STANFORD, Calif. – With just over a week before the regular season begins, No. 1 Stanford will have one final tune-up when the Cardinal heads south to play at Cal Poly on Wednesday, August 17 at 7 p.m. Live stats for the match are available via gopoly.com.
"It's a wonderful place to go play and Cal Poly has a great team," Stanford head coach Jeremy Gunn said. "It's good to be able to take the group together and get away for a night so we're not just happy and comfortable at home."
In its last visit to San Luis Obispo, the Cardinal beat the Mustangs in a spring match on April 13, 2015, 3-0. Of Stanford's current crop of players, Foster Langsdorf scored his team's second goal in the 71st minute. Jordan Morris joined with Ty Thompson to pinch a Cal Poly player and win the ball. Thompson drove right at a defender, committed him and slipped it forward to Langsdorf, who put home a first-time finish to the far post.
Langsdorf was the Cardinal's second-leading scorer a season ago, slotting home seven, and tallied a pair of goals in Stanford's first exhibition last Saturday, a 5-0 victory against visiting Sacramento State.
On Tuesday, the league office announced its preseason All-Pac-12 squad which features three Cardinal in midfielder Corey Baird, goalkeeper Andrew Epstein and defender Tomas Hilliard-Arce. Stanford was also picked second in the conference's preseason coaches poll, tallying 21 points and two first-place votes.
Last week, Stanford was chosen as the country's No. 1 team, collecting 20 first-place votes and 579 points to top the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Preseason Top 25. The Cardinal went 18-2-3 a season ago, including a 7-1-2 mark in Pac-12 play, to earn its second consecutive conference title. It tied the school record for fewest losses in a season, tied the second-highest win total in program history and set a Stanford record for league wins.
Stanford's magical season was capped with the program's first national championship in its 100-plus year history when the Cardinal routed Clemson, 4-0, at Sporting Park in Kansas City on Dec. 13.
The Cardinal, which will be televised on the Pac-12 Network 13 times in 2016, begins its regular season at home against Penn State on Friday, August 26 (5 p.m.). Fans can purchase season tickets, mini plans and single-game seats by visiting gostanford.com/tickets or calling 800-STANFORD.
Cal Poly returns five starters and 15 letterwinners from last season's squad that matched a program record with 11 victories and qualified for the NCAA?Tournament.
