UO Women's Soccer

There were milestones aplenty to celebrate Thursday as Oregon soccer opened the season against Weber State. UO release by: Rob Moseley - EUGENE, Ore. — A win for the new head coach in her debut. A two-goal game for a senior captain on her birthday. And an offensive explosion the likes of which Papé Field hasn't seen from the Oregon soccer team in years. Thursday's season opener for the Ducks featured milestones aplenty. The UO women opened the new campaign with a 4-0 victory for new head coach Tracy Joyner, posting the program's most goals in a match and largest margin of victory since 2021 with help from two goals by Taylor Bryan. "I'm looking at the future," Joyner said after posting the largest margin of victory by a UO soccer coach making their debut since the program was reinstated in 1996. "I don't know a ton about the past, so I just focus on the team now and what we're going to do moving forward. So I'm really happy for the team and happy for us, and it's nice to see your hard work pay off out on the field." Bryan, voted a captain by her teammates earlier in the week, got the scoring started in the 19th minute, and freshman Miya Alamares made it 2-0 in the 30th minute. Bryan made it 3-0 in the 66th minute, the first time UO soccer scored more than two goals in a game since August 2021, and junior Lauren Kenny scored in the 80th minute as the Ducks posted their largest margin of victory since the 2021 season opener. "I feel like we just came with a mindset of just a clean slate," said Bryan, who joined the Ducks as a transfer for the 2024 season. "We're not who we were last year, with a whole bunch of new talent and a whole bunch of new faces and just a different type of grit." One of those new faces was Alamares, who scored in her collegiate debut. The Ducks got a shutout in goal from the tandem of newcomers Caeley Goldstein and Gia Kiesling, surviving a couple of high-danger chances by Weber State in the final 15 minutes. "It's just so relieving to know that all the energy, all the hard work that everybody's putting in — coaches, players, support staff — all the effort everyone's putting in is paying off," Alamares said. "It's just our first game; we're just starting. But kicking off the season with a huge 4-0 win, I'm so excited for the things to come and I can't wait." How It Happened: The Ducks dominated play in the opening minutes, before Weber State titled the field the other direction as the first half hit the one-third mark. But Oregon reclaimed momentum and never let it go. In the 19th minute, Alamares took a shot from distance that the Weber State keeper got a hand on before it hit the post. Sydney Chura collected it on the left wing and lofted a pass into the box that Bryan finished with her head, her first goal of 2025 after scoring three times last fall. A freshman began the play, a transfer facilitated the goal and a returning veteran finished it off. The Ducks had the opening goal of their opening game. "It's just really uplifting, really motivating to know that all these new girls — 16 or something new players — can just come in and, like Tracy said, it's a new era," Alamares said. "It's our time to shine." Alamares made it 2-0 in the 30th minute when an Oregon pass into the box was deflected by a defender to the top of the box. Alamares collected it there and chipped it inside the right post. "It's hard to win games and it's hard to score goals," Joyner said. "So, four goals is awesome. And four really nice goals, different types — scoring from outside, scoring off a cross, a header. Some really, really nice finishes." In the 66th minute, Alexis Cockerill-Gonzalez — a freshman from Eugene — sent a pass up the right sideline to Carly Cormack, who sent it back to Bryan a few yards outside the box. Bryan lofted a shot that cleared the keeper and found the back of the net for a 3-0 lead, and a two-goal game on her birthday. When Bryan arrived at Papé Field for Oregon's pregame meal Thursday, she found that her teammates had put up decorations for her birthday. She reciprocated by gifting the team two goals come Thursday evening. "It was a great way to start the day off; the vibes were high," Bryan said. "I knew at the end of the day that I just wanted to do it for them, and that they were all gonna work as hard to make today special. And that's what it was — special." Kenny's goal was similar to Bryan's second, a shot from outside the top of the box with just the right touch to clear the keeper and then curl under the crossbar. That made it Oregon's first four-goal game since beating Northern Arizona 4-2 on Aug. 29, 2021, and the four-goal margin was the Ducks' biggest since a 5-0 win to open that season, against Fresno State on Aug. 19, 2021. "We've talked about our values, and consistency is one of our values," Joyner said. "So it's really fun to come out here and have a great performance, but you want to make sure we replicate it again. Like, this isn't a one-off. This is something that we have to make sure is part of our identity. Not that we're going to go into a game expecting to win, but we certainly need to have a level of confidence that when we step on the field, we at least believe that we can." Notable: Bryan posted the second two-goal game of her career, and her first with the Ducks. … Kenny's goal came on a career-high six shots, and was the second of her career. … Returning starter Cloe Chase served a one-game suspension after receiving a red card in the 2024 season finale. Up Next: The Ducks host Portland on Sunday (6:30 p.m., B1G+).