For a moment on Sunday, it looked as if No. 21 Stanford field hockey (0-2, 0-0 America East) would bounce back in a big way from its nail-biting, season-opening shootout loss to No. 15 Northwestern on Friday. The Cardinal took a commanding 2-0 lead over No. 4 Connecticut (2-0, 0-0 Big East) in the second quarter, only to watch the Huskies roar back with three unanswered goals for a 3-2 Stanford loss.
Connecticut’s go-ahead goal came courtesy of Antonia Tiedtke in the 54th minute, capping a second half in which the Cardinal were battered by the Huskies’ offense, with Connecticut outshooting Stanford 10-1. Jessica Dembrowski had tied the game in the 41st minute.
Despite the loss, Stanford can feel good about its first-half performance. Junior attacker Corinne Zanolli scored in the seventh minute, and freshman defender Rose Winter extended the Cardinal lead with a 16th-minute score off a penalty corner. Connecticut’s Svea Booker connected on a goal in the 17th minute to cut the Cardinal lead to 2-1.
Following up on a career-best 14 saves against Northwestern, senior goalkeeper Kelsey Bing made nine saves on Sunday.
Stanford has now lost both of its matches as host of the 2019 Stanford Invitational. In yet another home game, the Cardinal will look to tally the first win of the season against Quinnipiac on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 10 a.m. PST.
Contact Holden Foreman at hs4man21 ‘at’ stanford.edu.