No. 1 Stanford women’s soccer (22-1-0, 11-0-0 Pac-12) stormed past 10th-ranked Penn State (15-5-4) last Friday to earn its eighth berth to the College cup. The Cardinal poured three goals on the Nittany Lions in only 12 minutes of play to finish the game 4-0.
Four different players — freshman Catarina Macario, sophomore Jaye Boissiere, junior Kyra Carusa and senior Andi Sullivan — found the back of the net for a Stanford team whose 86 season goals are the most by any team since Virginia tallied 88 scores in 2014. Out of all four scorers, Macario, Carusa and Boissiere all had an assist, while Sullivan posted a stellar performance in the midfield for her final appearance on the Farm.
Holding the Nittany Lions scoreless, the Cardinal earned their nation-leading 17th shutout of the season, while staying undefeated at home. This season, Stanford has only conceded one goal at home in 14 games, against Utah Valley in the first round of the tournament.
Throughout the game, Stanford took 16 shots to Penn State’s six, while boasting a 9-2 advantage in shots-on-goal.
The Cardinal opened the score in the second minute thanks to a signature free kick from Macario. Stanford’s offensive pressure near the box caused a handball foul by Penn State that the freshman converted into a score with a powerful curled ball over the wall and into the top left corner of keeper Chandler Rose’s cage.
Seven minutes later, sophomore goalie Alison Jahansouz posted her first of two saves in 75 minutes of play, as she knocked the ball away to protect the Cardinal’s 1-0 lead. From there, the Cardinal controlled the game and never let the Nittany Lions fight back.
Off a pass from Boissiere, captain Sullivan dribbled through two defenders before drilling a left-footed shot near the far post to double the Cardinal lead. Boissiere would be the next one to score a few plays later, after Carusa beat her defender on the side of the box and fed the sophomore a low cross ball near the far post. Boissiere converted the pass and added a third goal only 12 minutes into the first half.
Carusa scored the final goal for Stanford beating the Nittany Lion keeper on a one-on-one with a low boot off a set from Macario. The freshman managed to produce a perfect through ball that got out of reach of the Penn State defense, and Carusa did the rest to virtually seal the game after only 25 minutes.
“Today definitely wasn’t easy. Penn State is a fantastic team, and they’ve had a great season,” said head coach Paul Ratcliffe. “We started so fast and scored some incredible goals, but we also possessed the ball really well to kill off the game. Overall, it was a very strong all-around team performance.”
This was Stanford’s last home game of the season, as the team gears up for an Orlando trip to the College Cup next weekend. The Cardinal will play the South Carolina Gamecocks on Friday at 2 p.m.
Contact Alexandre Bucquet at bucqueta ‘at’ stanford.edu.