Two weeks ago, the Stanford field hockey team climbed into the top 10 of the Kookaburra/NFHCA National Coaches Poll for the first time in 24 years, occupying the No. 9 slot thanks to home wins over Indiana and Northeastern.
Friday night, in front of what several players said was one of the rowdiest field hockey crowds they could remember, the now-No. 8 Cardinal (7-1, 2-0 NorPac) charged past rival California in the second half for a thrilling 3-2 NorPac victory.
It was the first time Stanford and Cal had played as ranked teams since November 2001, and the 633 fans, plus perhaps a hundred more who lined the fences at the Varsity Turf, were treated to an exciting game with plenty of scoring chances.
The Card struck first, just minutes into the game, as junior defender Kelsey Lloyd scored her first goal of the year on a quick strike to the top corner.
But the Golden Bears came right back, quieting the crowd with an equalizer from Rachelle Comeau. From there, the game settled down a bit, with both sides trading scoring opportunities but neither team breaking through before halftime.
After the break, however, Stanford capitalized on two goals from junior defender Becky Dru, who continued her recent scoring spree. The 2010 NorPac Defensive Player of the Year leads the team with 10 goals in nine games, and found the net twice in two minutes against Cal.
Both goals came off penalty corners for the Cardinal, with junior attacker Hope Burke feeding senior attacker Stephanie Byrne, who found Dru for the score.
The Bears put on a spirited rally, as Comeau knocked in her second goal of the night with less than two minutes remaining. She took a pass from Andrea Earle for a breakaway after Stanford’s goalie, redshirt senior Ale Moss, charged out but could not stop the play.
“The key was our ability to execute,” Burke said. “We spend a lot of time practicing our corner plays and our diligence paid off Friday with two goals coming from corners. Once we scored those goals I feel like we were more confident in all aspects of our game; our passing, pressing, attack and defense all came together and that is what made the difference for us in the second half.”
The defense was particularly efficient, and Moss finished with five saves, three of which were huge point-blank stops of Golden Bear chances.
On Sunday, Moss came up even bigger as Stanford hit the road to take on UC-Davis (2-6, 1-1). A balanced offensive attack led to three goals from three different players, including another from NorPac Offensive Player of the Week Dru, but it was Moss who kept the Cardinal undefeated in conference play with seven saves.
Once again, it was Stanford who broke through early, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes, including yet another goal off a penalty corner. But the Aggies refused to give in, scoring a goal with just two seconds left before halftime.
Katie Mitchell chipped in an insurance goal in the 60th minute off a rebound, making the score 3-1 and giving the Card some breathing room. The final 10 minutes were relatively uneventful, and despite only outshooting Davis by four, Stanford held on to complete the first half of the NorPac schedule undefeated.
“I feel like we are definitely on the right track to becoming a top-notch field hockey program,” Burke said. “We train from August through October to get ready for November and our goal is to put ourselves in the best position possible to be successful in the NCAA Tournament.”
The team is relatively young—six freshmen have started most of the team’s games—and freshman attacker Alex McCawley (this week’s NorPac Rookie of the Week) is second on the team behind Dru with four goals. Still, the team has played well under pressure and won some critical road games, leading to the team’s current No. 8 ranking.
Burke attributes much of the success to the team’s emphasis on spreading opposing teams out with a very balanced attack and good depth.
“Our game plan is that everyone touches the ball, whether you’re a freshman or a senior, defender or attack,” Burke said. “Some teams only have one or two go-to players, but we want to be so versatile that we can give anyone on our team the ball and create something positive out of it.”
Stanford will take the field Friday night to host Robert Morris in the first of three non-league matchups before returning to NorPac play on Oct. 14 against Pacific.