April 24, 2004
STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 20 ranked Stanford University women's lacrosse team fell to the No. 5 ranked Loyola College Greyhounds, 16-8, Saturday afternoon at Maloney Field on the Stanford campus. With the loss, the Cardinal slip to 8-7 on the year, while the Greyhounds improve to 13-2. Before the game, the Cardinal honored their six seniors, who have helped establish Stanford as the top lacrosse program on the West Coast.
The Greyhounds opened the game firing on all cylinders, outscoring the Cardinal 8-1, en route to the 16-8 win. The Greyhounds rolled off six unanswered goals to start the game before sophomore attacker Megan Burker final got the Cardinal on the board with an unassisted goal with just under 11 minutes left in the first half. Loyola used a balanced attack as seven different Greyhounds found the back of the cage in the first half, with Rachel Shuck adding two scores.
The second half open much like the first half started, with the Greyhounds scoring the first six goals after intermission.
Senior Kim Cahill stopped the bleeding with a goal midway through the second half with a free position goal to cut Loyola's lead to 14-2. Cahill's goal seemed to spark the Cardinal as they would add six more goals in the final 15 to close the gap. At the 19:21 mark, junior Julia Calzonetti found a cutting Burker to trim Loyola's lead to 14-3. Almost two minutes later, it was Julia's twin sister Claire Calzonetti scoring another goal for the Cardinal to make the score 14-4.
After a goal by Loyola pushed the Greyhounds' lead back up to 15-4, Stanford received three consecutive goals from Julia Calzonetti, junior Kelsey Twist and freshman Liz Piselli to bring the score to 15-7. The two teams would trade goals in the final minute of the game to bring the final score to 16-8. Scoring the final goal for the Cardinal was Claire Calzonetti.
The Cardinal managed to out-shoot the Greyhounds, 29-26, but Loyola goalkeepers were up to the task, registering 15 saves on the day.
Stanford was led by two goals from Burker and Claire Calzonetti, while the Greyhounds received hat-tricks from Shuck and Jen Schuerholz.
The Cardinal conclude their regular season schedule at Georgetown on May 1st, before heading to the MPSF Championship on May 8-9 in Denver, CO. Stanford has already wrapped up the top seed in next month's MPSF Championship.