Wormdahl Experiencing Sophomore Surge
09/12/19 | Women's Soccer, @GoDucksMoseley
A former state high school player of the year from Eugene, Jordan Wormdahl has taken her game to new heights this season for the Oregon soccer team, which hosts Portland on Friday (7 p.m., Pac-12).
Jordan Wormdahl didn't exactly shy away from the spotlight when she was growing up.
The Eugene native was the high school state player of the year in the fall of 2017, and helped lead North Eugene High to the state championship game. She scored 24 times that fall, and graduated early in order to enroll at the University of Oregon in the spring of 2018 – graduated early, by the way, with a cumulative high school grade-point average of 4.0.
The daughter of her high school head coach, Wormdahl grew up attending UO football and soccer games, and attending camps hosted by the Ducks. Her current coach, seventh-year UO head coach Kat Mertz, jokes that Wormdahl "has probably watched more Ducks soccer games than I have."
But college is a different level than high school. That spotlight shines a little brighter.
"I'll be in Starbucks and people are like, 'Oh, Jordan! I love Jordan; I bought her jersey!' " Mertz recounted. "That's a really big weight on someone's shoulders."
A year ago, that weight was a burden. Wormdahl played in 13 games as a freshman for the Ducks, and registered two shots. All those familiar eyes in the stands at Papé Field seemed to be staring at her, anticipating big things from her, expecting goals by her – goals that never came.
But thanks in part to an offseason conversation with her mom, Brandy, Wormdahl has a new mindset this season. And those eyes anticipating big things from her? They're seeing exactly that. The goals are piling up, game after game.
The Oregon soccer team is off to a 3-1-2 start to this season, entering Friday's home match against Portland (7 p.m. PT, Pac-12). Through those six games, Wormdahl has scored six times. She has goals in five different matches, and became just the third player in program history to score in four straight games.
"I finally feel like I'm playing comfortably and playing more like myself," Wormdahl said.
A cliché in sports in the sophomore slump. Wormdahl is experiencing the opposite: a sophomore surge.
"She's been really stepping up to the plate and getting huge goals for us," said Zoe Hasenauer, Wormdahl's fellow sophomore, who has four assists already this season, one shy of her team-leading total of last season.
Helped by Wormdahl's scoring output and that of a talented freshman class, the Ducks have scored 15 times already, their best goal total through six matches of a season since 1997. They posted back-to-back wins two weeks ago over Portland State and Villanova by scores of 4-2 and 4-0, the first time since 2000 that an Oregon soccer team scored four times in consecutive games.
"I think this team has a lot of potential," Wormdahl said. "It's just really cool to see that we've kind of tapped into that so early. The fact we started on such a high note is really exciting, and I just hope we can continue that through Pac-12 play."
That will come soon enough – the Ducks open conference play in two weeks, at Washington on Sept. 27. For now, they're looking to continue their hot nonconference start. And Wormdahl is looking to keep up her hot scoring streak.
Wormdahl is one of just four players in the Pac-12 who have scored at least six times already this season. She's found the back of the net a half-dozen times on just 10 shots – of the nine other Pac-12 players with at least four goals already, only one is shooting better than 40 percent. Wormdahl is converting 60 percent of her chances.
"I think I am scoring some goals that are, like, kind of lucky," Wormdahl said. "But I also think you create your own luck. Hard work creates luck, and I've always been someone who wants to work hard."
If that sounds like the attitude you'd expect from a coach's kid, well, you're not wrong.
"I think she's in the right spot at the right time," Mertz said. "And I think a lot of that is reading the play, reading the game. The one thing we knew Jordan was going to bring was her hard work and her mentality. …
"And she wants it. She's hungry."
That's not to suggest Wormdahl wasn't as motivated last season. She just needed to learn how to properly channel the attention she was receiving as a hometown kid.
"Both my parents grew up in Eugene; I grew up in Eugene," Wormdahl said. "So I've always had kind of a magnifying glass on me a little bit. And my mom just consistently reminded me, remember who you are, remember how you play. Whether you have a ton of people out here watching you, or nobody here, just play your game. Because this is what you love to do."
With a new mindset for her sophomore season, Wormdahl is loving the game as much as ever. And the Oregon soccer team is loving the results.
