North Texas Daily

In a battle of the unbeatens, the University of Oregon handed North Texas soccer its first loss of the season by the score of 3-0. All three of the Ducks’ goals came during the first 25 minutes of the second half.

Oregon (5-0-1) was in charge for the majority of the match, as they outshot the Mean Green (4-1-1) 25-4.

“[The] first half we stayed pretty strong [defensively], the communication was there,” senior midfielder Anna Flobeck said. “In the second half, I felt like we could have been stronger together, communicated more, and just been more of a force in the back.”

North Texas was without senior forward Rachel Holden, who was out because of the red card she received on Friday night’s game. That, along with the fact this was their second game in 44 hours forced head coach John Hedlund to utilize substitutes even more than usual. In total, 20 players saw action for the Mean Green.

“Our second game on the road, we’re just trying to keep our girls fresh and keep the intensity level up” assistant coach Daniel Dobson said.

Oregon showed why it is one of the top teams in the Pac-12 conference, putting relentless pressure on North Texas in the form of shots and counter attacks.

“They were quicker at getting to the ball, and we weren’t meeting our passes,” sophomore defender Carissa Sanders said. “They had high intensity the whole game and we just couldn’t keep up.”

Despite failing to win during the two-game Oregon road trip, the Mean Green felt they were able to stay with two extremely talented teams from a power five conference.

“In the first half [vs. Oregon] we were toe to toe with them,” Dobson said. “They’re a good team and we hung right there with them. I think in the second half we got kind of worn out.”

Next up: The Mean Green are back in Denton to take on Texas Southern University at 7 p.m. on Friday.