The No. 6 Stanford Cardinal women’s soccer team (2-0) opened its 2014 season with a strong statement of intent over the past week, notching two road non-conference victories over ranked teams at the Carolina Nike Classic. The Cardinal started with a 1-0 overtime win over No. 4 North Carolina (1-1) and followed that impressive victory with another clean sheet in a 2-0 victory over No. 18 Duke (0-2). The Cardinal will have been impressed by the strong defense that it showed over the course of the two games, as well as the strength of the two results.

Stanford’s win over the Tar Heels was all the more impressive for the fact that the Cardinal had never beaten North Carolina in their 13 previous attempts. After an expectedly close opening 90 minutes, senior forwards Taylor Uhl and Chioma Ubogagu both had chances in the first period of overtime, before Ubogagu scored the winner with a shot from a narrow angle after an assist from senior midfielder Alex Doll. Stanford started all three of their youth national team players, with sophomore goalkeeper Jane Campbell, freshman defensive midfielder Andi Sullivan and sophomore defender Stephanie Amack all turning in impressive performances. For her efforts, Campbell was named Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Week, while sophomore defender Maddie Bauer was named National Player of the Week by TopDrawerSoccer.com.

Fresh off of that performance, the Cardinal handed in another impressive result by beating the Blue Devils 2-0, with senior forwards Lo’eau LaBonta and Haley Rosen opening their accounts for the season this time around.

`                 “There are a lot of positives we can take from the weekend,” said head coach Paul Ratcliffe.

The Cardinal will look to continue this rich vein of form against another ranked opponent, the No. 14 Portland Pilots, in Portland on Saturday before they come back to Palo Alto for a six game home stand.

Contact Dylan Fugel at dfugel ‘at’ stanford.edu.