Despite suffering a tough loss at the hands of then-No. 12 New Hampshire last weekend, the No. 9 Stanford field hockey team is in good position to lock up the NorPac West Division regular-season title if it can get past Pacific and California in its two conference clashes this weekend.
The Cardinal (10-2, 3-0 NorPac) is the lone undefeated team through the first half of conference action and tied the school record with nine consecutive victories after knocking off Harvard last Friday in Boston. But in its quest for a 10th win, Stanford’s offense couldn’t quite keep up with a high-powered New Hampshire squad on the road, dropping its first match since late August.
“Our game against New Hampshire came at a good point in our season,” said sophomore attacker Hope Burke, “because I think we were riding high on the national attention we were getting. Losing a game against a top-10 opponent was humbling and showed us that there are areas of our game that we still need to work on. Ultimately, we lost because we weren’t connecting as a team, and we just chose a bad day to have a bad game.”
The team’s first chance for redemption will be at home against Pacific (2-9, 0-4), which has been struggling all season long. Stanford has won the last 10 matches in the all-time series, with the last game going the Cardinal’s way by a wide margin, 4-0 on the road on Sept. 17.
But on Sunday, Stanford will need to be firing on all cylinders for the annual trip to face off against No. 12 Cal (11-2, 2-1) in Berkeley. The Golden Bears must win in order to stay alive in the conference race, but have the offensive firepower to do so, having scored 10 goals twice this season and averaging four goals per game.
Once again, however, Stanford has owned the most recent meetings between the two rivals — winning eight of the last 11 matches — but Burke cautioned against looking past either team.
“This weekend is extremely important in setting our team up for postseason success,” she said. “Pacific and Cal always bring their best games when we play each other and this weekend will be a good test for us, especially coming off of a loss last weekend.”
Sunday is also Senior Day in Berkeley, which should make for a very hostile environment. The Cardinal will likely turn to junior defender Becky Dru, who, despite the position she plays, has been the team’s most reliable weapon on offense. Dru — last season’s NorPac Defensive Player of the Year — has a team-high 11 goals, and has been particularly successful on penalty corners.
But equally important will be slowing down Cal’s sophomore sensation, forward Andrea Earle. After seeing a very solid debut as a freshman last season, Earle has burst onto the scene with 12 goals this year.
Burke said that the team has really been focusing on getting off to a good start, something Stanford couldn’t do in the loss to New Hampshire.
“It’s always tough playing a team at their own turf, and of course it’s going to be even harder on Sunday since it’s against Cal, but I think that the key to our success will be to establish confidence early on,” Burke said. “I think it would be beneficial for us to move the ball around early on to get into the rhythm of the game and hopefully capitalize on our opportunities. If we can come out strong and stay solid throughout the game, I have no doubt that we will be successful.”
After this weekend, the Cardinal will have just three games remaining — the final conference match against UC-Davis during Homecoming Weekend, and two crucial road tests at Michigan and Michigan State to close out the regular-season schedule.
Friday’s match against Pacific is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Artificial Turf Field.