With 64 teams in the NCAA Division I Women’s Tournament, there would seem to be plenty of bids to go around for everyone, but there wasn’t one for Oregon.
In Monday’s biggest surprise, the NCAA women’s soccer committee ignored the Ducks, turning out the Pac-10’s second-place team for the first time in history. Coming off a weekend in which Oregon upset UCLA, 2-1, on Friday and dropped USC, 3-1, in the regular-season finale, the Duck contingent was stunned.
“I believe that in my 12 years as athletic director at the University of Oregon that this is perhaps the biggest injustice of any of our programs,” said Oregon director of athletics Bill Moos. “The bottom line is we finished second in the Pac-10, we beat the first-place team that was third in the nation at the time. We finished strong. Usually in these selections, how you finish is important.”
The Ducks lost only once in the last month to finish at 12-6-2 — their first winning season in program history — and were confident of getting into the NCAA Tournament.
“I knew that we were in,” said Oregon coach Tara Erickson. “I could look everybody in the eye right now and say we deserve to be in. We’re not a bubble team. We played ourselves in and we should be right up there with everybody else.”
Erickson’s players were crushed.
“It’s devastating,” said goalkeeper Jessie Chatfield. “It’s really heartbreaking. It makes us feel like, what were we supposed to have done more or better with the teams we beat and finishing second in the Pac-10? It’s like they just didn’t count it.”
Sixth-year senior Nicole Garbin wrapped the regular season with the golden goal against UCLA and two goals against USC and finished her career holding or sharing 19 school records.
“Why do you even play? Why do you even step on the field?” said Garbin. “My ultimate goal was to get to the tournament. All the records weren’t going to mean anything if we didn’t get into that tournament.”