The Stanford field hockey team’s seniors—goalkeeper Ale Moss and attackers Stephanie Byrne, Katie Mitchell and Devon Holman—completed a perfect NorPac season after Friday night’s 5-0 victory against UC-Davis. The Senior Night shutout against the Aggies (3-10, 1-3 NorPac) helped advance the No. 4 Cardinal’s record to 6-0 in NorPac conference play and 13-2 overall.
The Cardinal came out swinging with the first shot on goal in the fifth minute made by junior defender Kelsey Lloyd. The Aggies responded with two shots on goal by Casey Wollbrinck and Cloey LemMon in the ninth minute following a penalty corner. Stanford stopped both shots, the first by Moss and the second on a defensive save by Lloyd. These would be the Aggies’ only shots on goal all game.
In the 11th minute, junior defender Becky Dru came up with the first goal of the game and her 13th of the season off a rather powerful shot following a penalty corner.
The next 22 minutes of play were characterized by excellent handling by the Cardinal, as the team drew seven fouls and attempted three shots on goal. In the same time period the Aggies only managed to draw three fouls, leading to one penalty corner and no shots on goal. This would set the tone for the rest of the game.
In the 34th minute a Cardinal penalty corner led to another goal, this time by sophomore attacker Courtney Haldeman, assisted by fellow sophomore attacker Hope Burke.
The first half, which was a true show of the Cardinal’s dominance both offensively and defensively, ended with just a 2-0 Stanford lead.
Following the solid rhythm established in the first half, Stanford took less than seven minutes to notch another tally, as freshman attacker Alex McCawley came up with the third goal of the night from a shot that surprised Aggies’ keeper Conley Craven.
In the 57th minute McCawley was able to assist fellow freshman midfielder Kasey Quon with her first goal of the season and the fourth Cardinal goal of the night on a nice low-post shot that snuck past Craven.
Shortly after, an interesting scene occurred when it appeared that Davis had scored a goal, but the shot was called back as it had not been from inside the circle. The frustration of both the Aggie fans and coaches was visible after the goal was disallowed.
The final goal of the night came from the Cardinal’s Lloyd, assisted by freshman midfielder Shannon Herold, in the 68th minute off a great penalty corner. After the inbound by Burke, a fantastic misdirection by the Cardinal left the crowd and the Aggies stunned.
By the end of the game the Cardinal had racked up not only five goals but an impressive 21 shots on goal, four of which came from Dru, compared to the Aggies’ two shots. Stanford also led in penalty corners 5-3 and had the only defensive save of the night.
Up next for the Cardinal is a weekend trip to the state of Michigan, where it will face No. 8 Michigan (12-4, 4-1 Big Ten) on Friday at 12 p.m. PST and Michigan State (7-10, 1-4) on Sunday at 4 p.m. PST.
The following week the Cardinal will compete in the NorPac Tournament, hosted at Stanford’s Varsity Turf.