Ducks Close Out Regular Season with OSU
Oregon celebrates Senior Night Friday at 6 p.m. at Pape' Field versus Oregon State (Pac-12 Network).
WHAT TO WATCH
• The Ducks will recognize three seniors in pregame ceremonies: Midfielder/defender Chardonnay Curran, student manager Erin Carrillo-Bautista and creative director Reilly Wadsworth.
• Chardonnay Curran will be making her team-best 65th career start on Friday. She has accumulated four goals and seven assists during her career. The four-year letterwinner had one of the most significant goals in program history as a sophomore, when she scored the game-winning goal in a victory at Portland that was the Ducks' first-ever win against the Pilots.
• Oregon's other three seniors, True Dydasco, Eden Hardy and Mia Palmer, will all take advantage of the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA and finish their careers after the fall 2021 season.
• Oregon has held opponents to one goal or less in 14-of-15 games this season. The only team to score more than once against the Ducks in 2020-21 was Pac-12 champion UCLA (3-0). Oregon's current 0.74 goals against average would be the best in program history (0.81, 1980).
• Earlier this season, freshman Leah Freeman, who was named Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Week On March 29, set the Ducks' individual scoreless minutes record with a streak of 471:54 minutes from March 12-April 2. Her current goals against average of .074 is lower than the current UO individual mark of 0.82 by Jesse Chatfield in 2006.
• Ally Cook is tied for second in the Pac-12 with three game-winning goals. She is tied for 27th nationally in game-winners. Her decisive scores have come Feb. 7 against Gonzaga, Feb. 26 versus No. 3 Stanford and March 19 at Oregon State.
PUTTING THE "D" IN DUCKS
With one match remaining in the regular season, Oregon is on pace for one of the best defensive seasons in program history. The Ducks' current goals against average, 0.74, is slightly better than the best two seasons ever recorded by Oregon - 0.808 GAA in 1980 and 0.815 GAA in 2006. The Ducks have surrendered more than one goal just once this season - a 3-0 loss to No. 3 UCLA on March 5. A lot of that can be attributed to Oregon's experience on the back line. Combined, the four starters have 182 career starts: seniors Mia Palmer (56) and Chardonnay Curran (64), junior Chai Cortez (32) and sophomore Croix Soto (30). The other part of that has been the play of freshman goalkeeper Leah Freeman. Her individual goals against average, which is the same as the team's 0.74, is lower than the current school record of 0.82 set by Jessie Chatfield in 2006.
COOK'S KITCHEN TIMER
Sophomore Ally Cook is second in the Pac-12 lead in game-winning goals with three, which is also tied for 27th nationally. This season, she has scored game-winning goals against Gonzaga (Feb. 7), Stanford (Feb. 26) and Oregon State (March 19). Cook has also played more minutes in the field (1,322) than any Duck outside of center backs Chardonnay Curran and Croix Soto who both have played every minute this season (1,466).
COOK, HASENAUER CLIMB CAREER LISTS
Zoe Hasenauer and Ally Cook are moving up on the UO career records lists. Cook is now tied for seventh in career game-winning goals with five. Hasenauer moved into seventh in career shots last week with 120. She's just two back of sixth place (Sierra Marsh, 122, 1996-99). Hasenauer also jumped into a tie for sixth in UO career assists (11) last week.
FRESHMAN FREEMAN ENTERS CAREER TOP 10?
A solid campaign in net for freshman Leah Freeman has propelled the Berkeley, Calif., native into Oregon's career top-10 in a couple of categories - more on how that happened in a moment. Through 15 games, Freeman has 61 saves and five shutouts - both of which rank in the UO career top 10. She is sixth in career shutouts (5) and is 10th in both saves (61) and wins (5). How can that be? In the relatively brief, two-plus decades of the program, Oregon's starting goalkeepers have enjoyed a relatively long tenure. The average length of time for a Ducks' starter in net is 2.7 seasons. Amanda Fox (1996-99) and Abby Steele (2011-14) were four-year starters, while Sarah Peters (1999-02), Jesse Chatfield (2005-09) and Halla Hinriksdottir (2015-18) spent three seasons minding the net. In fact, only nine keepers in program history have played more than Freeman's 15 games in goal.