The No. 13 Stanford women’s lacrosse team outscored No. 19 James Madison 9-2 in the second half to capture its fourth consecutive victory on Saturday. The Cardinal (6-2, 1-0 MPSF) was trailing 9-7 at halftime in Harrisonburg, Va., but stormed back after the break to take a 14-9 victory.
Stanford junior Rachel Ozer scored a season-high seven points, including five goals—tied for the ninth highest single-game tally in Stanford history. The attacker leads the Cardinal with 24 goals and 12 assists this season.
“[Ozer] had some lasers for shots and was playing fearless, which was awesome,” Stanford head coach Amy Bokker told GoStanford.com.
Lucy Dikeou also continued her strong freshman campaign, contributing four goals of her own to go along with two ground balls and two draw controls.
The freshman opened the game with an unassisted tally less than two minutes into the game, but JMU responded with three straight goals. Dikeou was able to stem the bleeding by adding her second goal on a free position shot at 16:03.
“[Dikeou] definitely came out sharp in the first half,” Bokker said. “She had such great speed, and I thought she did a great job utilizing that throughout the entire game.”
Dikeou’s goal kicked off a 10-minute stretch in which the teams traded three goals apiece. Cardinal sophomore Kyle Fraser scored off an assist from fellow sophomore Emily Newstrom, and after another JMU tally, Dikeou capped off the hat trick.
James Madison took a 7-4 lead with five minutes to go in the period, but Ozer answered with just 17 seconds remaining to cut the lead to two going into halftime.
After halftime, the Cardinal came out on a tear, scoring three quick goals to take an 8-7 lead. Dikeou and Ozer both converted free position opportunities before sophomore Hannah Farr picked up a rebound and scored her first goal of the game with just over 19 minutes remaining.
The Dukes scored next to tie the game, but Ozer gave Stanford the lead for good with an unassisted tally at 14:18. Freshman Adrienne Anderson pushed the lead to 10-8, and then the Cardinal defense held the Dukes to just one goal while Farr added her second goal of the day, Ozer scored twice more, and sophomore Meredith Kalinowski chipped in a goal to give Stanford the 14-9 win.
“We stuck to our game plan and what we wanted to do,” Bokker said. “Our players did a good job of knowing what we needed to do and making adjustments.”
Junior Lyndsey Munoz played the entire game in net for the Cardinal, recording two saves.
Stanford won 15 of 25 draw controls, led by junior Anna Kim and Newstrom, who picked up four each. Megan Lerner also recorded three draw controls, two ground balls and two caused turnovers on the day. The junior leads the team with 25 ground balls this season.
The Cardinal now returns home to face Fresno State on Tuesday in conference play.
The Bulldogs are 2-7 on the season and are winless in two MPSF matchups so far this year. On March 10, Denver beat Fresno State 18-7, and on March 19, Cal defeated the Bulldogs 16-8.
Fresno State will also be coming off a cross-country flight as their last game was in New York City against Columbia on Sunday. The Bulldogs lost to the Lions by a 16-7 score.
Freshman Anjelica Fuccilo (14 goals, 4 assists) and sophomore Marcy Levatino (13 goals, 5 assists) lead the Bulldogs’ attack while sophomore midfielder Holly Cisneros has picked up 21 ground balls and 18 draw controls this season.
Senior Katie Wilbur has manned the net the majority of the time for the Bulldogs, allowing an average of 15.87 goals against per game while posting a .383 save percentage.
Junior Lisa Barnaba has also appeared in six games in goal and saved just over a third of the shots she has faced.
The matchup will begin at 5 p.m. at Cagan Stadium.
Contact Jana Persky at jpersky “at” stanford.edu.