April 21, 2013
STANFORD, Mass. – Stanford scored on its first six shot attempts Sunday and the 15th-ranked Cardinal pulled away from visiting San Diego State by a score of 23-16 at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium.
With a season-high of 23 goals, Stanford improved to 10-4 on the season and 5-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Cardinal has won its last five home games. San Diego State falls to 8-7 overall and 3-4 in league play.
Utilizing those six goals on as many shots, the Cardinal jumped all over the visiting Aztecs in taking a 9-3 lead just over 10 minutes into the game. Rachel Ozer scored four times in the first 11 minutes, giving her 39 goals on the season, as Stanford claimed a comfortable 13-6 lead at the break. Ozer also had two assists in the first half but would not factor in the second half scoring as SDSU made an impressive run to get back into contention.
Stanford opened the second half much as it finished the first with the Cardinal scoring three goals in a span of 1:52 to claim a 16-6 lead with a running clock.
SDSU stopped the clock with an important “answer” goal as Lauren Maack used a free position shot to end the spurt. The Aztecs controlled the middle portion of the stanza, scoring six straight goals in a span of nearly 13 minutes to pull within four, 16-12. Maack had two of the goals while Bailey Ewing also had two during the run including a free position tally. The energy expended from that comeback mixed with hot and sunny conditions proved too much however; Stanford regained control coming out of a timeout and scored four of the next five goals to pull away.
Stanford pelted SDSU goalkeeper Sammy Slattery (16 saves) with 47 shots in setting its high-water mark for goals. Ozer’s four goals le the way while Hannah Farr, Julia Burns and Lucy Dikeou (four ground balls) all registered hat tricks. Megan Lerner had a game-high nine draw controls, repeatedly coming away with the ball in heavy traffic conditions. She now leads the team with an even 50 through 14 games.
Ewing and Maack led SDSU with Ewing scoring five times on as many shots and Maaack logging four goals and two assists.
Stanford returns to action next weekend with a pair of road games to complete the regular season. The Cardinal travels to UC Davis on Thursday for a 7 p.m. game before completing the schedule on Saturday with a 1 p.m. game at Cal.