Ducks dismiss Tara Erickson as head soccer coach after eight seasons

A season-ending victory over Oregon State wasn?t enough to save Tara Erickson?s job as head coach of the Oregon women?s soccer team.

University of Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens announced Sunday in a press release that Erickson?s contract would not be renewed, and that a national search for her replacement will begin immediately.

Erickson, 39, a former all-Pac-10 soccer player at Washington, and the 2006 Pac-10 Coach of the Year, ends her eight-year UO coaching career with an overall mark of 70-71-18.

The Ducks were 20-46-10 in conference play under Erickson?s watch, climbing to second place in the Pac-10 in 2006 with a 6-1-2 record.

The Ducks were snubbed by the NCAA tournament selection committee that season, and despite a young team with loads of promise, they would never match that level of performance. In the ensuing six years, Oregon won only 13 league matches.

In 2010, Erickson became the all-time wins leader at Oregon with a nonleague victory over San Diego State, passing former UO coach Bill Steffen (1996-2004), who had 49 wins in nine seasons.

Under Erickson?s direction, Nicole Garbin was named 2006 Pac-10 player of the year, and Jen Stoltenberg (2010) and Scout Libke (2011) both earned first-team all-league honors.

The Ducks got off to a good start this year, posting a 5-2-1 nonleague record. They won their first four home matches at the ?new? Pap? Field, a relocated stadium with artificial turf that opened this fall.

The facility is shared with the UO women?s lacrosse team.

In conference play, however, the Ducks struggled.

After a 0-0 tie at home against Colorado (2-7-2), Oregon lost three consecutive matches to league champion Stanford (10-0-0), California (8-2-0) and UCLA (8-2-1), the top three teams in the Pac-12.

The Ducks regained some success with an overtime win at home over USC but lost four of their next five matches before ending the year on a high note with a 2-0 victory over Oregon State.

Erickson had a career mark of 2-3-3 against the Beavers.

The native of Puyallup, Wash., replaced Steffen at UO in 2005 after four seasons as head coach at Portland State. Erickson guided the Vikings to a share of the Big Sky regular-season title in 2004.

The former Tara Bilanski was a three-time team MVP at Washington and two-time all-conference performer for the Huskies from 1992-95.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rgsports/~3/dQVHcIS0f58/erickson-oregon-ducks-coach-pac.html.csp

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