March 9, 2008
Stanford, Calif. - No. 20 Stanford women's lacrosse took down their second Top 10 opponent in one week Sunday, when they withstood a furious run by No. 6 Penn at the end of regulation to hold on for a 10-8 victory. The Cardinal (6-2, 2-1 MPSF) led for all 60 minutes of the match and were led by three goals from senior attack Daphne Patterson and 12 more saves from senior goalkeeper Laura Shane.
The Cardinal struck first when Patterson scored the first goal of the match at the 24:16 mark to give Stanford a 1-0 lead. Stanford continued to hold the Quakers scoreless with a relentless defensive attack, and senior Megan McClain scored the second goal at the 15:53 mark to give the Cardinal an early 2-0 lead. Penn finally got on the scoreboard at the 13:32 mark, when midfielder Ali DeLuca scored to cut the Stanford lead in half to 2-1.
Stanford remained undeterred and continued to frustrate the Quaker attackers and kept their offense at bay. Redshirt freshman Charity Fluharty extended the Stanford lead at the 7:21 when she scored from about 10 yards out and the lead went back to two goals at 3-1. Quaker attacker Chelsea Kocis responded three minutes later and the lead shrunk again to just 3-2.
It seemed the Quakers were going to go into the half with strong momentum, but the game changed with two minutes to go in the half. Sophomore Julie Christy scored with two minutes left and off the face-off, the Cardinal were back on the attack as the clock was about to expire. Redshirt sophomore Bess Siegfried took a shot with 10 seconds left in the half, and it deflected off Penn goalkeeper Sarah Waxman, and went right to the waiting Dana Lindsay. Lindsay picked up a goal with only four seconds in the half, and the Cardinal had their largest lead at 5-2 going into the halftime break.
The second half started just like the first half and eight minutes went by without either team finding the net. At the 22:48 mark, sophomore Claire Hubbard extended the Cardinal lead to 6-2 with her first goal of the game. The team's traded goals with Patterson's second of the match as well as Fluharty's second and the score was 8-5 with just seven minutes to play in the match.
Penn went on a furious run after McClain's goal though, as they scored three goals in a 70 second span to make the score 9-8. This put the momentum fully on the Penn sideline. The Quakers continued on the attack as Melissa Lehman hit the post with 2:59 left in the game and Bethany Warren had another close shot that was saved by Shane. With 12 seconds left, Patterson had her third goal of the match and the Cardinal had their second upset in one week with a 10-8 victory.
The victory pushed the Cardinal to 6-0 at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium and 6-2 overall on the season. Shane finished the day with 12 saves and Penn goalkeeper Sarah Waxman finished with seven.
Stanford will now have the week off for the finals break, and will host No. 4 ranked University of Maryland in two weeks. The game will take place on Sat, Mar. 22 at 1:00 p.m.