BERKELEY, Calif. — Rylee Bouvier’s and Ava Arceri’s career outings highlighted an all-around dominant display as the No. 11/13 Stanford Cardinal defeated the Cal Golden Bears, 19-4, on Thursday night. With the win, Stanford locks up the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament and will play next Wednesday night, April 23, at 8 p.m. ET.
The Cardinal grabbed the game-opening goal with Aliya Polisky tallying her 52nd of the season before Bouvier collected her first of the evening, finishing off a feed from Elise Murphy to give Stranford a 2-0 lead. On the strength of consecutive goals from Arceri, Stanford ran out to a 4-0 lead with five minutes remaining in the first before the sophomore tallied the hat trick, adding a goal with 15 seconds left in the quarter as the Cardinal grabbed a 7-1 lead through 15 minutes.
Stanford continued its dominance in the second as Bouvier grabbed her hat trick with the opening goal of the quarter, making it 8-1 Cardinal after slotting home a feed from Polisky. Following a Cal strike half a minute later, Stanford went on a 5-0 run to finish the half highlighted by goals from Arceri, Bouvier, Polisky, Lindsey Devir and Lexi Rodell - who tallied her 16th of the season just before the halftime break, giving the Cardinal a 13-2 lead through 30 minutes.
Cap off the half LEXI!#GoStanford x #Together pic.twitter.com/f2X3i4ynuN
— Stanford Lacrosse (@StanfordWLax) April 18, 2025
Stanford continued the barrage on both sides of the ball in the second half, finishing the game on a 6-2 run with a running clock. Bouvier and Arceri went back and forth throughout the final 30 minutes for the Cardinal with both tallying six goals on the day tying the record for third-most goals by a single player in one game in program history. In total, six players recorded a goal on the day with Sawyer Billings bookending the scoring with her second of the season.
SAWYER!!! 19-4 Card!#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/NydPX0aqiI
— Stanford Lacrosse (@StanfordWLax) April 18, 2025
The defensive showcase entailed 14 caused turnovers for the Cardinal, outpacing the total shots on goal from the Golden Bears which stood at nine. Both Arceri and Murphy earned career, single-game high’s in caused turnovers with four on day. The Cardinal, which held Cal to just one goal in each quarter also earned 14 ground balls through the afternoon, with Olivia Rose leading the way with five as the Cardinal defense suffocated the Golden Bears through a majority of the afternoon en route to a 19-4 win.
Polisky finished the day with two goals - just shy of her 15th hat trick of the season - grabbed her 53rd goal of the season, tying her career-high set last season while also placing fourth on the all-time single-season goal scoring list for the second-consecutive year. Polisky also grabbed a season-high three assists which moves her into 13th in single-season points. With an assist, Murphy moves into sole possession of tenth all-time in single-season assists while Martha Oakey moves into ninth all-time with her 26th of the campaign.
Stanford heads next to the ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championships set for April 23-27 from American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. The Cardinal, which earned the three seed following its win over Cal and Duke’s loss to UNC, will face No. 6 Syracuse on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET.