A day after being announced as the fifth Oregon head coach to lead the women’s soccer program, Tracy Joyner debuted Tuesday morning in Eugene, where took time to answer questions about her new role.

When asked what attracted her to the job, Joyner said that Oregon should be a “nationally ranked team.”

“…The prospect of what this program can achieve was highly desirable,” she said. “I think that Oregon soccer, is just the ceiling is so high, and the potential is so great with the right people, the right staff, the right resources.”

Oregon is coming off a 5-11-2 campaign, 1-8-2 in its inaugural season in the Big Ten Conference. Joyner replaces Graeme Abel, who resigned in late October following the season. Under Abel, the Ducks were 22-44-23 overall and 11-31-13 in conference games.

Cloe Chase, who led Marist Catholic to a Class 4A state title in 2022, was a true freshman for Oregon this fall. She was among the top local talents signed by the Ducks, who have since received a verbal commit from another Sheldon’s Lexi Cockerill-Gonzalez for the 2025 season.

“Tracy is a proven winner with the energy and the experience it will take to elevate Oregon Soccer into contenders both in the Big Ten Conference and nationally,” UO director of athletics Rob Mullens said in Monday’s press release. “She has successfully built programs at every level from junior college to Division I and we are excited to have her lead the Oregon Soccer program forward.”

Joyner has spent the last five seasons as head coach of the UC Davis’s women’s soccer program, where she helmed the Aggies to a 13-5-2 mark this season, setting a school record for wins in a season as a Division I program. The Aggies went 49-37-8 overall under her guidance. Joyner was the Big West Conference coach of the year in 2023.

Joyner explained that the initial call to start the process with Oregon was right after the Aggies’ final loss of the season earlier last month. In her mind, is was an immediate yes.

“It was really good for me to get out of that funk,” Joyner said. “But just the future of soccer here is incredible. So, you know, Oregon is somewhere that I’ve always had my eyes on, is just being a major contender. Like I said, so much potential, and there’s just a really big opportunity to be a powerhouse here.”

Who is Tracy Joyner?

The Moraga, Calif., native brings an extensive head coaching resume that spans 12 seasons for a career record of 127-77-27. She spent nine of those seasons as a NCAA head soccer coach with a mark of 85-62-20 and the other three coaching at the junior college level.

Along with her coaching accolades, Joyner (formerly Tracy Hamm) earned significant recognition as a soccer player, named freshman of the year during her time at California from 2002 to 2005. She was a Pac-10 all-conference honoree in 2005 after helping Cal to a 16-4-1 record and helped Cal to three NCAA Tournament berths.

Joyner started her coaching career at Cal as an assistant coach in 2009 and went on to coach at Santa Rosa Junior College from 2012 to 2014, leading the program to a 42-15-7 mark. During her first year at Santa Rosa, she was named the Big 8 Conference coach of the year and coached the Bear Cubs to a conference title and consecutive berths in the second round of the CCCAA playoffs.

For Oregon to reach that level of success, Joyner hopes to implement her own style of play.

“Style of play is winning,” Joyner said in a laughing manner. “So, I do whatever is necessary. Really for me, it’s about building the right relationships with players, finding the right 11 players to be on the field at the right time, getting depth and big personalities. I really like big personalities, whether that’s leading by example of by voice or performance. So, style of play, I think I just look for ways to exploit teams and, you know, build a system and make decisions based off how the best get the desired outcome.”

Evaluating the Oregon soccer team

Joyner noted that come January the team will hit the ground running in evaluating their own film as well as recruiting, using the transfer portal and possibly scheduling spring scrimmage games.

“I like to do a lot of individual development and position specific functional training in the winter, she said. “You know, championships are won in the offseason. Everyone says that and they’re not wrong.”

During her first team meeting Tuesday morning, she said they discussed the vision for the program.

“So really, the message from me this morning to the players was we get the opportunity to start fresh,” she said. “We get the opportunity to build what we want to build and make it ours. I empower the student-athletes to be a part of that, creating a value system that we feel really good about.”

Joyner’s vision to grow soccer more in the state of Oregon extends beyond the hotbed of Eugene with hopes of gathering support from the state’s women’s professional soccer team, the Portland Thorns.

“This is just a powerhouse, a gold mine waiting to happen,” she said. “I think that the support from a professional level and the dynamics of what makes Oregon, not University of Oregon, but like Oregon soccer so powerful is how much passion there is around the game here.”

Edith Noriega is a sports reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at ENoriega@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Noriega_Edith.

After their Thanksgiving trip to the Bahamas, the Beavers were finally back in Corvallis Tuesday morning for their first home game in weeks. In their return to Gill Coliseum, the Beavers came away with a 63-56 win over the Grambling State Tigers, for their first back to back wins of the season. The win puts Oregon State at 3-5 for the season.

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Grambling State grabbed the first points of the game with a Lydia Freeman layup, but the Beavers and Kelsey Rees took the lead pretty quickly. Rees had 9 points in the first quarter, helping Oregon State build a 9 point, 16-7 lead by the end of the quarter.

Ally Schimel and Sela Heide combined for 6 points to get the Beaver lead to 6 at the start of the second, but at that point Oregon State’s shooting started to run cold, allowing Grambling to work their way back into the game. The Tigers got the margin down to 8 with a bit of a run, but couldn’t get it any lower after Rees, Tiara Bolden and AJ Marotte finally got the Beavers scoring again. The first half ended with Oregon State still up 9, 29-20.

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Tiara Bolden and Kennedie Shuler got the Beaver lead back to 15 a few minutes into the third, but with 4 minutes left in the quarter the Tigers started to go on a run, with big buckets from Nicole Sandifer helping get Grambling State to within 5 at the end of the period.

Things stayed close in the fourth quarter. Sela Heide and AJ Marotte kept the Beavers scoring consistently, and Heide did a great job at shutting down the Tigers in the post, but Grambling State wouldn’t go away. A Douthsine Prien layup cut the Beaver lead to 4 with 2:31 left in the game, but that’s as close as the Tigers would get. Grambling State had to foul to stay in the game, but Oregon State made their free throws. A Sela Heide layup capped off the 63-56 win.

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The win is Scott Rueck’s 300th as the coach of the Beavers. Rueck was already the winningest coach in OSU history, but it’s always nice to hit a big round number. Tuesday’s game was also a big one for the Beavers’ front court. Sela Heide had her best game as a Beaver, posting a double double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. She also had 8 blocks.

Heide’s partner in the post, Kelsey Rees, also finished with a double double, with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 2 assists. Aj Marotte and Tiara Bolden also hit double digits in scoring, with 13 points and 11 points respectively.

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On Thursday Oregon State will take on their first West Coast Conference opponent, traveling to Stockton to take on the Pacific Tigers. Pacific is 4-4 so far this season, so this should be a close match up.

The Oregon State Beavers have concluded their first regular season under head coach Trent Bray following a 34-18 loss to Boise State over the weekend. The Beavs finish with a record five wins and seven loss, missing out on postseason eligibility.

Following the Boise State loss, the Beavers will fall to #101 in ESPN’s SP+ rankings released at the conclusion of Week 14. It’s a drop of two spots in the rankings from #99 the previous week. Their team rating also dropped from -9.2 to -10.1.

“What is SP+? In a single sentence, it’s a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency.”

– Bill Connelly, ESPN

The Beavers will finish the regular season allowing 399 yards per game, #97 in FBS total defense after 12 games. Offensively, the Beavers average 390 yards per game, #63 in total offense

The next major event for Oregon State football will be Wednesday, December 4 as they welcome a new batch of high school signees.

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