Oct. 30, 2007
STANFORD, Calif.- Sporting an offensive attack that was commonplace during a record-setting start to the year, Stanford routed Radford 8-2 on Tuesday afternoon in its final contest of the regular season.
The win, coupled with California's 8-0 victory over Longwood, earns Stanford a share of the NorPac regular-season championship. Both squads finished 5-1 in league play but the Golden Bears claim the top seed in this weekend's NorPac Tournament by virtue of their 2-1 win over the Cardinal during the regular season. Stanford will be seeded No. 2 for the second straight year.
Stanford's victory against the Highlanders also guarantees the club's first non-losing season since an 11-8 finish in 2001. The Cardinal increases its record to 9-7 overall, matching last year's win total. Stanford needs at least one more victory to clinch its first winning season in six years.
The Cardinal will attempt to get that victory on Thursday, when its opens NorPac Tournament play against Appalachian State (3-16, 0-6 NorPac) at 3 p.m. The three-day, double-elimination event runs through Saturday and will be played on Stanford's home turf for the first time since 2001.
On Tuesday afternoon against Radford (6-13, 2-4 NorPac), Stanford looked more like a squad that started the year 6-0 and broke into the national rankings than a struggling team that had lost seven of its previous 10 games.
The Cardinal outshot the Highlanders 19-8, tallied a 10-2 edge in penalty corners and scored at least eight goals in a match for the third time this year.
"This was a complete team effort and a strong way to finish the regular season," said head coach Lesley Irvine. "I was pleased with our offense and thought we received important contributions from several players. We hope this provides us with some momentum heading into the conference tournament."
Junior Hillary Braun and freshman Lisa Maffucci each scored twice to lead a balanced Cardinal offensive attack that featured 11 players taking at least one shot attempt. Freshman Xanthe Travlos led Stanford with three shots.
Braun scored back-to-back goals in the opening 20 minutes to give Stanford a quick 2-0 lead at halftime.
Freshman Katherine Donner scored her first collegiate goal at the 40:01 mark when she gathered a rebound from her initial shot and fired a strike past Radford keeper Jennifer Wisniewski to make it 3-0.
Playing in her final regular season home game, senior Jess Zutz scored her team-leading ninth goal of the year two minutes later thanks to an assist from Travlos.
Following a goal from Radford's Megan Longtain, freshman Camille Gandhi made it 5-1 when she took a pass from junior Bailey Richardson off a penalty corner and found the cage.
Maffucci and sophomore Jennifer Luther each scored their first collegiate goals in the final 10 minutes. Leading 7-1, Maffucci added her second of the game at the 66:35 mark when she beat the keeper with a well-placed one-timer after she had eluded a defender.
Radford's Stephanie McLamb converted on a penalty stroke in the final minute to close out the scoring.
Stay tuned to www.gostanford.com for wall-to-wall coverage of the 2007 NorPac Tournament.