Oct. 7, 2012
STOCKTON, Calif.- Becky Dru scored a pair of goals for the second straight game, leading No. 14 Stanford to a 4-1 road victory against Pacific on Sunday afternoon.
Courtney Haldeman and Maddie Secco also added goals for Stanford (9-4, 3-0 NorPac), which completed a clean sweep through the first round of conference play after also defeating California and UC Davis.
The Cardinal picked up its third straight victory and eighth in its last nine games overall. Pacific dropped to 4-9 overall and 0-2 in NorPac competition.
Stanford easily controlled tempo throughout the game, outshooting Pacific 22-6 while owning a 12-2 advantage in penalty corners.
Sunday's result wasn't much of a surprise, as the Cardinal has now won 12 in a row in the series since the Tigers' last victory back on Sept. 30, 2006.
Despite attempting nine shots and four penalty corners in the first half, Stanford was unable to score. Pacific generated only two shot attempts, resulting in a 0-0 halftime score.
In the 43rd minute, Dru put the Cardinal ahead 1-0 when she scored her fifth goal of the year following assists from Shannon Herold and Hope Burke.
Nine minutes later, Secco tipped in a cross pass from Burke to give Stanford a 2-0 lead.
Dru notched her second goal of the afternoon at the 54:50 mark, scoring unassisted following a deflected loose ball from a previous shot.
Pacific broke through for its only goal in the 60th minute when Jenna Vivian punched in a rebound with Paige Counsman providing the assist.
Haldeman padded the Cardinal's lead at the 67:17 mark, tallying her team-leading eighth goal of the year. After Doreen Stern's defensive save denied a shot by Dru, Lauren Becker dished a pass to Haldeman, who found the cage.
Dru led all players with five shots while Haldeman, Kelsey Harbin, Emily Henriksson and Secco each contributed three attempts.
Dulcie Davies made three saves in goal to pick up the victory.
The competition ramps up significantly next week, when Stanford hits the road for games against Syracuse (neutral site at Amherst, Mass.) and Connecticut. In the most recent edition of the national rankings, Syracuse was ranked No. 1 and Connecticut checked in at No. 3.