March 31, 2007
Nashville, TN - Stanford women's lacrosse overcame six second half goals by No. 12 Vanderbilt, to earn a 10-9 last-second victory in Nashville on Saturday afternoon.
With the game knotted at 9-9, Stanford freshman attack Dana Lindsay scored off a behind the net feed from freshman midfield Julie Christy with four seconds remaining to secure the upset for the Cardinal (4-6). It was a fitting end to a bizarre game, one which saw five yellow cards and a red card for the Commodores and missed empty-net free position shot for Stanford.
The Commodores got on the board first, with junior attack Margie Curran and senior attack Kendall Thrift each scored within the first two minutes. Stanford answered with a goal of its own from junior attack Daphne Patterson, before Vandy found the back of the net again to take a 3-1 lead with 19:19 remaining in the first half.
From there, Stanford would dominate the rest of the first half, scoring five unanswered goals, including two from junior midfield Megan McClain, to give the Cardinal a 6-3 lead at halftime.
Curran started the Commodores on a 5-1 scoring run just 30 seconds into the second half with her second goal of the game. Curran would score three more times during the run. Before VU could score its next goal of the run, it would see two yellow cards, a red card and a Stanford empty-net free position shot.
With just under 28 minutes to go, Commodores junior goalkeeper Brooke Shinaberry was given a yellow card, giving the Cardinal the empty-net free position. Stanford could not take advantage of the open-goal opportunity, hitting the post.
Another yellow card was given to VU senior midfield Nicole Pugno, two minutes later, followed by a red card to Commodores Head Coach Cathy Swezey.
Stanford senior midfield Liz Piselli tied the game with 15:01 to go, but Curran would once again give the Commodores the lead at 8-7 with her fifth goal of the afternoon at the 13:14 mark.
The Cardinal answered to take a 9-8 lead with 7:04 remaining thanks to goals from Patterson and freshman midfield Julie Christy. However, Thrift tied the game one last time at nine with her second goal of the day with 4:37 remaining.
Following Thrift's goal, the game appeared to be headed to overtime after the Commodores won the draw and maintained possession. However, with Stanford regained possession with under 30 seconds remaining, moving the ball down field to set up the game winner.
Stanford was led by four two-goal scorers in Piselli, Patterson, McClain and Christy. Shane faced 29 shots, 21 on goal, and made 12 saves in the win.
The Cardinal finish with a 2-1 record on its season-long road trip, and return to action at home on April 6. Stanford hosts No. 15 Denver in its third MPSF game of the season at Maloney Field at 7:00 p.m.