STANFORD, Calif. – Maggie Steffens and Ashley Grossman each scored five, Dani Jackovich added all four of her goals in the fourth quarter and No. 2 Stanford cruised past Harvard, 23-7, in its first post-finals match at Avery Aquatic Center on Friday night.
The Cardinal’s goal total was its most since scoring the same number in a 23-3 win over against Pomona-Pitzer at the National Collegiate Championships on May 14, 2010. With the result, Stanford moved to 15-1 overall and 7-0 at home.
Maggie Steffens helped Stanford race out to a 7-2 lead through eight minutes after tallying her fourth hat trick of the season in just one quarter. She started by converting a penalty at 7:42 and put home even-strength scores at 3:05 and 0:23. Grossman added two of her five in the period to go along with goals from Jamie Neushul (3:51) and Gurpreet Sohi (1:07).
The Steffens and Grossman offensive push continued in the second quarter. Maggie scored a 6-on-5 goal with 5:21 until halftime and Grossman notched her fourth hat trick of the year as well when she rattled the cage at 2:52. The freshman-to-freshman connection of Jordan Raney and Katie Dudley secured the Cardinal’s 10th and final goal of the first half when the former assisted the latter with 1:05 on the clock.
Stanford’s most fruitful quarter came in the third with eight goals from six different players. Grossman rounded out her night with marks at 7:34 and 5:27 and Steffens put home her last goal at 7:10. It was Grossman’s third time scoring five goals this season and the first for Steffens.
Kiley Neushul scored both of her goals in the third (6:12 and 1:56), Sophia Monaghan tacked on her fifth of the year (2:36) and Jamie Neushul (3:12) and Katie Dudley (0:07) each contributed their second goals of the match in the quarter as the Cardinal led 18-4 heading into the final frame.
The fourth quarter was dominated by Dani Jackovich, Stanford’s sophomore from New Lenox, Ill., who scored four of her team’s five goals in the period. She scored at 7:31, converted a penalty for the Cardinal’s 20th goal at 6:24 and added the last two with 1:13 and 0:26 left, respectively. The four goals tied Jackovich’s career high which she reached last February 15 against Pacific.
Gurpreet Sohi’s exclusion goal with 2:40 left in the match helped the junior to her fifth multi-goal game of the year.
Gabby Stone played the first three quarters in the cage and made six saves before Emily Dorst took over in the fourth.
Stanford is back in the pool when it returns to league action next Saturday, March 28 at Arizona State at noon. One day later, the Cardinal is home Avery Aquatic Center to host UC Davis at 1 p.m. in what will be the first of four straight games on The Farm. The match against the Aggies is Stanford’s final of the non-conference variety. Five of the team’s remaining six games are against MPSF foes.
No. 2 Stanford vs. Harvard
March 20, 2015 • Stanford, Calif.
HARV 2 – 0 – 2 – 3 = 7
STAN 7 – 3 – 8 – 5 = 23
Harvard Goals: Andersen 2, Balding, Bowe, Grabb, Martinelli, Osborne
Harvard Saves: Dukes 2
Stanford Goals: Ashley Grossman 5, Maggie Steffens 5, Dani Jackovich 4, Katie Dudley 2, Jamie Neushul 2, Kiley Neushul 2, Gurpreet Sohi 2, Sophia Monaghan
Stanford Saves: Gabby Stone 6