After consecutive games on the road, No. 3 Stanford women’s soccer (13-1-1, 6-1 Pac-12) was eager to bring Pac-12 play back to Cagan Stadium as it shut out a top Pac-12 opponent, No. 22 Colorado (12-4, 6-1), 2-0 on Thursday night.
Coming into the game, the Buffaloes led the Pac-12 with an undefeated 6-0 record. However, Stanford was able to even the standings, advancing its own record and moving into a three-way tie for the top spot in the conference.
With junior midfielder Andi Sullivan and senior goalkeeper Jane Campbell absent as they practice with the U.S. Women’s National Team, Stanford had to step up to fill the void. Junior Alison Jahansouz got the start at goalkeeper and earned her first career shutout, making three saves along the way.
For the past few weeks, Stanford has dealt with the adversity of rough weather conditions, travel schedules and close games. The Cardinal’s goal coming into the game against Colorado was to settle in with an early lead.
Despite a tremendous offensive drive from Stanford to set Colorado on its heels, the first half of play remained scoreless. However, the Cardinal were able to force the Buffaloes to play defense without much of a chance to counterattack. In turn, the Buffaloes’ gritty defense put up a fight, holding the Cardinal scoreless despite their 10 shots towards the net. Six of these shots hit post, went wide of the goal or were blocked by defenders. Colorado goalkeeper Jalen Tompkins saved the other four of Stanford’s shots on goal.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the field, Stanford’s defense did not see much action as Colorado put up only three shots.
It was not until the second half of the game that the Cardinal were able to convert their shots into goals.
Within the first minute of second-half play, Stanford’s offense was quick to attack the goal, earning a foul that resulted in a corner kick. Capitalizing on this opportunity, sophomore Jordan DiBiasi headed a cross by sophomore Tegan McGrady into the back of the net, finally putting Stanford on the board.
This goal marked DiBiasi’s seventh of the season, maintaining her role as the leading scorer for the team.
Only 10 minutes after its first goal, the Stanford squad scored its second on a finish off of a cross.
This time, sophomore Michelle Xiao crossed the ball to her teammate, sophomore Averie Collins, who shot it to the top right corner of the net. Collins had the game-winning goal against Oregon State last week, and she came through with another clutch shot this week.
Overall, Stanford outshot Colorado 18-7 and outdid them 7-1 in corner kicks.
This weekend, Stanford will close out its regular season home schedule with a more sentimental game. On Sunday, the seniors will be honored for Senior Day as the Cardinal take on Utah, another Pac-12 rival.
The game will be played at 1 p.m. at Cagan Stadium and will be live-streamed on GoStanford.com.
Contact Sydney Shaw at sshaw17 ‘at’ stanford.edu