Lacrosse’s (10-4, 3-1 MPSF) 15-12 victory over Bay Area rival Berkeley (4-11, 2-5) was a milestone nine seasons in the making for Cardinal head coach Amy Bokker. The coaching veteran extended her perfect record against the Golden Bears to 13-0 and reached her 100th victory while at the helm at Stanford.
Stanford’s win on the road at Berkeley mimicked much of the seasonal pattern for the Cardinal thus far. While the final tally sweetened the win for Bokker and the Cardinal, Stanford started sluggishly once again against a far-worse squad and allowed Cal to jump to a 4-1 start 10 minutes into Tuesday’s match at Berkeley.
However, the Cardinal were able to rely on the consistent offensive generator that is senior Kelsey Murray, who netted home six goals on the night and made Tuesday the third consecutive match in which she has scored at least five. Murray scored five in the first half to bring Stanford roaring back to life and ultimately send the two teams into halftime at eight goals apiece.
Murray’s six goals on the night lifted her team-high tally to 45 goals on the season.
The second half included a number of adjustments from the Cardinal who were able to then score three unanswered goals coming out of halftime and grab the lead for the remainder of the night.
The Golden Bears were able to bring the game within one goal after scoring two goals within 30 seconds of play at the 18-minute mark in the second half, yet just eight seconds after Cal scored, junior Kelly Myers netted home her 20th goal of the season to put Stanford up by two goals, effectively ending a Cal comeback.
Other than the consistent Murray, senior attacker Anna Salemo also scored a hat trick with her last goal cementing the Cardinal victory by reestablishing the Stanford’s three-goal lead with eight minutes left on the clock.
Stanford’s second half play came mainly from its strength over the Golden Bears in turnovers, shots and draw controls.
Bokker also serves as an assistant coach to the U.S. national team, though she arrived at the Farm eight years ago after taking an unknown lacrosse program at George Mason to No. 20 in the national rankings at a 12-5 season. Her pedigree in building and sustaining organizational success has shown through both her tenure with the Patriots and the Cardinal.
Stanford finishes their regular season before MPSF championships with a two-game weekend homestand, first against No. 8 USC (12-3, 6-0) on Friday and the final match of the season against San Diego State (8-6, 2-4) on Sunday. All game stats and scores can be followed on gostanford.com.
Contact Lorenzo Rosas at enzor9 ‘at’ stanford.edu.