Oregon begins its second weekend of conference play tonight against No. 4 UCLA as head coach Tara Erickson and her Ducks try to rebound after last week’s losses to Arizona and Arizona State. Although a victory tonight over the Bruins seems next to impossible, Erickson would like to see her team keep pace with the Bruins (11-1 overall, 1-0 conference).
“Obviously we made some big mistakes last weekend, and the end result was a pair of losses,” Erickson said. “We’d like to get back to playing with the improvements we’ve made lately. All week we’ve been trying to work on matching up on defense and playing within our system. UCLA is an amazing team and we’ll have to defend our best.”
To compensate for UCLA’s high-powered offense, Erickson will have her team move as many as five defenders into the backline to strengthen the defense, an adjustment that ultimately weakens the offense. It is not the first time Erickson has made this adjustment. While coaching for Portland State last year, she led her Vikings to a win over Cal State Fullerton using the same alignment.
The key to an upset win or tie for the Ducks (8-3-1) lies in the offensive production of their leading goal-scorer Nicole Garbin. With eight career game-winning goals to her credit, the senior forward from Wailuku, Hawaii, is the difference-maker for Oregon. In last Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Arizona State, Garbin was held to just two shots and failed to score against Arizona, which topped the Ducks 4-2 on Friday. As long as Garbin is on the field, Erickson feels her offense is a threat to any team, including UCLA.
“Nicole Garbin is always at least a scoring threat,” Erickson said. ” She can single-handedly turn a game around for us, and every team we face knows it.”
To make their game against UCLA even tougher, Erickson’s squad may have to play without seniors Andrea Valadez and Cristan Higa. Both starting mid-fielders were injured last Friday against Arizona. They were sidelined for most of practice this week to recover, but even with the time off, Erickson insists they are still a game-time decision. Should they not play, Erickson could duplicate her starting roster used against the Sun Devils, calling on freshman Taylor Callan to fill in for Higa and junior Sabrina DeMonte to replace Valadez. Erickson was pleased with the way Callan and her other starting freshmen played last weekend.
“They played well, but they’re still learning,” Erickson said. “You want to see your freshmen do well and have success, but you can’t expect them to be game-changing players.”
On Sunday, the Ducks face another talented Pacific-10 Conference opponent in USC (7-4-1) who, like their rivals from Westwood, Calif., feature premiere players. Erickson stated earlier this week that a win over the Women of Troy hinges greatly on the play of Oregon’s offense.
“They are a young but talented team,” Erickson said. “Some of their players have international experience, and they are definitely a team riding on individual talent.
In order to beat them, you have score goals because they are definitely going to.”
Kickoff for the UCLA game is scheduled for 5 p.m. tonight at Pape Field and noon on Sunday against the Trojans.

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