Aug. 31, 2001
Senior Melissa Stai scored a pair of goals to lift unranked Stanford (1-2) to an upset victory over No. 3 Michigan State (2-1) in an NCAA field hockey game on Friday at the Varsity Field Hockey Turf. The Cardinal picked up its first victory of the season after losses to Delaware and No. 2 Maryland in its first two games. Michigan State had defeated two of the nation's top six teams last weekend with wins over preseason No. 1 and defending NCAA champion Old Dominion, as well as former No. 6 Wake Forest.
"This is a great win for us," said Stanford head coach Sheryl Johnson. "When we have a big win like this, it can carry us through for the rest of the season. This should say something for our club nationally because Michigan State just beat the defending NCAA champions and they were ranked third for being able to accomplish that. After beating Michigan State, hopefully we'll be ranked right up there as well."
Stai scored her first goal on an indirect penalty corner with 14:33 remaining in the first half. Amrit Chima set up a wide-open Stai with a beautiful pass directly in front of the goal. Stai increased Stanford's lead to 2-0 when she scored on another indirect penalty corner with 30:08 to go in the game on an assist from Sara Herman. The two-goal game was the second of Stai's career, who also scored a pair of goals against Saint Louis on November 2, 2000.
"This victory felt really good because we played our game," said Stai. "We know that we can play at the top level and we did today. Michigan State is a good team, and it felt great to beat one of the nation's top-ranked teams."
"It also felt great to get goals on both of my shots ... I'll try to keep that percentage up," joked Stai.
Michigan State cut the Cardinal lead in half when Bridget Cooper scored unassisted with 8:40 remaining in the contest. However, the Spartans managed only two shots the remainder of the game.
Stanford goalkeeper Rebecca Shapiro recorded a game-high seven saves.
Stanford will conclude its season-opening four-game homestand by hosting Fairfield on Saturday (12:00 p.m.).