The No. 18 Stanford lacrosse team will head into its 16-day layoff with a measure of momentum after earning two wins at home this weekend.

On Friday afternoon, the Cardinal (4-2, 1-0 MPSF) kicked off its quest to recapture the conference crown with a 17-12 win over USC in its MPSF opener. Stanford followed up that effort with a hard-fought 14-10 victory over nonconference opponent Temple on Sunday.

Stanford was all over USC from the beginning on Friday, breaking out to a 5-1 lead early in the game. The Women of Troy would respond in the second half, but the Cardinal was ultimately able to hold off the rally and earn the win.

Freshman Julia Burns began the scoring for the Cardinal less than a minute after the opening draw. Burns tallied four goals on the day—all in the first half—to post her first career multi-goal game.

Burns’ first goal was assisted by junior Anna Kim, who led Stanford with four goals of her own to go along with the assist and five draw controls. The co-captain is second on the team in points on the season behind fellow junior Rachel Ozer.

“[Kim] played awesome in the midfield and was a real spark of energy,” Stanford head coach Amy Bokker told GoStanford.com.

Several other Cardinal attackers had strong games, including sophomore Hannah Farr (two goals, two assists) and freshman Lucy Dikeou (two goals, one assist). Stanford also got another consistent performance from Ozer, who chipped in two goals, one assist, two ground balls and two draw controls.

After two USC goals brought the score to 5-3 with 14 minutes to go in the first half, the Cardinal closed the half on a 6-1 run to take an 11-4 advantage into halftime.

The Cardinal opened the second half with two more goals, from Dikeou and Kim, before the Women of Troy turned the tide—USC scored seven of the next nine goals to cut the deficit to 15-11 with just over five minutes remaining.

Freshman Paige Southmayd put the Cardinal back up by five on a goal that was assisted by Ozer, but USC refused to quit. On the following play, the Women of Troy earned a free position shot. After Stanford freshman Katie Wiseman stopped the first attempt, USC scored off the ensuing rebound to keep the Women of Troy within reach.

But Ozer stopped any thoughts of a comeback by putting away her second goal of the game just 17 seconds later, and Stanford won the final draw control to maintain possession for the rest of the game.

Bokker said that after the game, the team talked about maintaining its effort for a full 60 minutes.

“I was really pleased with the first 40 or so minutes and we had really good rhythm,” Bokker said. “If we scored one more goal, we could’ve gotten the clock running, but I think we got a little complacent.”

However, the message wasn’t fully absorbed, as on Sunday the Cardinal once again took an early lead, but allowed Temple to stick close throughout the game.

The Cardinal scored the first four goals of the game; sophomore Kyle Fraser tallied twice in the first six minutes, bookending an unassisted goal by fellow sophomore Meredith Kalinowski, and freshman Adrienne Anderson added the fourth Cardinal goal.

Fraser recorded a game-high four goals in the Temple game to go along with one tally against USC. Kalinowski also scored once against the Women of Troy.

“[Fraser’s] a hard shooter and really makes the most of her opportunities,” Bokker said. “She doesn’t really force anything and she lets the game come to her.”

The Owls finally got on the board on a free-position score 12 minutes into the game, sparking a 4-1 Temple run to bring the Owls just a goal behind. After Kim scored her first of two goals on the game, the Cardinal entered the locker room up 6-4.

Fraser extended the lead on the opening possession of the second period, but the Owls would answer with three straight goals to tie the game. The two teams would trade goals to lock the game at eight apiece before Stanford scored four consecutive goals to take control.

Ozer scored an unassisted tally with 19:42 remaining, followed by two goals in less than thirty seconds from sophomore Rachel Hinds. Freshman Meg Lentz capped off the stretch with a goal assisted by Farr with just less than 12 minutes left in the game.

“[Hinds] always brings a good element of speed to the midfield and she had a nose for the net [against Temple],” Bokker said. “Her goals came at really key moments that gave our team a lot of momentum.”

Temple stayed in the game with two quick goals from junior Jaymie Tabor, but Kim and Ozer stepped up to score a goal apiece to close out the game and hand the Owls their first loss of the year. Ozer leads Stanford with 16 goals and eight assists on the young season.

“I thought we needed to show a little more discipline at both ends of the field,” Bokker said. “But we’re really happy with the win against Temple, who was an undefeated opponent and a good team.”

Stanford junior Lyndsey Munoz played most the weekend in goal, recording seven saves against USC and nine against Temple. Freshman Katie Wiseman allowed just a single goal in about ten minutes of action combined over the two games.

Senior captain Elizabeth Adam turned in two strong defensive games as she caused five USC turnovers and picked up four ground balls on Friday.

Against Temple, Adam was aided by another dominant performance from junior Megan Lerner who tallied five ground balls, four draw controls and two caused turnovers. Lerner leads the Cardinal in ground balls and draw controls for the season.

Stanford will now take a two-week break for dead week and finals before travelling to Nashville, Tenn., to take on Vanderbilt on March 26.

Contact Jana Persky at jpersky “at” stanford.edu