Friday, September 1
Boise, Idaho
1:00 PM
University of Oregon
vs
Oklahoma
Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com
Road Trip to Boise next for Oregon Soccer
08/31/17 | Women's Soccer
The Ducks head to Boise, Idaho, this weekend to play Oklahoma and Cal Poly in the Boise State Tournament.
The game with the Sooners will kick off Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific. Oregon's match versus Cal Poly will take place Sunday at 10 a.m. Pacific. Both can be seen online on the Mountain West Network (http://broncosports.cstv.com/soccerlive/).
"We're taking 23 players on the road for us which is nice," said head coach Kat Mertz. "We're busing out to Boise so that's gonna be a fun trip. We're trying to find our favorite DVDs that we're going to bring.
"But, since we're busing, we're able to bring some extra players," Mertz said. "We like to run a lot. Bottom line is that in order to be successful, we're going to have to use our bench."
The Ducks are coming off an unexpected break after their Aug. 26 match at No. 16 Texas A&M was cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey.
The Texas A&M game would have been the first road trip of the season. Instead, as training sessions concluded in advance of the games in Boise, junior midfielder Sophia Chambers wants to be sure the team is unified, and a 10-hour bus ride can go a long way toward that.
"We've become a family and nothing says family like a long road trip," Chambers said. "I'm actually looking forward to it. It should be fun spending all that time with each other and hopefully come home with a couple wins."
The extra practice time this week, which included an intense inter-squad scrimmage, helped build the team's chemistry which is growing day by day, according to Icelandic goalkeeper Halla Henriksdottir.
"The advantage that this team has over previous teams is complete buy-in to the culture and it's a culture that we helped create," Henriksdottir said.
The redshirt junior earned a shutout against Kansas State on Aug. 20 and will be looking for more mentally-tough performances this weekend.
Sunnyvale, Calif., native Caitlyn Wong enforced that mentality after a recent workout.
"We're all hungry for it.," the fifth-year senior said. "We've put in the work and I think we are all on the same page in terms of attacking this year and going after what we want, pushing each other at practice and getting to know each other better off the field."
In the opener on Friday, the Ducks will face the Sooners (1-2-1) who started the season ranked No. 16, but fell out of the rankings after a 2-0 loss to Arizona. Last weekend, Oklahoma fell 2-1 to in-state rival Oklahoma State before defeating Tulsa 2-1 in overtime.
Oregon will meet Cal Poly (1-2-1) for the first time ever Sunday. The Big West Conference opponent tied San Francisco 2-2 in its last game.
- goducks.com -
Players Mentioned
D
/ Women's SoccerCarly Cormack | Postgame vs. Washington
Sunday, October 26
Lauren Kenny | Postgame vs. Washington
Sunday, October 26
Tracy Joyner | Postgame vs. Washington
Sunday, October 26
Tracy Joyner: "I'm so grateful to be here."
Friday, October 24
