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Aug. 27, 1997
Stanford Kicks Off 1997 Season
For Openers: The Stanford University men's soccer team opens the1997 campaign on Tuesday, September 2 when they travel to San Jose State to takeon the Spartans. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. The Cardinal will then head toLas Vegas to participate in the UNLV Tournament. Stanford opens the tourneyagainst Cal State Northridge on Sept. 5 and then closes with host UNLV on Sept.7. Game times are set for 9:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m., respectively.
Looking Back: Stanford is coming off a successful 10-4-4 (1-2-1MPSF) season, the first under head coach Bobby Clark. Up and down throught thefirst 11 games of the season, posting a 5-4-2 mark, the Cardinal reeled off fiveconsecutive victories to close the season, including a 1-0 victory over SantaClara in the season finale. The Cardinal defense shined during the streak,allowing just three goals over the five games. Sophomores Jamie Clark (10goals, 1 assist), who transferred to The Farm from North Carolina to join hisfather, and A.J. Sauer (9 goals, 3 assists) led the Cardinal attack with 21point perfomances. Clark earned regional All-America honors while Sauer was anhonorable mention All-MPSF Mountain Division selection. For directing theprogram to its first winning season in four years and one which went just 5-12-4the year prior to his arrival, Clark garnered MPSF Mountain DivisionCo-Coach-of-the-Year honors.
Looking Ahead: A young but experienced team, Stanford returns eightstarters, including the top six scorers, from last year's squad. All six of thetop scoring leaders returning are still underclassmen and just two of the 11starters are seniors. Joining Clark and Sauer among the top returnees are AdamSiegman (5 goals, 3 assists), Erik Morrison (3 goals, 4 assists), Shan Gaw (4goals) and Aaron Jones (4 assists). The Cardinal's schedule features pre-seasonNSCAA/Umbro Top 20 picks Indiana (#5), Washington (#6) and Harvard (#17), aswell perennially talented squads from California, USF and Santa Clara.
The Newcomers: Complementing the returners is a highly touted groupof newcomers which includes one college transfer and five freshmen. Highlighting the list of newcomers is 5-11 midfielder Simon Elliott. A transferfrom Victoria University in New Zealand, Elliott is a member of the New ZealandOlympic team and a former player of Clark's on the Kiwi National team. Hescored the winning goal against Australia in a 1996 Olympic qualifying match.The freshmen class includes forwards Corey Woolfolk, Scott Leber and Luke Rust,and midfielders Matt Moses and Sean Sylvis. One of the most highly toutedrecruits in Cardinal history, Woolfolk comes to The Farm from Ann Arbor, Mich.where he was the state's "Mr. Soccer". He also claimed NSCAA/Umbro All-Americaand Gatorade Regional Player-of-the-Year honors and was named one of the top tworecruits in Region II by Soccer America. Leber comes from Tucson, Ariz. wherehe was a two-time State Player-of-the-Year.
The Opponents: Stanford leads the all-time series with San JoseState 13-10-1 and is 6-3 at San Jose. The Cardinal defeated the Spartans 2-0 in their lone meeting last year. Siegman and former Cardinal Brad Daviestallied goals in the win. San Jose State returns 10 letterwinners, includingseven starters, from last year's 10-6-3 (4-2-2 WAC) squad which finished fourthin the Western Athletic Conference. The Spartans are led by junior forward AmanKebreab. Kebreab led the team in goals (13) and points (32) and tied for thelead in assists with six. The meeting with Cal State Northridge will be justthe third ever between the two schools and the first since 1991, a 2-1 Cardinalwin which tied the series at one game apiece. The Matadors, a member of theMPSF Southern Division, return nine starters from last year's 4-10-2 squad. Sophomore forward Michael Preis led the Matador's offense, chipping in sevengoals and 20 points en route to All-MPSF Southern Division honors. Stanfordwill be looking for their first-ever win at UNLV when they take the fieldagainst the Rebels. The Cardinal are 0-3 at UNLV and trail the overall series1-5. The Rebels are also coming off a losing season, posting a 5-11-4 (1-5-2WAC) mark in '96. Junior forward Michael Griego is the Rebels' top returningscoring threat, recording five goals and 12 points last season. Both numbersranked second on the squad.
Head Coach Bobby Clark: Clark enters his second year at the helm ofthe Cardinal. After tallying a 10-4-4 mark his inaugural season, Clark improvedhis collegiate coaching record to 92-46-17 (10 years). His background as both acoach and a player is very impressive. Prior to arriving at The Farm, Clarkspent two years as head coach of the New Zealand National team. Before that, hespent nine seasons as head coach at Dartmouth College where he compiled a career82-42-13 record. He led the Big Green to three Ivy League titles and two NCAAquarterfinal appearances. He was twice named NCAA Region I Coach-of-the-Year. Prior to coaching, Clark was a professional player in Scotland from 1962-82 andcompeted on three (1970, '74 and '78) of Scotland's World Cup teams.
Cardinal Notes: In tuning up for the season, Stanford scrimmagedCollege of Notre Dame-Belmont and Westmont and were victorious against both ...The Cardinal defeated Notre Dame-Belmont 6-0 and Westmont 2-1 ... Sevendifferent players scored during the pre-season, including all five of thefreshman ... Clark added two new members to his staff this season, assistantcoach Geoffrey Wheeler and volunteer coach Bill Scott ... Wheeler was a formerplayer of Clark's at Dartmouth, helping lead the Big Green to two NCAATournament appearances during his career ... The soccer team will open its homeseason at its new facility "New Maloney Field", on September 15 when it playshost to Chico State at 5:00 p.m. ... The Cardinal were ranked eighth in the FarWest Region by the NSCAA/Umbro Select final 1996 poll.