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EUGENE, Ore. — Knotted at 0-0 late in the game against Oregon for the second straight season, the Portland State women's soccer team couldn't muster the same late-game magic that they did last year as an 81st-minute goal from the Ducks' Kyra Fawcett sealed a 1-0 loss for the Vikings Friday at Papé Field.
 
The Vikings and Ducks were tied 0-0 late last year, as well, when PSU goalkeeper Caitlin Plese saved an 89th-minute penalty kick that sent the match to overtime, where then-junior Tamia Hasan scored a 93rd-minute goal to give the Vikings their first win over the Ducks since 2004.
 
This time around, however, the Ducks (3-5-0) were the aggressors late and finally broke through with Fawcett's goal in the 81st minute. Fawcett got a long ball up from Caitlyn Wong on the play, and made a couple of moves to get free for a left-footed shot in the box that curled just inside the left post for the score.
 
The Vikings pushed for an equalizer afterwards, even earning two corners late, but the Ducks held on for the win.
 
"We played well and had a few chances to go ahead but we didn't convert," PSU head coach Laura Schott said after the match.
 
Fawcett's goal came at the end of a long push by the Ducks that Fawcett helped start when she subbed on for the first time in the match in the 67th minute. Fawcett fired her first shot less than a minute after subbing in, as she fielded a poor clearance from the Viking defense and fired a shot across the goal that hit the left post and bounced out. The Ducks got two more shots off following the play, but the Viking defense blocked the first one before the second sailed over the crossbar.
 
Following a corner, Fawcett came back with another hard shot in the 73rd minute that forced PSU goalkeeper Angela Haluska to make a diving save to punch the ball wide. Oregon followed with two more corners after Fawcett's shot, but the Viking defense held tough to keep them out of goal.
 
Portland State, meanwhile, had its own chances in the match, the best of which came late in the first half, when a Ducks foul just outside the their box left the Vikings with a good chance on the ensuing free kick. Senior midfielder/forward Cori Bianchini took the free kick for the Vikings and sent it directly on goal, nearly catching Oregon goalkeeper Halla Hinriksdottir off guard. However, Hinriksdottir got enough on the ball to direct it upwards where it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced back out onto the field.
 
Freshman forward Morgan Matthews fielded the ricochet over a couple Duck defenders and headed it back across the face of what was then an open goal, but no Viking player was able to direct it forward for another shot.
 
Bianchini also had a chance in the second half, as she ran onto a good ball up from redshirt sophomore midfielder Breanne Chilton-Eddy that left her with just one defender to beat. Bianchini's left-footed shot was blocked, however, and the Ducks started to push soon after that.
 
Bianchini also combined with senior midfielder Emma Cooney to set up Matthews on the left post with again just one defender to beat in the 59th minute, but that defender poked the ball away from Matthews just in time to negate the threat.
 
The Vikings will now hope to bounce back as they face another tough opponent on the road in Utah Valley Sunday. The Vikings play the Wolverines at 11 a.m. (MT) in Orem, Utah, a year after beating the Wolverines 1-0 in their 2014 season opener at Hillsboro Stadium.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings fall to 4-10-1 all-time against Oregon after Friday's loss…The Vikings also dropped to 8-35-2 all-time against Pac-12 opponents…All five of the Vikings' losses have either come to teams from the Pac-12 (Arizona State and Oregon) or the Big West (Cal State Northridge, UC Davis and Long Beach State) Conferences…Friday's match was the first-ever for the Vikings on the Pac-12 Networks.