April 2, 2013
STANFORD, Calif. - The 10th-ranked Stanford women's lacrosse team delivered a dominating performance Tuesday evening to earn its fifth consecutive victory, defeating Fresno State, 21-8, at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium.
Stanford (7-2, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) applied most of the pressure offensively as it outshot Fresno State (2-8, 0-3 MPSF) by a 40-11 margin. A total of 11 different Stanford players contributed at least one point.
Sophomore Hannah Farr and Freshman Julia Burns led Stanford with five points apiece. Farr notched a team-high four goals and an assist, while Burns provided three goals and two assists.
Rachel Ozer and Emily Newstrom tallied three points on three goals on the day.
Stanford was strong in the midfield and defensively, holding a 24-7 advantage in draw controls and a 15-14 edge in ground balls.
Farr, Newstrom and Megan Lerner led the team with four draw controls each, while Nina Swanson picked up a team-best three ground balls. Rachel Kalick led the Cardinal with two caused turnovers.
Lerner leads the team with 29 draw controls and 22 ground balls on the season.
Reigning MPSF Defensive Player of the Week, Lyndsey Munoz, made three saves in net for Stanford and picked up her fifth consecutive victory and seventh on the season.
Though Stanford won the match by a comfortable 13 goal margin, the Cardinal had to work hard for its lead after Fresno State came out strong and had the score knotted at, 4-4, just less than nine minutes into the half.
Fresno State goalkeeper Katie Wilbur made a couple of crucial saves to keep the Bulldogs in the game early.
Farr scored her first goal of the day at the 19:58 mark of the first half that sparked a 12-1 scoring run that lasted over 21 minutes and saw seven different Cardinal score goals. The stretch was capped by Emily Newstrom's goal at the 28:34 mark of the second half.
The run gave Stanford a comfortable 16-5 lead and Stanford played a more possession oriented style for the remainder of the game.
The Cardinal will look to carry its momentum into its next match at No. 20 Denver, on Friday, April 5, at 3:00 p.m. (PT).
Both Stanford and Denver are atop the MPSF leaderboard and the game will likely have MPSF Tournament seeding implications.