Sept. 27, 2008
STANFORD, Calif.- Having already suffered five one-goal defeats this year- three coming against top-20 teams- Stanford finally broke out with a result that was never in doubt.
Junior Midori Uehara scored a career-high four goals, leading Stanford to a 7-0 rout of Pacific on Saturday afternoon at the Varsity Turf in a non-counting conference match.
Rebounding from back-to-back overtime losses on the road last weekend, Stanford improves to 3-7 overall and remains at 1-2 in NorPac play. Pacific falls to 1-8 on the year and has yet to play a league match. The second contest between these two schools in Stockton on Oct. 26 will count in the league standings.
Stanford owned a 17-15 edge in shots for the match, with eight different players recording at least one attempt. All four of Uehara's shots found the back of the cage, as she became the first Cardinal to register a hat trick since Xanthe Travlos accomplished the feat with three goals last year against Georgetown.
Entering the start of the week, only seven other players in NCAA Division 1 had also scored four goals in a game so far this year. Uehara is the first Stanford player to score at four goals in a match since at least 1998. Individual game results were not kept prior to the 1998 campaign.
Sophomore Camille Gandhi assisted on three of Uehara's goals, and also chipped in with two shots and her second goal of the year.
Stanford's seven goals were the most since the club defeated Radford 8-2 at home in last year's regular season finale.
The Cardinal dominated play from the start, jumping out to a 3-0 halftime lead. Uehara scored twice in the game's first 12 minutes, using assists from Gandhi in both instances to move in front 2-0.
Junior Rachel Mozenter tallied her second goal of the season in the 15th minute, dribbling unassisted from the left wing of the circle and beating Pacific keeper Christina Niccum for a 3-0 Stanford lead.
Gandhi scored unassisted at the 44:47 mark following a direct shot of a penalty corner to make it 4-0.
Then Uehara went back to work, scoring twice in a three-minute span to give Stanford a 6-0 cushion. She beat Niccum low both times, scoring first off an assist from Gandhi and later thanks to a pass from sophomore Jaimee Erickson.
Sophomore Katherine Donner rounded out the scoring in the 59th minute, dribbling the ball along the endline, eluding several defenders and lifting a shot into the opposite corner of the cage.
Penalty corners were even at 8-8. Stanford goalie Alessandra Moss made seven saves while Niccum stopped six shots.
Junior Nora Soza and senior Chloe Bade were credited with defensive saves.
Stanford next heads to the East Coast for a two-game road trip against Northeastern (Saturday, Oct. 4) and Holy Cross (Monday, Oct. 6).