April 27, 2008
Stanford women's lacrosse concluded their regular season on Sunday morning with a 11-10 victory over Dartmouth in their fourth road game in a row over a three-week period. The Cardinal was led by sophomore Julie Christy, who scored three goals in the contest and senior goalkeeper Laura Shane recorded 15 saves to give her a regular season total of 196. Stanford trailed 7-6 at halftime, but held the Big Green to only three second half goals.
The Cardinal got off to a slow start in the first half as they only scored one goal in the first 16 minutes. Down 4-1, Stanford slowly started to turn up the defensive pressure and start to exert control in the match. Freshman Sarah Flynn scored a goal at the 13:50 mark and after redshirt sophomore Bess Siegfried and freshman Ashley Aruffo scored goals within a minute of each other, the Cardinal was down only 5-4.
The Big Green scored the next two goals and pushed their lead out to 7-4, and looked to have the momentum back in their favor. Sophomore Claire Hubbard made sure the Cardinal went into the locker room on a high note, as she scored two goals in the final two minutes to cut the lead down to one goal at 7-6. Her second goal in the run happened with just six seconds left in the first half.
The second half turned into a very strong half for the Cardinal as they allowed just three goals. Shane recorded nine saves in the half and didn't let Dartmouth make any runs in the entire 30 minutes. The half was dominated by Christy and senior Daphne Patterson, who scored four of the five Cardinal goals. The goals were the 36th and 37th of the season by Patterson and Christy completed her hat trick in the second half.
Two late free position shots by Dartmouth weren't quite enough and the Cardinal had them an 11-10 victory. The win insures a winning season and the last one didn't come easy. Stanford had to fend off 12 free-position shots, when they were able to shoot just one for themselves. Stanford was also called for 30 fouls to just 17 for the Big Green.
The Cardinal now enter the postseason and draw a first round matchup against St. Mary's. The match is scheduled for Wednesday, Apr. 30 at 3:00 p.m. Stanford beat the Gaels earlier in the season by a score of 20-3 at Cagan Stadium.