No. 7 Stanford (17-2-2, 7-1-2 Pac-12)
No. 5 Akron (18-3-2, 4-0-1 MAC)
Friday, Dec. 11 • 7:30 p.m. (CT)
Sporting Park • Kansas City, Kan.
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What's Next
In the College Cup for the first time since 2002, Pac-12 champion Stanford (17-2-2) heads to Kansas City for a national semifinal against MAC champion Akron (18-3-2) at Sporting Park on Friday, December 11 at 5:30 p.m. PT/ 7:30 p.m. CT. Glenn Davis and Taylor Twellman will have the call on ESPNU and the match will also be carried on WatchESPN.
History vs. Akron
Stanford is 0-2 all-time against the Zips, including 0-1 in the NCAA Tournament. In the teams' last meeting, Akron won a third-round match at home on Nov. 29, 2009, 2-0, behind goals from Teal Burnbury (29') and Anthony Amaipitakwong (37').
The first Stanford/Akron match came on Oct. 2, 1994, a 4-3 win for the Zips at the Reebok/Cardinal Classic on The Farm.
What Just Happened
Foster Langsdorf buried a header in the 97th minute off a free kick from Corey Baird to push No. 8 seed Stanford to an upset at top-seeded Wake Forest last Saturday night.
In the Cardinal's first trip to North Carolina in 20 years, Jordan Morris put Stanford up in the 18th on a header off a service from Brandon Vincent. The Demon Deacons' Ian Harkes converted a penalty in the 70th minute to level the score and force overtime.
It was just the third time Wake had conceded more than one goal this season.
Second And Third Rounds
Stanford beat Santa Clara (Nov. 22) and Ohio State (Nov. 29) by 3-1 score lines in the second and third rounds at home. Jordan Morris tallied his second career brace against the Buckeyes while freshman Amir Bashti notched the first of his young career against the Broncos.
Stanford hadn't had a player with a multi-goal game in the postseason since Roger Levesque's brace on Nov. 30, 2001 in a 3-1 win over Portland in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
Bashti is the first Stanford freshman to score in an NCAA Tournament match since Dec. 13, 2002, when Chad Marshall's header against Creighton in 108th minute sent Stanford to the College Cup final.
Tournament History
The Cardinal is 18-12-3 all-time in the NCAA tournament - 11-2-3 at home, 5-7-0 on the road and 2-3-0 at the College Cup.
Its stretch of three consecutive postseason berths is the second longest in Stanford history behind a six-year run from 1997 to 2002.
The Cardinal is one of four teams remaining for the first time since 2002 and fourth overall.
| Stanford NCAA Semifinal History | |||
| Date | Opponent | Location | Result |
| Dec. 13, 2002 | Creighton | Dallas, Texas | W, 2-1 (2OT) |
| Dec. 14, 2001 | North Carolina | Columbus, Ohio | L, 3-1 (4OT) |
| Dec. 11, 1998 | Maryland | Richmond, Va. | W, 1-0 |
Tournament Stats
Stanford and Akron are two of the highest scoring teams in the tournament, with the Zips leading the way averaging 3.67 goals per game and the Cardinal in third at 2.67.
Syracuse is the only side at the College Cup with a better postseason goals against average than Stanford with the Orange at 0.67 and the Cardinal and 0.98.
Individually, Jordan Morris is tied for the tournament lead in points (7) with Akron's Stuart Holthusen and Clemson's Thales Moreno. Morris and Holthusen are the only players with three goals in the postseason.
First Chance
Men's soccer, which is looking for its first NCAA championship in program history, is the first Cardinal team to make a national semifinal this year.
Stanford teams have won 107 NCAA titles and the school owns an active 39-year streak with at least one NCAA team championship dating back to 1976-77.
Two Of 15
Stanford's All-American tandem of junior forward Jordan Morris and senior left back Brandon Vincent were named two of 15 semifinalists for the 2015 MAC Hermann Trophy on Dec. 1.
Morris and Creighton junior forward Fabian Herbers are the only holdovers from last season's semifinal list and Stanford, Clemson and Creighton are the only schools with multiple semifinalists.
The Cardinal has never had a player win the MAC Hermann Trophy.
Far West Coach Of The Year
For the second consecutive season, Jeremy Gunn was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Far West Region Coach of the Year.
Gunn took over the Cardinal in 2012 when the program was coming off a 6-10-2 finish and in four short years has catapulted Stanford among the nation's elite. In four seasons on The Farm, Gunn is 49-20-10.
Postseason accolades are nothing new for Stanford's head man. He was named the NSCAA National Coach of the Year in 2011 after leading Charlotte to the College Cup final.
College Cup History
Gunn is 1-1 at the College Cup after leading Charlotte to the 2011 event in Hoover, Ala. The 49ers beat second-seeded Creighton in penalty kicks (4-1) in one national semifinal before falling to North Carolina, 1-0, in the championship.
King Of The Pac
Stanford finished its regular season 14-2-2 overall and 7-1-2 in league action, setting a school record for Pac-12 wins en route to its second straight conference championship.
The Cardinal's seven-point cushion at the top of the Pac-12 table is the third-largest margin in conference history, only surpassed by nine-point gaps for the champions in 2011 and 2003.
Leading The Pac
The Cardinal cleaned up when it came to the conference's postseason awards announced on Nov. 17. Jordan Morris was named Pac-12 Player of the Year, Brandon Vincent was selected as the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and Jeremy Gunn earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors.
Morris is Stanford's third-ever Pac-12 Player of the Year and first since 2001. Ryan Nelsen (2000) and Roger Levesque (2001) took home the award in the first two years of Pac-12 men's soccer.
Vincent, the 2015 Pac-12 Men's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year, was also the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2014 and is the only person to ever win the award, which was instituted last season.
Gunn also received recognition from his peers as the conference's best last season. His award in 2015 is the fifth time a Stanford coach has been awarded Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Gunn is the third head man in league history to win back-to-back coach of the year honors.
All-Pac-12
Eight of Stanford's 11 starters received recognition on various All-Pac-12 squads. Morris, Vincent and Ty Thompson earned spots on the first team, while Corey Baird, Andrew Epstein, Tomas Hilliard-Arce, Foster Langsdorf and Eric Verso were named to the second team.
Fourteen Cardinal were also named to the league's all-academic teams on Nov. 19, tying a school record previously achieved twice, in 2010 and 2007.
Sweep
The Stanford women's soccer program claimed its outright Pac-12 title on Nov. 1. It's the first time the Cardinal has swept the league's soccer championships and the first time since 2008 (UCLA) that both the conference's men's and women's soccer titles have been won by the same institution.
| Pac-12 Championship Men's and Women's Soccer Sweeps | |
| Year | School |
| 2015 | Stanford |
| 2008 | UCLA |
| 2005 | UCLA |
| 2004 | UCLA* |
| 2003 | UCLA |
| 2000 | Washington |
*UCLA's women were co-champions in 2004 along with Arizona.
What's At Stake
Stanford's 17 overall wins are tied for fourth in team history (2002). Only three Cardinal sides have ever won 18 or more games.
| Stanford Single-Season Wins | |
| Year | Total |
| 2001 | 19 |
| 2000 | 18 |
| 1998 | 18 |
| 2015 | 17 |
| 2002 | 17 |
| 1978 | 16 |
Home/Road
Stanford went 10-0-2 at home this season and is 19-1-6 in its last 26 matches at Cagan Stadium.
The Cardinal allowed just six goals at home in 2015 for a 0.48 goals against average.
Away from The Farm, Stanford went 7-2 this year, averaging 1.78 goals per game while holding its opponents to 1.00.
Confines Of Cagan
The Cardinal's unbeaten mark at home was the fifth in program history (home/away designations date to 1985).
| Stanford Unbeaten Seasons At Home | |
| Year | Record |
| 2015 | 10-0-2 |
| 2001 | 10-0-1 |
| 1999 | 7-0-1 |
| 1997 | 6-0-1 |
| 1991 | 8-0-1 |
The Cardinal was one of seven teams in the nation to go without a loss at home in 2015, joining Radford (8-0-1), South Carolina (8-0-2), Coastal Carolina (7-0-2), Cal Poly (7-0-2), Loyola Chicago (5-0-2) and Missouri State (4-0-2).
Streaking
Stanford's 2-1 loss at Washington on November 2 was its first since a season-opening setback at UC Santa Barbara on August 28, a span of 66 days.
| Stanford Unbeaten Streaks | |
| Year(s) | Length |
| 1996-97 | 20 |
| 2015 | 15 |
| 2001 | 11 |
| 1980-81 | 11 |
| 2001 | 10 |
| 1980-81 | 10 |
The defeat snapped Stanford's 15-match unbeaten streak, the second-longest run in program history, and the program's 16-match unbeaten streak in conference play, a run which is tied for 17th in NCAA history.
10+ In Three Straight
In just his fourth year at the helm, Jeremy Gunn has already led Stanford to three straight seasons of 10 or more wins, becoming the third coach in program history to accomplish the feat along with Bobby Clark (1996-2000) and Nelson Lodge (1978-83).
Staying Ahead
Always Willing To Help
Stanford is ninth nationally in assists per game (2.10) and seventh in total assists (44) thanks largely to Eric Verso and Corey Baird.
Verso is third nationally in total assists (12) and sixth in assists per game (0.57).
Baird's 11 assists are seventh in the country and his 0.52 assists per game average is 14th.
Stanford is the only teams in the nation that has two different players with at least 10 assists.
More Verso and Baird
Verso and Baird are two of just 20 players in the country with 10 or more assists. They are just the ninth and 10th Stanford players since 1980 to reach that number, the fourth and fifth since 1985 and the first since 2002.
No Cardinal had reached double digits in assists since Roger Levesque (13) and Todd Dunivant (11) in 2002.
| Stanford Players With 10+ Assists Since 1980 | ||
| Player | Year | Assists |
| Ted Rafalovich | 1981 | 17 |
| Ted Rafalovich | 1980 | 16 |
| Roger Levesque | 2002 | 13 |
| Eric Verso | 2015 | 12 |
| Jorge Titinger | 1982 | 12 |
| Corey Baird | 2015 | 11 |
| Todd Dunivant | 2002 | 11 |
| Walter Kingson | 1983 | 11 |
| Matt Moses | 2000 | 10 |
| Giancarlo Ferruzzi | 1984 | 10 |
Verso is tied for seventh in Stanford single-season history in assists and his 18 career assists are tied with Matt Moses (1998, 2000-01) for 10th all-time.
Morris Magic
The Cardinal welcomed back striker Jordan Morris for its tournament run. The junior missed Stanford's regular-season finale while with the U.S. Men's National Team for its first two matches of the 2018 World Cup Qualifying campaign and earlier this season missed four other games while helping the U-23s with Olympic qualifying and playing with the USMNT in a friendly against Brazil.
Stanford is 7-0-2 in the past two years when Morris has been gone with U.S. Soccer.
More Morris
A MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist, Morris has a career-high 11 goals in 16 appearances for Stanford in 2015. In his last 12 games with the Cardinal, the junior has 10 goals, three assists and 23 points.
He is ninth in the country in game-winning goals (5), 12th in goals per game (0.69) and 13th in points per game (1.56).
Earlier this season, Morris slotted one past the keeper in five straight collegiate matches, becoming just the second Cardinal to do that since 1987. (Darren Fernandez; September 21 – October 3, 2002).
When It Matters Most
Morris is the first Stanford player with five winners in a season since All-American and current Washington head coach, Jamie Clark, had the same number in 1998.
He is the first Pac-12 player with that many since 2011, when Brent Richards (Washington) and Chandler Hoffman (UCLA) each had five.
More Than Just Soccer
Morris, a Type 1 diabetic, also lent his support to Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's (JDRF) "T1D Looks Like Me Campaign" for National Diabetes Awareness Month (NDAM) in November. Among a number of different pieces to the awareness push, Morris was featured in a Times Square display ad the first week of the month.
Times Square treatment. #GoStanford #NDAM #JDRF #T1DLooksLikeMe
A photo posted by Stanford Men's Soccer (@stanfordmenssoccer) on Nov 4, 2015 at 2:19pm PST
Getting Defensive
Stanford is among the nation's defensive leaders, ranking 11th in team goals against average (0.69).
| Nation's Top Defenses | |
| Team | GAA |
| Loyola Chicago | 0.39 |
| Denver | 0.40 |
| St. Francis Brooklyn | 0.40 |
| Western Michigan | 0.50 |
| Wake Forest | 0.58 |
| Washington | 0.63 |
| SIUE | 0.64 |
| Kentucky | 0.66 |
| Coastal Carolina | 0.66 |
| Dartmouth | 0.67 |
| Stanford | 0.69 |
Continuity has led to Andrew Epstein only being called upon for 56 saves thus far and as a team the Cardinal has made 57, an average of 2.76 per game which is the 21st fewest in the country.
Epstein's 0.694 goals against average is 16th in the NCAA.
Getting Defensive II
Stanford has allowed only 15 goals through its first 21 matches, its stingiest defensive effort since it let in 13 through the first 21 games of 2002.
Only six Cardinal teams have ever finished a season with a goals against average below 0.70 and not since 2002 (0.61). Earlier this year, the Cardinal put together a shutout streak of 469:38, the program's longest since 2007 (575:51).
| Stanford Single-Season GAA | |
| Year | Total |
| 2000 | 0.44 |
| 2001 | 0.56 |
| 1998 | 0.56 |
| 1985 | 0.59 |
| 2002 | 0.61 |
| 1997 | 0.66 |
| 2015 | 0.69 |
Stanford's nine shutouts this season is its most since 2009 (9).
Andrew Epstein's seven solo shutouts are tied for ninth in Cardinal single-season history with Craig Ueland (1977) and Willie Burkhardt (1983).
You Have To Score, Too
Stanford's offensive output also harkens back to its last College Cup runs more than a decade ago. The Cardinal has scored 39 goals this season and averages 1.86 per game its best marks in total goals since 2002 (45) and goals per game since 2001 (2.55).
That 2001 campaign was also the last time Stanford has had more three-goal performances. This year, the Cardinal is 7-0 when it scores three times. In 2001, Stanford scored at least three 13 times, winning all 13.
Spreading It Around
Stanford doesn't rely solely on Morris. It boasts three players with at least five goals in Morris (10), Foster Langsdorf (7) and Vincent (5).
The Cardinal hasn't had that since 2002, when six players scored at least five - Darren Fernandez (9), Johanes Maliza (8), Roger Levesque (7), Matt Janusz (5), James Twellman (5) and Mike Wilson (5).
That 2001 campaign was also the last time Stanford has had more three-goal performances. This year, the Cardinal is 7-0 when it scores three times. In 2001, Stanford scored at least three 13 times, winning all 13.
Returning All-Americans
Stanford is the only team in the country that welcomed back multiple NSCAA/Continental Tire First Team All-Americans this season in Morris and Brandon Vincent.
All CLASS
On October 26, Brandon Vincent was named one of 10 men's soccer Senior CLASS Award finalists for his accomplishments in the classroom and community, and on the field.
Checks all the boxes. Vote Brandon for @SnrCLASSAward » https://t.co/OUAu4aKtOu #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/mLgyxN8fdv
— StanfordMen'sSoccer (@StanfordMSoccer) October 28, 2015
Academically, the senior owns a 3.3 GPA and has twice been a Pac-12 all-academic selection. One of 23 Stanford student-athletes majoring in economics, Vincent will graduate two quarters early, finishing his studies at the end of the fall session.
Academic All-Americans
Andrew Epstein and Eric Verso were named to the 2015 Academic All-America® Division I third team as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Nov. 24.
The two are the fifth and sixth CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in Stanford history and the first since 2010, when Bobby Warshaw and Dominique Yahyavi both landed on the second team.
Epstein and Verso, along with Drew Skundrich and Ty Thompson, were also CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 selections.
Destination Stanford
Sir Alex Ferguson made his second visit to campus in the last four months this past week, discussing his reflections and insights on leadership and management at Stanford's Graduate School of Business on Monday, Oct. 19.
A photo posted by Stanford Men's Soccer (@stanfordmenssoccer) on Oct 20, 2015 at 4:07pm PDT
In late July, Ferguson and Manchester United used Cagan Stadium for training during their United States tour. The visit continued a trend of top national sides and clubs utilizing the unparalleled facilities and environment of Stanford for training. The USMNT visited campus for camp before the 2014 FIFA World Cup and within the past two years Stanford has also hosted Italian giant Juventus and English side Norwich City.