A thrilling season for the Stanford women’s lacrosse team came to an end on Saturday in Harrisonburg, Va. as the Cardinal (15-6) lost 9-8 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to No. 5 seed James Madison (17-2).
Junior midfielder Leslie Foard led the Card with three goals, while teammate sophomore Catherine Swanson tallied two of her own. Junior goalie Annie Read also recorded seven saves in the losing effort. Stanford outshot the Dukes 26-24, but was unable to come away with the win as a goal by JMU freshman attacker Casey Ancarrow gave the Dukes the lead with 11:35 left and ended up being the game-winner.
Regardless of the outcome, the Cardinal played well in its first NCAA appearance since 2006.
The match got off to a great start for Stanford, as Swanson and junior attacker Sarah Flynn scored the first two goals and helped the Card jump out to an early lead.
After three goals by JMU and one goal by Foard, the score was tied at three apiece with 16:05 left in the first half. Then Stanford went on a run, which saw it gain a three-goal advantage in under five minutes.
First, senior attacker Dana Lindsay powered a shot by JMU goalie Morgan Kelly, which was promptly followed by another goal by Foard a mere 22 seconds later. Another goal by Foard, her third of the half, put the Cardinal up 6-3 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the half.
Each team scored once more before halftime and the Cardinal went into the locker room with a 7-4 lead.
“We knew James Madison was going to come in with a high level of physical play and obviously I thought we did a great job in the first half and came out really strong,” said head coach Amy Bokker at the postgame NCAA press conference. “We were unable to sustain that energy the whole game.”
With a great first half behind them, the Cardinal women came out flat in the second half and were unable to reestablish their dominance. The Dukes took full advantage of this and controlled possession for the beginning of the half on the way to scoring three times in the opening six minutes of the half.
The Dukes’ defense continued to stymie Stanford, and another JMU goal with 13:36 left in the game put them on top for the first time in the match.
However, the game wasn’t over, as Swanson tied the game up again with her second goal on the day, an unassisted score just minutes after JMU took the lead.
Unfortunately for the Card, the score wouldn’t remain tied for long as Anacarrow, who led the Dukes with three goals, put JMU back on top with just over 10 minutes remaining.
The remainder of the game provided some incredible action and outstanding goalkeeping as Read defended the Stanford goal from four JMU shots. Kelly, not to be outdone, turned in her own incredible performance, including five saves on shots by the Stanford offense.
The final save came on a shot by junior midfielder Lauren Schmidt with 2:02 left that looked like it would effectively end the game, but Foard intercepted a pass with 24 seconds left and gave Stanford a glimmer of hope.
The Card called a timeout, and with just 10 seconds left, Flynn fired a shot wide and the game was over.
“I think they did a really good job, they came out really hard,” Schmidt said at the postgame press conference of the JMU defense. “Their goalie is awesome. We were just having a hard time getting around them and Swanson came up big, but they played really hard.”
Kelly, the JMU goalie, notched seven saves in the second half after having only three in the first and proved to be a huge factor in the win for the Dukes.
The loss wasn’t all bad for the Cardinal, however. Stanford outplayed one of the best teams in the nation for the whole first half and showed great resilience after letting its lead slip away in the second.
Although Stanford will graduate eight seniors this year, the seniors end their careers in only the program’s second NCAA Tournament appearance.