The Cardinal just keep finding a way.
After scraping out a 1-1 tie from 110 minutes of nail-biting action, No. 3 seed Stanford women’s soccer were faced with a penalty shootout against No. 2 seed Arkansas (16-3-2, 8-1-1 SEC) with the season on the line. But two massive saves, and her own penalty, from senior goalkeeper Haley Craig saw the Cardinal prevail 4-2 and advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.
“I know that one save can set us up to win, and the least I can do for my team when they work their asses off for 110 minutes is to make a save,” Craig said.
Stanford’s streak of late-game drama continues, with this being their fifth game in the last seven to have been decided after the 80th minute. The Cardinal also delivered a dominant Arkansas team their only home loss of the season.
“That was a College Cup atmosphere tonight,” said head coach Paul Ratcliffe. “The entire team showed great determination and grit to get this result on the road.”
As with many of their recent outings, Stanford went down early, giving up an open header in the 28th minute for a Razorbacks lead. But after they found their footing, the Cardinal were on the attack. Stanford outshot Arkansas 22-16 and had 11 on target to the Razorbacks’ four, making this just the third time this season that Arkansas had fewer shots than their opponent. In the 55th minute, a rocket from freshman midfielder Charlotte Kohler put Stanford back to level.
The Cardinal dominated the rest of the second half, hitting the post once and forcing huge saves out of the Razorbacks’ freshman goalkeeper Keegan Smith. However, as the end of regulation came and went, and so did the first overtime period, the players started getting tired and legs started getting heavy. By the second overtime, it was Stanford trying to hang on as Arkansas led a barrage on the Stanford goal.
That’s when Craig came up huge for the Cardinal, making multiple one-on-one saves to keep Stanford alive.
So when the penalty shootout came, Craig had all the momentum. Saving Arkansas’ second and third penalties, while scoring her own in between, her confidence was sky-high.
“I’m glad it went in, but I had no doubt that I was to score that,” she said.
Then, it all came down to sophomore midfielder Shae Harvey for Stanford’s fourth penalty kick. As she placed the ball down, she was repeating Ratcliffe’s mantra over and over in her head.
“This is going in.”
As the whistle blew, Harvey calmly played the ball into the bottom-right corner, ending Arkansas’ season and sending the Cardinal onto the next round.
“Amazing, crazy — the looks on everyone’s faces, I won’t forget that.” Harvey described.
With the win, the Cardinal keep on dancing into the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, where they’ll rematch No. 4 seed Notre Dame (14-3-4, 5-1-4 ACC) back home at Cagan Stadium. The last time these two teams met was just over a month ago, when the Fighting Irish soundly defeated the Cardinal 3-0 in South Bend. For the seniors, this will be their last ever game at Cagan, but they are hoping that they can hang on for just a few more games.
Kickoff against Notre Dame is set for 2 p.m. on Friday.