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Sept. 6, 2009
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Kristin Stannard scored three goals during a 27-minute span of the second half to lead No. 4 Stanford to a 5-0 victory over Virginia Tech at the UNC Greensboro Spartan Classic on Sunday.
Stannard, a senior playing in a reserve role, became the 15th Stanford player to record a hat trick, accomplishing a feat that has been achieved 25 times in program history, but only three times in the past 12 years. She did so despite playing a total of 34 minutes.
"She played fantastic," Stanford coach Paul Ratcliffe said.
Stannard nearly had a fourth, but a final-minute shot skipped barely wide. A four-goal game has been achieved only once in school history, by Erin Martin against UC Santa Barbara in 1994.
"It was definitely unexpected," said Stannard, after being pulled from autograph seekers after the game.
The Cardinal (5-0) was held scoreless until Kelley O'Hara's header off a Christen Press cross in the 56th broke the match open. Stanford scored all five goals in 33 minutes - nearly duplicating its performance a week earlier when the Cardinal scored five second-half goals in 26 minutes against San Diego State.
"Overall, we played great soccer," Ratcliffe said. "All the goals were really high-level goals."
The victory came against a Virginia Tech team (3-2) that reached the NCAA Tournament last season. Stanford outshot the Hokies 27-3 and forced goalkeeper Robin Chidester to make 14 saves.
Stannard, who had a collegiate-high two goals against Oregon last year, entered for Press in the 70th minute at a forward spot, rather than her normal center midfield position, and scored her first goal of the season shortly after.
Courtney Verloo beat a defender on the left touchline and placed a centering pass inside the six-yard box.
"All I had to do was put it in," said Stannard, who gave Stanford a 3-0 lead, in the 74th minute.
In the 82nd, Morgan Redman sent in a through ball that freed Stannard for a breakaway that she converted with a low shot.
Finally, in the 88th, Stannard followed in a Redman shot off the post.
Kira Maker and freshman Lindsay Dickerson, in her first collegiate action, combined on the shutout, Stanford's second consecutive.
Stanford has scored 19 goals, but scoring has sometimes been in short supply while opponents to remain in games longer than the Cardinal would like. Despite its high goal totals, Stanford has left many other potential goals on the wayside.
"The shots hadn't been going in for us," Stannard said. "But we learned a lot this weekend, and we got our confidence back."
Stanford now heads into its toughest competition of the season so far, when it plays two ranked teams, including No. 2 - Notre Dame, this weekend at the Santa Clara Classic Buck Shaw Stadium.
Stanford plays No. 14 Purdue (4-0) on Friday at 5 p.m., and follows with the Notre Dame match on Sunday (11 a.m.) in a rematch of last season's NCAA College Cup semifinal. Notre Dame, which won that one 1-0, and comes in at 4-1-1.
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