No. 15 Stanford lacrosse (13-2, 9-0 MPSF) closed regular-season play with an undefeated conference record when it crushed the Cal Golden Bears 25-9, setting a record for goals in a game in the process.
Junior midfielder Lucy Dikeou scored a record-tying 7 goals, while senior attacker Kyle Fraser and junior attacker Alexandra Crerend added 5 and 4 goals of their own, respectively. Nine different players scored overall.
“We’ve been working on scoring in different ways so that depending on what the defense gives us as we progress through the NCAAs, we can take advantage of those situations later on when we need to, against possibly harder competition,” Dikeou said.
“You can see from a lot of the goals we’ve had that [they’re] from a lot of different places on the field and from a lot of different people,” she added. “Because we have this versatility, it’s really hard for any defense to mark us.”
Stanford scored 3 goals in the first four minutes of the game before Cal answered back with 3 goals of its own. The Cardinal, however, never allowed the Golden Bears to pull ahead, scoring 3 more consecutive goals in the ensuing 1:19 and eventually extending their lead to 4 midway through the first half off of a goal by Fraser at the 10-minute mark.
While Cal’s Gaby Christman closed the lead to 2 with 7:54 left to play in the half, the Bears failed to chip away at the deficit any more, as Stanford responded with 7 unanswered goals to close the half at 17-8. Cal restarted its offense at the beginning of the second half and scored the first goal from either team, but it ultimately failed to dent the scoreline for the rest of the game and allowed 8 more Stanford goals.
“Going into the second half, we really wanted to focus on our defense, so we made some adjustments at halftime that allowed only 1 goal,” Crerend said.
Stanford’s defense had yet another strong day, only allowing 16 shots from Cal (compared to the Cardinal’s 40), forcing 9 turnovers and earning 13 ground balls to Cal’s 8. The Cardinal also continued to dominate on draw controls, 24-12.
Junior goalie Katie Wiseman took the cage instead of usual starter freshman Allie DaCar and, despite allowing 9 goals, also notched 3 saves.
The Cardinal, which secured their first MPSF regular season title since 2011 when they defeated UC Davis last week, have also earned the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament this upcoming weekend.
Their recent success can be attributed not only to several offensive weapons and their killer defense but also to the team’s mentality.
“Winning the MPSF regular-season title and going undefeated in the MPSF is our first goal before going to NCAAs,” Crerend said. “In past years we’ve had some hiccups along the way. This year, [head coach] Amy [Bokker] really harped on focusing and channeling our energy and not [taking] any of those games lightly, and I think that’s a real testament to this year’s team, how we’ve been able to key in and really focus on those games and not take anyone for granted, and it’s really paid off.”
“Our team has done a really good job of growing and taking the challenge of each game individually and not looking at it from the whole season, [which] breaks it down in a way that makes it much more manageable and easier to win every game,” Dikeou added.
The Cardinal have earned a spot in Friday’s MPSF Tournament semifinals, when they face the victor of No. 4 seed Colorado and No. 5 seed San Diego State. The winner of Friday’s matchup will play in the championship round on Sunday, May 3 at 10 a.m.
Contact Alexa Philippou at aphil723 ‘at’ stanford.edu.