Swimming and diving

With the largest crowd that college swimming has seen in a decade at the edge of their seats, Stanford swimming dramatically triumphed in the third meet of the College Swimming League (CSL), scoring 550 points to beat the University of California, Berkeley, The Ohio State University and Auburn University on Oct. 2. CSL meets are dual gender, meaning that results from the men and women’s teams are combined into one score for the whole university.

The Cardinal victory was sealed with two finishes in the final event of the night, the 4×50 medley super skins. On the women’s team, sophomore Alana Berlin, senior Lucy Thomas, sophomore Ella Jablonski and sophomore Annam Olasewere combined to win the super skins with a 1:38.50 in the final. The team also earned second-place points with Ohio State disqualified. The men’s team entered the race with the Cardinal trailing the Golden Bears by 30 points, a sum that meant that the team needed a disqualification of Cal to win. Then, in the second leg of the relay, a Berkeley relay swimmer left early, and they were disqualified. With that ruling, Stanford attained important first and second place points. They overcame the point deficit and won by 6.5 points over the Golden Bears.

In a particularly dominant showing, senior Caroline Bricker won three titles during the event, starting off with a three-second faster time in the 200 fly, and was named the SwimSwam Women’s MVP of the meet. 

Stanford is now tied for third in the CSL rankings with Virginia and Indiana. Their next CSL match-up is on Oct. 16, where they hope to continue their strong start to the season. 

Women’s volleyball

The women’s volleyball team (9-5, 2-2 ACC) attained back-to-back victories at Maples Pavilion this weekend, sweeping away Virginia Tech (4-9, 1-3 ACC) and Virginia (5-8, 1-3 ACC). 

On Friday night, the Cardinal secured their first ACC win of the season, finishing in three sets against Virginia Tech, 25-16, 25-23, 25-14. Senior opposite hitter Jordyn Harvey led the charge with 17 points, with sophomore setter Logan Parks keeping a tight grip over the offense (29 assists, two kills, eight digs) and junior middle blocker Lizzy Andrew hitting a match-best five blocks, alongside nine kills and two aces. 

Against Virginia on Saturday evening, senior offensive hitter Julia Blyashov led the team to a sweep, 25-12, 25-23, 25-13. During the game, Blyashov hit a career-high 0.607 attack percentage, with a season-best 18 kills, six digs, an ace and a block. Parks dispensed 44 assists, while sophomore libero Spencer Etzler gathered 14 digs and an ace.

Next, the team heads to Notre Dame (4-9, 1-3 ACC) on Oct. 9 in hopes of extending their winning streak. 

Men’s soccer

The Cardinal (8-2-1, 1-2-1 ACC) managed a comeback win against Duke’s Blue Devils (5-7, 0-4 ACC) on Oct. 2. In Duke’s Koskinem Stadium, the team faced a two goal lead in the second half, before sophomore Jack Pymm scored a penalty and junior Alex Chow sent in a half volley in the span of 37 seconds in the 58th minute. From there, Stanford took control of the game, with a pass from Pymm to sophomore Aiden Reilly bouncing off the back of a Blue Devil defender and into the net. The game ended 3-2. 

In their penultimate home game, the team will return to the Farm on Oct. 11 to play Clemson.

Men’s tennis

In the Battle in the Bay — the men’s tennis team’s second tournament of the season — freshman Gus Grumet and sophomore Mark Krupkin made it to the doubles semifinals. Along the way, they beat No. 2 TCU — who defeated the Cardinal in last year’s NCAA Super Regional — in the quarterfinals, with a dominant 8-3 win. They fell to No. 18 Michigan State in the semifinals. Both players were knocked out of the singles’ bracket in the round of 32.

The team will return to competition, in Seattle, at the ITA Northwest Regional Championships from Oct. 15-20. 

Football

In their 13th straight road loss (their last road win was in Sept. 2024), the Cardinal (2-3, 1-3 ACC) lost 57-3 to Wake Forest (4-1, 2-1 ACC). Demon Deacon quarterback Gio Lopez ran for three touchdowns and passed for two, achieving Wake Forest’s largest margin of victory ever in an ACC game. 

Overall, the Cardinal were held to 197 yards of total offense. In the second quarter, Stanford was able to score once with sixth-year kicker Emmet Kenney’s 43-yard field goal. 

The football team will head to Indiana to face Notre Dame (5-0) this Sunday. Kickoff is set for 12:30 pm PT. 

Field hockey

In their first road losses of the season, field hockey (7-4, 0-3 ACC) fell to Virginia (6-4, 2-3 ACC) 5-2, and Louisville (9-4, 3-1 ACC) 1-0. 

Against Virginia, a frenzied back-and-forth set of goals from both teams took over the first half. Right after a formidable save by junior goalkeeper Anya Jackson, junior Jenny O’Grady scored the opening goal of the game, her fifth goal of the season. The Cavaliers retaliated with two more goals, before senior fullback Mia Clark sent the ball to senior midfielder Liv Martin, who sent it into the cage, achieving her first goal of the season. Unfortunately, in the third quarter a penalty corner and counterattacking tallies by the Cavaliers broke through the strong Stanford defense, despite eight stout saves against 21 shots by Jackson. 

The first half of the game against Louisville functioned more as a war of attrition, with neither side able to score a goal. With a mighty defensive performance, Jackson prevented four shots, the first of her nine saves during the game. In the second half, Louisville was able to tally off of a penalty corner, while the lone bid by senior midfielder Kate Nemec was halted in its tracks. 

The team will return to campus this Friday to face off against Duke (9-2, 4-0 ACC) at 6 p.m. 

Men’s water polo

With a full Los Angeles sweep weekend, men’s water polo (12-1) achieved successive victories against No. 1 UCLA (15-1) and No. 3 USC (12-2). 

Two weeks ago, the team had fallen to UCLA, but achieved their revenge with an action-packed game that ended 19-15 and handed UCLA their first loss of the season. The first and second period were reasonably even, with redshirt senior utility player Guido Leonardi’s final minute goal eking out a 4-3 lead in the first period, which became an even 5-5 in the second period. Similar last-minute goals dominated the third and fourth period, with a late UCLA goal in the third period, and final goal by senior attacker Gavin West in the fourth period. The offense of the team was formidable, and redshirt senior goalie Bernando Herzer put on an incredible defensive performance with nine saves.

The next day, the team led another defensive masterclass, keeping USC scoreless the whole first period. Junior center Will Schneider, with two first period goals, led the charge to build a six-goal lead in that time. In the second and third period, the teams traded goals back and forth, but the Cardinal were able to maintain a three goal lead, 14-11. In the fourth period, two goals by seniors Alex Georgzhe and James Rozolis Hill kept the momentum on Stanford’s side. USC managed a last-minute goal, but the Cardinal secured the victory, winning 16-12. 

The team will be back at the Farm to host Santa Clara on Saturday at 1 p.m.