April 21, 2006
San Jose, Calif. - The No. 2 Stanford Cardinal completed their regular season with a 9-3 road win over No. 9 San Jose State on Friday afternoon in the MPSF finale for both teams. Senior Scotti Shafer (Carlsbad, CA) had a hat trick as she helped the Cardinal score 9 unanswered goals to put the match away. With the victory, Stanford goes into tournament play with a 19-4 record overall and a 10-2 mark in MPSF play. The Spartans fell to 11-13 overall and 5-7 in the MPSF.
San Jose State's Beth Harberts put the Spartans up 1-0 at the 4:47 mark in the first period, but Stanford's Christina Hewko tied the match with her only goal of the game with 1:30 to go in the frame. Hewko's goal would turn out to be one of nine consecutive scores by the offensively aggressive Cardinal.
Stanford reached the back of the net 3 times each in the second and third periods, including two scores from Shafer and single scores from senior Nancy El-Sakkary (Dollar des Ormeaux, Quebec), freshman Lauren Silver (Long Beach, CA), sophomore Jaquelyn Gauthier (Irvine, CA), and freshman Jessica Steffens (Danville, CA). The Cardinal stretched their lead to 9-1 in the fourth period on a goal from senior Laurel Champion (Palo Alto, CA) and Shafer's third score of the match before SJSU put in two late scores to conclude the match.
Though goalkeeping stats were not available for the game, there were a few notable finishing touches to the regular season stat book. With her goal at the 1:09 mark in the second period, Silver tied junior Katie Hansen (Coronado, CA) for the team lead in goals scored, as both players finished with 40 goals apiece. Shafer finished third as her hat trick brought her goals total to 25, while fellow senior El-Sakkary finished fourth with 22 goals. Champion, the third and final Stanford senior, capped off the regular season with her ninth score of the year.
Next up, the Cardinal will travel south to Irvine, CA to play in the MPSF postseason tournament which runs from Thursday, April 27 through Sunday, April 30.
No. 2 Stanford (19-4) 1332=9
No. 9 SJSU (11-13)1002=3
Stanford Goals: Shafer 3, Hewko 1, El-Sakkary 1, Silver 1, Gauthier 1, Steffens 1, Champion 1.
SJSU Goals: Harberts 1, Morgan 1, Lowry 1.