It was supposed to be a day of celebration.
The women’s soccer team gathered in the press room at the Casanova Center Monday, facing two projection screens playing ESPNEWS – the show that the women expected would soon announce their first spot in the NCAA tournament.
Parents, well-wishers, members of the media filled the room. At one point, Oregon’s women’s lacrosse team, clad in running shoes and practice jerseys, stopped by to share in the soccer team’s moment of triumph.
The soccer team sat together in four rows of chairs, the women talkative and excited to see where they’d be heading off to Friday to play in the tournament.
Coach Tara Erickson opened with two announcements: Star striker Nicole Garbin had been selected as the Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season and the fourth time in her career. She’s the first player in Pac-10 history to win three times.
The bubbly group of girls in front of Erickson cheered and thumped Garbin congratulatorily.
Then Erickson told her team that, as of Monday, the program was ranked for the first time in history – No. 17 in the Soccer America rankings.
The room erupted into a rousing rendition of the team’s cheer: “Oregon, you know, say what?”
At 12:40 p.m., the Ducks pushed their chairs closer, huddled shoulder-to-shoulder and turned their attention to the NCAA Tournament Selection Show.
They watched as USC, a team they beat 3-1 on Sunday, was to play No. 1 seed Santa Clara in the first round on Nov. 10.
They watched with interest as California – which the Ducks had played to a 0-0 tie – and Stanford – which the Ducks lost to 1-0 – received berths in the tournament.
They watched as third-ranked UCLA, the team they beat 2-1 on Friday, became the No. 2 seed in one of the tournament’s four brackets, and they heaved sighs of relief when they realized they were not in the same bracket as defending national champions, Portland.
“Where are they sending us?” some girls wondered aloud as the fourth bracket in the 64-team drawwas announced.
But the fourth bracket was introduced without any reference to the Ducks.
The show, as well as Oregon’s season, was over.
A hush filled the room, replacing the upbeat atmosphere present just moments earlier.
Confused, the girls turned toward Erickson, sitting in the back row looking every bit as bewildered as everyone else.
“What the hell?” freshman midfielder Rianna Mansfield said, looking around at her teammates, whose blank, stunned faces mirrored her own.
“There must be an error,” senior goalkeeper Emily Marrer said, turning to Shelley Smith – junior defender Dylann Tharp’s mother, one of the team’s staunchest supporters, and more importantly, in this moment of confusion, a reporter for ESPN.
“Shelley, call them and say there’s an error,” Marrer said, knowing as well as everyone else in the room that there wasn’t anything Smith could do.
Oregon finished the season in second place in the Pac-10, one spot behind conference-leader UCLA and ahead of Stanford, USC and California, respectively. The California-based teams were in the tournament, and Oregon was not.
Tears flashed in the eyes of many players as Erickson ushered her team into the locker room.
After everything Oregon had achieved – the program’s first Pac-10 conference win, first win against a nationally ranked team, first winning season and first win against a top 5 opponent – some saw this year as the one when the Ducks would finally become a winning team and make the trip to the national tournament.
But just like that, the bubble popped.
As reality set in, a pale-faced Erickson steeled herself and turned to face the media.
“I’m pretty speechless, I guess,” Erickson said. “I’m obviously disappointed in the NCAA. I’ve lost a lot of respect. I’m somewhat confused, and I will have to do research and make phone calls to try and figure out how you could beat the No. 2 seed and upset the third-ranked team in the country and not receive a tournament bid.
“I slept well last night; I knew that we were in, and I could look everyone in the eye right now and say that we deserve to be in. We’re not a bubble team. We played ourselves in and we deserve to be there with everybody else.”
Then the coach turned to go to the locker room, where a devastated group of girls sat in despair, waiting for an explanation that Erickson knew she did not have.