"This wasn't a remodel. We're making this ourselves." Tracy Joyner said that this week, and three wins from three games into her second season at Oregon, she has the results to back it up.
The Ducks are 3-0-1 — their best start in ten years — having beaten Portland State, Gonzaga, and San Francisco while scoring ten goals across four games. Carly Cormack leads the way with three, Shiloh Baird and Ellie Felt have two apiece. For a program that went 3-10-5 in Joyner's first season and then watched much of its roster walk out through the transfer portal, this is a different team in more ways than one.
What actually changed under Joyner
The context matters here. Oregon women's soccer wasn't just underperforming before Joyner arrived — the program was dealing with allegations of verbal abuse under former coach Graeme Abel. That's the wreckage she inherited. Rebuilding the win column was always going to be secondary to rebuilding trust.
Joyner's philosophy is direct: high standards, genuine relationships, no contradiction between the two. "You can maximize each other's potential when you know that that demand is coming from a place of love and respect," she said. It sounds simple. In practice, after what this program went through, it's anything but.
She also brings serious credentials. One of fewer than one percent of women worldwide to hold a UEFA 'A' coaching license. Four consecutive winning seasons at UC Davis before taking the Oregon job in December 2024. She knows how to build — she's done it before.
The road ahead is steep
Oregon finished dead last in the Big Ten last season — 18th out of 18 teams. The schedule softens that 3-0-1 record somewhat: Portland State, Gonzaga, and San Francisco aren't Big Ten sides. Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Washington, and a UCLA visit in October will tell us far more about where these Ducks actually stand.
And they're doing all of this with one hand tied behind their back financially. Oregon's football program sits in the reported $40 million range for revenue sharing and NIL. The women's soccer team operates on scraps by comparison — Joyner openly acknowledged they may be "one of the only programs" in the Power Four not receiving significant NIL money. New roster limits of 28 players only tighten that constraint further.
There was a moment last season that hints at what this group is capable of regardless: Oregon beat then-No. 8 Washington 2-1 in the final Big Ten game of the year. One win, but the right one. That's what a connected, well-coached team does on a given day — it upsets the odds.
Thursday's Civil War clash with Oregon State is next. Joyner's husband, Justin, just took over as Oregon State's men's basketball coach, so the family dynamic adds a layer of storyline the sport rarely gets. But Tracy Joyner isn't coaching for storylines. She's coaching to win — and right now, Oregon's women's soccer program looks like it finally believes it can.
