Sept. 19, 2010
STANFORD, Calif.- Claire Dougherty's goal in the 66th minute lifted California to a 2-1 upset over No. 16 Stanford on Sunday afternoon at the Varsity Turf.
Dougherty's tap-in from the left wing came off a penalty corner at the 65:32 mark, with Deanna Kennedy and Andrea Earle providing assists. The goal snapped a 1-1 tie after both teams were held scoreless for the previous 30 minutes.
California improved to 4-4 overall but more importantly now owns the upper hand at 3-0 in the NorPac standings. Stanford falls to 5-2 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
The Cardinal and Golden Bears have traditionally been recognized as the premier teams of the conference, as evidenced by a string of consecutive appearances in the NorPac Tournament championship game. This year appears to be no different, but now it's California that holds the early advantage in terms of tournament seeding.
The NorPac Tournament winner receives the league's automatic berth to an NCAA Play-In game, and that's the path Stanford has taken to the postseason in each of the last three years.
Offensive production was fairly equal, with California holding a 10-9 edge. But the Golden Bears also rounded out their attack by attempting six more penalty corners (9-3).
Stanford grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute, with Courtney Haldeman scoring unassisted after she collected a loose ball after Cal keeper Maddie Hand failed to make a clean stop on a previous shot.
But California answered four minutes later, as Lauren Livingston tallied her second goal of the year following an assist from Kendra Bills.
The contest was tightly-played and remained scoreless until the 66th minute, when Dougherty found the cage for her sixth goal of the season.
Haleh Nourani was credited with the victory, playing the final 30 minutes while making three saves in relief of Hand.
Alessandra Moss made three saves for Stanford in the loss.
Stanford has a week to bounce back before embarking on its most challenging road trip of the year, with matches against top-10 foes North Carolina and Wake Forest.
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NOTES: Stanford has won five of the last eight meetings against California, dating back to 2007 ... Becky Dru led all players with three shot attempts ... Camille Gandhi and Elise Ogle came up with defensive saves for Stanford ... In both of Stanford's losses this season, the game-winning goal was scored with less than five minutes remaining ... California won a road game in the series for the first time since Sept. 28, 2007 ... Stanford failed to score at least two goals in a game for the first time this year.