No. 18 field hockey (5-3, 1-1 America East) overwhelmed conference rival Vermont (2-3, 0-1 America East) in a 6-2 win on Sunday. Stanford matched its season-high number of goals in one game and scored a season-high four second-half goals.
The game was played at a neutral site in New Hampshire, making it the only contest in which Stanford did not find itself behind enemy lines during its six-day East Coast road trip.
Coming off her first game of the season without a goal, junior attacker Corinne Zanolli turned things around in a big way on Sunday, recording her first hat trick of the season and fourth ever with Stanford. Zanolli has 12 goals this year and leads all NCAA players in goals per game.
After Zanolli’s goals in the fourth and 23rd minutes, freshman attacker Lynn Vanderstichele netted the first goal of her Stanford career in the 37th minute. Sophomore midfielder Isabelle Pilson scored her first goal of the season (43’), senior attacker Jessica Welch her second (46’) and Zanolli her 12th (55’) to round out the Cardinal scoring.
Zanolli’s fourth-minute goal got the scoring started early for Stanford, but Vermont kept the game close through halftime, with the Cardinal never leading by more than one.
Vermont sophomore Clodagh Ferry tied the game at 1-1 in the 22nd minute and, when Stanford held a 4-1 lead near the end of the third quarter, her freshman teammate Kate Hall closed the gap to two with a 45th-minute goal.
From there, it was all Stanford. After being outshot 6-4 in the first half, the Cardinal outshot Vermont 10-4 in the second half. Having made five saves in the first half, senior goalkeeper Kelsey Bing did not face any shots on goal in the second half. Bing tagged in sophomore goalkeeper Hannah Santos for the final six minutes of the game, but Santos also faced zero shots on goal.
Prominent in Stanford’s win on Sunday was the efficiency missing in Friday’s loss to New Hampshire. The Cardinal took 14 shots in both games, but netted only two goals on Friday in comparison to Sunday’s six.
Stanford went 3-1 on the road trip and returns home to play archrival Cal (1-4, 0-0 America East) on Friday at 2:30 p.m. PT. The game will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.
Contact Holden Foreman at hs4man21 ‘at’ stanford.edu.