The Stanford field hockey team had won eight consecutive matches, one short of the school record, before heading out last weekend on a two-game East Coast road trip.
With the spotlight on, the Cardinal lived up to its No. 7 national ranking with an easy 4-1 victory over previously red-hot Harvard. But on Sunday, Stanford (10-2, 3-0 NorPac) saw its win streak snapped in a 6-3 showdown with No. 12 New Hampshire.
The loss in the Granite State was just the Card’s second all season, and its first since losing a tough match at No. 4 Connecticut in the second match of the year.
The Wildcats jumped on the board first, as All-American Whitney Frates scored two of her game-high three goals in the first 20 minutes. Both were unassisted, but New Hampshire was also pressing as a team, earning four penalty corners and outshooting Stanford in the first half.
But the Cardinal responded, fighting back with a goal in the 29th minute from sophomore attacker Courtney Haldeman off a nice centering pass from senior attacker Stephanie Byrne. At that point, it appeared as though Stanford might have found its rhythm, but New Hampshire attacker Emma Erler broke free in front of the cage and put away the Wildcats’ third goal for a 3-1 lead just before halftime.
After the break, New Hampshire poured it on, as Hayley Rausch knocked in a pair of goals—the second off her own rebound—to push the lead to four. Frates found a little space and put the game all but out of reach 10 minutes before time.
Yet Stanford refused to quit, and redshirt sophomore attacker Emily Henriksson cut into the lead with a goal two minutes before Byrne converted a redirect to give the Cardinal a glimmer of hope with just a few minutes remaining. But New Hampshire’s defense held firm, putting a slight damper on the weekend.
Friday’s match was a much different story, however, as Harvard’s defense struggled to contain the Cardinal’s attack. Stanford outshot the Crimson 23-5 for the match and scored three unanswered goals—Harvard had allowed three goals in its previous four matches—to salt the game away early on.
Junior defender Becky Dru added to her recent string of success, as last year’s NorPac Defensive Player of the Year continued an offensive surge this season with her 10th and 11th goals, both off penalty corners.
Harvard didn’t really threaten until late in the second half, when it scored a nice goal past redshirt senior goalie Ale Moss to trim Stanford’s lead to two. But Dru’s second goal of the match three minutes before the end of the match put an exclamation point on the victory.
Stanford is now 6-2 away from home after splitting the weekend matches, and the Cardinal will have to travel for three of its five remaining regular season games, including a road trip to Michigan and Michigan State in two weeks.
Stanford will have the advantage of playing at home, though, for the NorPac Championship in the first week of November. The Cardinal has won all five of its matches at the Varsity Turf. With only 16 spots up for grabs, all of the remaining matches will be critical to securing a berth in the NCAA Tournament, slated to begin Saturday, Nov. 12, when the top eight teams will also have home-turf advantage.
Next up for the Card is a three-game stretch to complete NorPac play, beginning Friday when Stanford hosts Pacific at 7 p.m.