to a first-round NCAA Tournament game.
But the team’s tournament dreams came crashing down Monday when the brackets were announced and Oregon discovered that it hadn’t been picked, putting an abrupt end to the Ducks season and leaving Oregon coaches and players bewildered.
“In my 12 years as athletic director at the University of Oregon, this is perhaps the biggest injustice to any of our programs,” said Athletics Director Bill Moos. “I certainly want to get to the bottom of it. This year, we have one of the top soccer programs in the country – certainly in the Pac-10 – and to be left out of (the tournament) is ridiculous.”
The Oregon women’s soccer team had been experiencing a dream season, putting together a respectable 12-6-2 overall record and going 6-1-2 in the Pacific-10 Conference.
The team beat No. 24 Arizona 2-1 and No. 3 UCLA 2-1, winning eight out of 10 games to end the season.
It ended the season as the No. 17 team in the Soccer America rankings – the first time an Oregon team had ever been ranked.
Asked why Oregon did not receive a tournament berth, Mike Bruscas, spokesman for the Pac-10, said the conference typically does not comment on such matters.
Paul Schlickmann, chairman of the tournament selection committee, could not be reached Monday.
Other Pac-10 soccer coaches expressed similar shock and disbelief at Oregon’s omission from the tournament.
“Oregon absolutely deserved to go to the tournament,” said Jim Millinder, whose Trojans lost to Oregon on Sunday but will be playing Santa Clara in the first round of the national tournament this Friday. “After the way they played in the final weekend, they definitely should have gotten to go.”
UCLA coach Jillian Ellis, whose Bruins also lost to the Ducks over the weekend, echoed similar sentiments.
“We watched the show with our team, and we were just in shock,” Ellis told KWVA reporter John Strong. “I’m very surprised. You can never predict the selection process, but for them not to receive a bid was definitely unfair, coming off such a great weekend, everyone was just floored. If there’s one team that should be just crushed at this point, I’m sure it’s Oregon.”
The players disappeared into the locker room within minutes of the stunning announcement on ESPNEWS. But the team’s leaders later emerged to face the media.
Junior defender Dylann Tharp said there were “a lot of crying girls” in the locker room.
“Everyone is just really in shock and confused about what just happened,” she said. “(Coach Tara Erickson) was upset that she didn’t have an answer for us, but she just told us that it doesn’t change anything about what we’ve done this season; that all the coaches are still proud of us, of what we’ve accomplished, and that she knows in her heart that we should be up there, that we should have been given that chance.”
Tharp and sophomore goalkeeper Jessie Chatfield both said they felt the worst for the team’s four seniors, who played in their Senior Day Sunday without knowing that it would be their last game as Ducks.
“At this point, everyone is just heartbroken,” Chatfield said. “But at least for those of us who can return, we can return with the feeling we can try again. For the seniors, it’s just so unfair. Because we thought we took care of everything that we needed to do.
“But they don’t get to try again. They don’t get another chance at it.”
“I’ve got a lot of different feelings right now,” said a stony-faced Nicole Garbin. “I’m pretty pissed off, and I’m just waiting for someone to say that they made a mistake. I’m really trying to believe that right now.”
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