No. 22 Stanford women’s lacrosse (2-1, 0-0 PAC-12) makes a trip up to New York this weekend to play Albany (3-0, 0-0 America East) on Friday and No. 10 Stony Brook (2-1, 0-0 America East) on Sunday. The quick two-game road trip is a pilgrimage of sorts for many Cardinal players, as a majority of them hail from the East Coast and several specifically from the New York-New Jersey area.
In its first three games, all on the opening home stand, Stanford went through everything. From bearing the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in a razor-thin defeat to No. 7 Denver to romping over a couple weaker California opponents in Fresno State and UC Davis, the Cardinal have already experienced a whirlwind of various results and hope to steady the ship in Albany and Long Island.
Albany, though undefeated thus far, is a beatable opponent, and one Stanford will be favored to best considering the teams’ respective rankings. The Cardinal and the Great Danes have split their last two matchups with Albany winning the last time around in 2012 and Stanford winning the time before that in 2009. These tidbits of history, though interesting, will have little bearing on this game as the teams are completely revamped from their last showdown seven years ago. The one factor that may play into this year’s East Coast-West Coast battle is the weather.
Friday’s game against Albany will be the first real cold-weather game Stanford has played all season. The high for Friday in Albany is listed at 38℉. It is also worth noting that in the teams’ past two matchups, the home team won in both cases. Stanford will need to layer up and prepare for a frosty afternoon as the Cardinal will get a taste of actual winter that California does not provide.
A frigid Friday should prepare Stanford for a snowy Sunday outing against Stony Brook. The forecast shows chance of snow over the weekend so there is a chance that the game gets pushed back. Sunday, if the game is indeed played, will mark just the third time ever that Stanford has faced off against the Seawolves, dropping its prior two matchups last year and in 2016. Stony Brook’s one loss on the season, however, did come against Denver, who the Cardinal took down to the wire, so this game should be competitive and be a good indicator of where Stanford stacks up against potential NCAA tournament competition.
Sophomore Ali Baiocco is the Cardinal’s leading scorer on the season, racking up six goals and five assists in the initial three contests. Junior captains Daniella McMahon and Mikaela Watson follow closely behind with five goals apiece and four and two assists, respectively.
Opening draw control against Albany begins at noon PST on Thursday and Stanford plays Stony Brook at 9 a.m. PST on Sunday.
Contact Andrew Tan at tandrew ‘at’ stanford.edu.