Ups and downs marked the 2006 Oregon women’s soccer season. From the last-weekend heroics (including an overtime win over then-No. 3 UCLA), to a program-best second place Pacific-10 Conference finish, to seeing three teams that finished below them earn NCAA Tournament bids while they were left out of the dance, turbulent would be an apt description of coach Tara Erickson’s second season in Eugene.
Factor in losing 2006 Pac-10 Player of the Year and all-time leading goal scorer Nicole Garbin to graduation, and the impression could be a season of pressure to live up to expectations set after last year, and do so while replacing a goal-scoring machine.
Oregon (3-1), however, is off to a high-flying start anchored by solid defense and an attack-by-committee mentality that generated 39 shots on goal in the Ducks’ first two home games.
On Sept. 7, the Ducks opened up their home season, bringing a 2-0 record to Papé Field to face UC Riverside. The weekend before, Oregon opened its season in Reno, Nev., with a 1-0 victory over Nevada and a 3-0 win against Boise State.
Despite a handful of chances – including a neatly weaved set of passes from the midfield to spring junior right back Darcie Gardner up the wing just outside the 18-yard box in the sixth minute, two attempts by sophomore midfielder Teresa Bowns, and two shots late by freshman forward Jill Jensen – the Ducks could not stick a goal in the back of the net in the first half.
“The first half, I don’t think it was casualness but a little bit of uncertainty,” Erickson said after the game. Erickson said that a brief period of re-familiarization with their home field and the battling nature of UC Riverside might have played a part as well.
A turning point for the game came in the 40th minute as junior midfielder Jen Cameron cleared a header off Oregon’s line after a Riverside freekick.
“If we would have been down a goal, I think (Riverside) would have played to go 1-1 in that game, so that was key for us for sure,” Erickson said afterwards.
Three minutes into the second half, that proved to be the case. Sophomore midfielder Danielle Sweeney worked the ball out to the edge of the 18-yard box, faked to send the defender the wrong way, and laced in a shot from the left side of the box to send the Ducks into the lead. Less than a minute later, Cameron rose up to head a Bowns free kick in for her first career goal to add to an Oregon lead that would not be relinquished.
Freshman forward Jen Stoltenberg, junior winger Allison Newton, and Sweeney each added goals, while junior goalkeeper Jessie Chatfield gave up her first goal of the season to make the final score 5-1.
“We got on ourselves, we knew it wasn’t good enough and we just stepped it up as a team and decided to get it done and calm down a little bit,” Sweeney said after the game in which she scored two goals and assisted on another. “It was a little bit frantic, they kinda came at us hard and had us on our heels but we adjusted at halftime, came back and won.”
Sunday’s game against Montana under the early September sun didn’t go as well. The offensive flourish was still there for the Ducks – 17 shots were fired on the Montana goal – but the flat offense Oregon showed in the first half of the Riverside game was the only tempo against the Grizzlies.
“We didn’t come out to start that game like we should have, and that’s been the history so far with this team so far in the season,” Erickson said after Sunday’s loss. “Three of the four games we’ve played, I don’t think that we’ve come out from the first whistle really to take it to the other team.”
Despite outshooting Montana 17-8 on the game, it was a penalty kick in the 75th minute sent to the upper-right corner of the goal by Mahlleace Tomsin that proved decisive. Though Oregon even shifted its base 4-3-3 formation into a 3-4-3 in an effort to break through the Grizzlies defense late on, the offensive futility continued, and the team suffered its first setback of the season.
“There’s not a whole lot that a goalie can do,” junior goalkeeper Jessie Chatfield said after the game. “You hope for a mis-hit, you hope that you somehow intimidate them to play a bad ball, but otherwise you gotta put it out there.”
Sweeney dismissed the shot difference after the game. “It’s no excuse, we have to find a way to put the ball in the back of the net, no matter what,” she said.
The Ducks have an solid and well-rounded group of players from front to back of the lineup. Chatfield – who kept a clean sheet through the first 249 minutes of the season – and the two starting central defenders, senior Dylann Tharp and junior Nicole Dobrzynski, provide a strong anchor of veterans for the team. Oregon’s group of side backs have continued to fly up in support of the offense, and the midfielders – though playing primarily in the center of the pitch – have provided ample support to both the forwards and defenders.
Oregon hits the road for two consecutive weekends before returning to Papé Field to take on Portland State on Sept. 30.