May 5, 2001
Berkeley, CA - Determined to hang on to its "Best in the West" label, the Cardinal pulled out all the stops in today's WWLL Final Four match-up. The three-year defending WWLL Champions had a season-high 22 goals, while allowing only two Bruin goals. Stanford's offense dominated from the beginning with junior tri-captain Caroline Osterwise (Villanova, PA/Harriton HS) putting in the first goal 36 seconds into the game, she finished with 3 goals and 3 assists. The Cardinal went on to score 12 unanswered goals over the next 17 minutes and entered the break ahead 15-2.
Igniting the Cardinal squad were several newcomers who made their presence felt all over the field. Freshman Annie Nyborg (Oakview, CA/Thacher School) led all scorers with 4 goals off the bench, including back-to-back goals in the middle of the first half. Four other rookies also made an impact on offense - freshmen Kirsten Bourne (Old Greenwich, CT/Greenwich HS) and Jess Scott (Conshohocken, PA/Plymouth Whitemarsh) came in and recorded their first goals of the season and freshmen Noor Dawood (Hudson, OH/Western Reserve Academy) and Abbi Hills (Lakewood, CO/Colorado Academy) also added 1 goal apiece. In two more firsts, freshman Sara Shamos (Denver, CO/Colorado Academy) tallied 2 saves in her first start at goalkeeper and freshman Christina Saikus (Highland Heights, OH/Hathaway Brown School) recorded 1 save in her first appearance in the cage this season.
This win puts the Cardinal at 13-5 overall, 8-0 WWLL, keeping it as the only undefeated team in the league. The team returns to Memorial Stadium again tomorrow to take on the California Golden Bears for the WWLL Championship. The game starts at 1pm and will be the third meeting of these teams this season. In both previous matches Stanford walked away with the victory, beating the Bears 7-4 at California and 13-10 at home.
Scoring Summary
1 2 F
Stanford 15 7 22
UCLA 2 0 2
Goals: (S) - Nyborg 4, Lanese 3, Osterwise 3, Britt 2, Dietrich 2, Scott 2, Barnes, Bourne, Dawood, Hills, Sawyer, Strumolo. (U) - Evans, Patterson.
Assists: (S) - Bourne, Dawood, Osterwise, Strumolo. (U) - Everett.
Saves: (S) - Shamos 2, Saikus 1.