EUGENE, Ore.—After 110 minutes of intense soccer, the Oregon Ducks’ Pac-12 opener against the Colorado Buffaloes ended in a 0-0 tie. The Ducks now stand at 5-2-2 on the season, while Colorado moves to 6-1-3.

“Colorado came in with a game plan and they were definitely sticking to it throughout,” said head coach Tara Erickson. “They played very hard. We kind of played in waves today. It was the first Pac-12 game for a lot of these players, and that seemed to have affected us a little bit. We were a little conservative in how we played the game, and obviously the end result was a 0-0 score. I think we did well at times and were all over them, but then at times we let off the gas pedal a little bit.”

The Ducks came out of the gates fast and seemed to be outplaying Colorado for a majority of the first period, but could not get any good enough opportunities to score. Oregon’s best chance in the first half came when Kristen Parr took a shot from the right side of the goal from about twelve feet out that ended up being saved by the Buffaloes’ goalkeeper. The Ducks led Colorado in shots (8-7), corner kicks (3-0) and saves (5-3) in the first period of action.

The defensive battle continued in the second period as seniors Nicole Bakke and Lauren Thompson really took charge on the back line and did not allow the Buffaloes any opportunities. Sophomore goalkeeper Abby Steele also helped the defensive cause as she made a huge, gutsy save out of the box on a breakaway by the Buffs, along with several other key saves. She ended the match with seven saves on the night.

UO kept up the defensive pressure throughout the extra periods, as Thompson, Bakke and Taylor Boyer continuously made great defensive plays on the ball. Several younger players saw significant action tonight, as coaches decided to go with freshmen Boyer and Kira Wagoner and sophomore Allie Rodriguez for a majority of the two overtime periods. Oregon’s depth and conditioning was useful once again as every Duck fought hard until the final buzzer.

The Ducks ended the match with the advantage over Colorado in shots (16-13), corner kicks (8-4) and saves (7-4).

“Abby came up with two fantastic saves, one on the breakaway and one off the free kick,” added Erickson. “She picked a lot of balls of crosses as well, so she was solid in the back. We just need a little bit more punch up top. Not just from our forwards but probably from our midfielders as well. We’ll move on, we have a non-conference opponent coming at us on Monday. I think that’ll be an opportunity for us to regroup and come out here and play for a win. Today, we just seemed a little conservative.”

The Ducks return to Pape’ Field on Monday, Sept. 24^th for a non-conference match against Brigham Young University. The match will be nationally televised by the Pac-12 Network.

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