Ducks Fall 1-0 at No. 6 Stanford
STANFORD, Calif. – The Oregon women’s soccer team held tough but fell 1-0 at No. 6 Stanford Sunday night at Cagan Stadium.
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Ducks knew that Stanford was going to come out attacking and the Cardinal wasted little time taking their first shot of the game.
Just 90 seconds in Tegan McGrady rifled off a shot and had it go it over the goal. That was just the beginning of a plethora of shots Stanford would take to challenge Ducks’ keeper Halla Hinriksdóttir.
Hinriksdóttir would prove steady though, making three saves in the first half to keep the match scoreless. One of those saves included a fantastic foot save in the 21st minute when Stanford’s Kyra Carusa got free and fired a point-blank shot on goal.
The strong play from the net allowed the Ducks offense to get settled in and start to gain some offensive pressure in the 30th minute. The stout Cardinal defense didn’t break and the Green and Yellow were unable to get any looks at the goal going into halftime.
The intermission didn’t deter the Cardinal from coming right back out in the second half and continue to challenge the Ducks’ defense. Andi Sullivan tested Hinriksdóttir 51 seconds into the 2nd half, where she collected her fourth save of the night.
Sullivan would keep the pressure on though and on her fifth shot attempt of the half, she broke through. McGrady sent a cross into the left side of the box at the 74:05 mark where Sullivan got her head on it and was able to put it in the left side of the goal out of Hinriksdóttir’s reach.
That play seemed to spark alive the Oregon offense as Ashlee Schulz returned to the game and marched down to give the Ducks their first shot of the game. Her attempt went wide but it would be the first of three shots Oregon would take in the final 15 minutes of play.
The other shots were taken by Marlo Sweatman who returned to the game at the 87:01 mark. Just six seconds later, Sweatman got a shot off that was on target but denied by Stanford keeper Jane Campbell. Sweatman then took the final shot of the game with two seconds remaining but it sailed wide, ending the match 1-0 in the Cardinal’s favor.
HINRIKSDÓTTIR’S BIG NIGHT: Ducks keeper Halla Hinriksdóttir had five saves against the high-scoring Cardinal offense. It’s the second-most saves she’s made in a single game this season. In her first career start at Seattle, Hinriksdóttir denied six shots. So far this season the sophomore has made 23 saves while allowing eight goals for a 0.99 goals against average.
QUOTES:
Head Coach Kat Mertz:
“Halla had a solid performance in the nets tonight. She made some big time saves for us. Our team fought hard and we were organized defensively. We created a great chance to tie up the game in the final seconds, but it just didn’t go our way.”
UP NEXT: The Ducks will return to the friendly confines of Papé Field Saturday to host USC in the lone game of the weekend. Kick-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.
