Oct. 26, 2003
Stanford, Calif. - Cara-Lynn Lopresti recorded her first career hat track and scored eight points, while Molly Melcher posted her first two-goal game to lead Stanford (4-10, 2-2 NorPac) to a convincing 6-0 victory over Southwest Missouri State (4-12, 0-5 NorPac) in a conference game Saturday at the Varsity Field Hockey Turf. Emily Zander played the entire game in goal and picked up six saves as the Cardinal recorded its first shutout of the season. The win moved the Cardinal one-half game ahead of second-place Pacific (2-3 NorPac) in the NorPac West Division standings and snapped a four-game losing streak.
"It's key to play well at this time of the season," said Stanford head coach Lesley Irvine as the Cardinal was in action for the first time after a 15-day break. "We've had a great couple of weeks in practice, and we wanted to build on that momentum."
Melcher broke a scoreless tie when she took a pass from Lopresti and beat Southwest Missouri State goalkeeper Jessie Lininger on a shot just in side the right post to make the score 1-0.The score remained 1-0 until Aska Sturdevan finished off a penalty corner opportunity by blasting home a goal from near the top of the circle at 43:21. Noor Dawood brought the ball in on the corner and Lopresti was the stopper on the play to earn assists.
Lopresti picked up the first of her three goals at 49:43 when she collected a rebound after a shot by teammate Keely Machmer-Wessels and scored unassisted. Lopresti struck again just 3:06 later when she scored at 52:49 on the first career assist for Liz Robinson.
Melcher made the score 5-0 at 56:12 when her sweeping shot on assist from Tammy Shuer found the back of the cage and Lopresti registered her hat trick by scoring the final goal of the game on a penalty stroke at 63:08.
"I was really nervous on the last one," admitted Lopresti. "To get the hat trick was awesome.""If there is any time to play like we did today it is now," continued Lopresti. "This shows that we can hang with the other teams in this conference at NorPac Tournament time."
The six goals scored by Stanford and its six-goal victory were the most goals the team has scored in a game and its largest margin of victory since the Cardinal won 7-0 at Saint Louis on November 2, 2000. The shutout was Stanford's first since a 5-0 blanking at Saint Louis on October 4, 2002.
Stanford attempted a season-high 21 shots compared to 10 for the Bears. The Cardinal also held a 5-3 advantage in penalty corners.
Zander earned the victory and improved to 3-7 overall, while Lininger recorded five saves while taking the loss to fall to 4-12.
Lopresti led all players with five shot attempts, while Gabby Gomez had a team-high three for Southwest Missouri State.
Stanford and Southwest Missouri State will square off again this Tuesday, October 28 (11 am, PT) on Senior Day with the Cardinal honoring its four seniors - Dawood, Dani Guernsey, Wessels and Zander - in a ceremony preceding the final regular season home game of their careers. The Cardinal concludes its 2003 regular season at Pacific next Saturday, November 1 (1 pm, PT). The 2003 NorPac Championships will be held Thursday-Saturday, November 6-8, in St. Louis, Missouri. Seedings and brackets will be announced on Sunday, November 2.