Forward Christen Press leads Card to victory in Santa Clara

It’s still early, but after opening the season against a gauntlet of tough East Coast teams, the Cardinal is on cruise control. Stanford, playing in the Bay Area again after hosting and winning the Nike Invitational a week ago, put on a pair of impressive performances in the Santa Clara Classic Tournament. Senior forward Christen Press scored a total of five goals as she led the Cardinal (6-0-2) in a 6-1 rout of Utah on Friday and a 2-0 shutout against No. 15 Georgetown two days later. With the pair of victories, Stanford is riding a five-game winning streak.

Stanford opened the tournament against Utah on Friday evening, and the Cardinal offense went straight to work, building up a 4-0 lead inside the first 32 minutes. It took Press only that much time to earn a hat trick, the first of her career, by notching goals in the ninth, 18th and 31st minutes, all off crosses. Junior midfielder Teresa Noyola supplied the other goal in that span, with a close-range finish in the 12th minute.

Utah pulled one back just after Press’ third goal via a Lauren Porter header, but Stanford put the game away for good in the final 15 minutes. Sophomore forward Marjani Hing-Glover and freshman forward Shelby Payne scored their first goals of the season, in the 78th and 80th minutes, respectively. The goals widened the margin to 6-1, and that is how the match would end.

When the Cardinal opened its match against Georgetown on Sunday, its momentum had not slowed much. In just the third minute, forward Camille Levin swung in a cross from the right, and Press controlled it just outside the box before blasting a left-footed drive past Georgetown keeper Jackie Desjardin and into the net.

Press nearly doubled her tally four minutes later when she showed breathtaking speed and burst past two Hoya defenders, only to see her chip fall just outside the far post.

Stanford continued to control the flow of the game in the first half, with freshman keeper Emily Oliver stopping the few Georgetown opportunities that came her way and doing her part to punch the ball forward to the Cardinal offense. The Hoyas, who led the nation in offense entering Sunday’s match, had their better chances in the early part of the match when Camille Trujillo charged into the box on Oliver’s right side in the 15th minute, but lost the ball thanks to a well-executed slide tackle from sophomore Courtney Verloo.

Oliver, who recently took over the starting position from senior Kira Maker, earned the first shutout of her career. It certainly helped that her defense held the Hoyas to just four shots against Stanford’s 22.

Press continued to push hard on offense and capitalized on a penalty kick that she drew in the 23rd minute after attempting to dribble past two defenders in the left side of the box. Stanford’s top scorer looked at ease as she sent her 10th goal past a diving Desjardin and into the left corner.

With that goal, Press moves higher in the national rankings and closer to some of Stanford’s most sacred milestones. The Palos Verdes, Calif. native is now tied with recent graduate Kelley O’Hara on Stanford’s all-time scoring list and is nearing school records with her goals (55), assists (36) and total points (146). To cement her place in Cardinal lore, she would need 59, 40 and 148, respectively.

“Christen’s an amazing player,” said Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe. “She scored five goals this weekend, which speaks volumes. She’s deadly in front of the goal and a great leader on this team, and she’s really emerging as one the best players in the entire country.”

When asked if she believes herself to be at the top of her game, Press said she thinks there is still room to improve.

“I think it’s more game to game,” she said. “This was a great weekend in terms of finishing, but I think I still have a lot of things I need to improve on, and I need to keep more possession and work on getting around the backs and get crosses in. I wouldn’t say it was the best soccer [of my life]. I plan on playing better soccer than I am right now.”

After his team showed it could control the lead Press provided deep into the half, Ratcliffe opted to switch out some of his players. He started with Press, who was replaced by Hing-Glover in the 36th minute, and put subs for all four of Stanford’s forwards by the end of the half.

Back in action after halftime, Press had several opportunities to complete her second hat trick in as many games. Ratcliffe decided to take her out of the game in the 27th minute, but he put her back in with seven and a half minutes remaining. Both teams ended up scoreless in the period.

“I’m just trying to make [the team] mentally stronger,” Ratcliffe said about his substitutions. “We have a lot of good depth on this team, and if people are getting a little tired, they need to come out to let somebody else get there and make an impact. We could’ve put a few chances in there in the end, and we didn’t, so it could have been better, but on Friday night, we were able to do that.”

Despite the relative lull in offense during the second half, Stanford was able to control the ball with consistency. The Cardinal posted 14 shots in the period and stopped the Hoyas from making any.

The Cardinal will return home this weekend, playing Hawaii on Thursday and No. 3 Portland on Saturday.

—Sam Svoboda contributed to this report.