After dismantling Arizona last Saturday in its first-ever Pac-12 showdown, the Stanford women’s soccer team heads north this weekend for two games against Washington and Washington State.
The top-ranked Cardinal (9-0-1, 1-0 Pac-12), riding a 21-game conference win streak into the trip, has a shot at eclipsing UCLA’s conference record of 22 consecutive victories, a stretch ended by Stanford in 2009. With a weekend sweep, the squad can also continue its bid to become the first school in Pac-10 (or 12) history to post three straight unbeaten conference seasons.
Standing in the Cardinal’s way is a Husky squad (4-4-2, 0-1) that was chosen to finish fifth in conference by the coaches and a Cougar team (7-3-1, 1-0) that has yet to lose at home this season.
“It’s always tough on the road, and they’re both really good teams, so we have to stay humble, go and fight on,” said head coach Paul Ratcliffe.
A year ago, Stanford swept the Washington schools at home by a combined score of 7-1, forfeiting the only goal to the Huskies in the final minute of play of the weekend — one of only two scores the Cardinal gave up in conference play last season.
Stanford outshot both teams by over 20 attempts each in last season’s matchups, including a dominant 35-2 mark against the Huskies. But while the Cardinal has allowed just four goals through 10 games this season, the squad’s defensive efforts have not always been consistent through the full 90 minutes — Stanford’s opponents have fired over twice as many shots in the second frame as in the first.
“Obviously when we make a lot of changes, that can disrupt the flow a little bit, because there’s a lot of new faces that aren’t used to playing together,” Ratcliffe said. “But other than that, I think it’s just part of the game. We’re still getting a lot of chances, and I think that the group that went in for the second half [against Arizona] did a great job.”
The Cardinal will want to pick up just where it left off in last Saturday’s contest, a 7-0 rout of the Wildcats that gave the coaching staff an opportunity to insert 23 different players — none of whom played for over 65 minutes — into the match and saw the squad explode with four goals in a ten-minute span. Stanford received contributions from six different scorers, including sophomore forward Sydney Payne, who got on the board for the first time this season.
But Stanford’s trip to the Northwest looks to be a tougher test. Arizona, still looking for its first win of the season, was picked to finish dead last in the Pac-12 preseason coaches’ poll.
Stanford does hold a clear statistical advantage over both Washington schools — in fact, the team is ranked in the top-10 nationally in goals for, goals against, save percentage and winning percentage, leading the conference in each category. What’s more, the Cardinal’s top four scorers — senior forward Lindsay Taylor, senior midfielder Teresa Noyola, junior forward Marjani Hing-Glover and freshman forward Chioma Ubogagu — have combined for more goals than either the Cougars or the Huskies as a team.
Regardless, each group has enough weapons to threaten the Cardinal if it comes out flat. Washington State boasts recent Pac-12 Women’s Soccer Player of the Week Beau Bremer, as well as a host of other talented freshmen who have combined for five of the team’s goals in early play. The Huskies, meanwhile, took No. 2 UCLA — surely Stanford’s toughest competitor in the Pac-12 — to the brink last week, finally allowing the game’s only goal in the 79th minute of a 1-0 loss.
The Cardinal’s weekend will kick off in Pullman Friday at 3 p.m., then continue against the Huskies on Sunday at 12 p.m.