DAVIS, Calif. – An incredible defensive effort that allowed only five shots to UC Davis made the difference Friday as Nina Randolph scored her second career goal in double overtime to lead the Cardinal to a 1-0 win.
The first half saw the Cardinal (5-4, 1-0 America East) come out to take control of the game, outshooting the Aggies (3-7, 0-1 America East) 4-to-1 in the half. The Cardinal defense proved stalwart as usual, barely allowing UCD to get two shots off, neither of which were on target. The Cardinal offense made the Aggies work as they had to post three saves to keep Stanford off the board to head into the half with a 0-0 stalemate.
On the win head coach Tara Danielson stated, "The team moved the ball well today and created solid goal scoring opportunities throughout the game. We need to clean it up in the attacking D and finish the play." "It's great to open conference play with a win," continued Danielson. "We will focus on building on this performance into midseason play."
Round two saw Stanford surge out of the gate hard to post two immediate shots on UCD, but to no avail. The Cardinal offense was relentless putting up nine shots in the half, but unable to put one past the Aggies. Stanford had its opportunities with four more penalty corners, but overtime awaited with regulation ending in a 0-0 tie.
The first overtime period was again all Cardinal with six shots without allowing a single one to the Aggies, but three saves by Beth Lee again proved the lynchpin for UCD sending it to double OT. That was all that the Cardinal would need after outshooting UCD 24-to-5 with defense holding the Cardinal shotless for all of overtime.
The difference came in the 91st minute as Sarah Helgeson dished up an assist to Nina Randolph who put a one-time touch on it to the upper left hand corner of the cage for the win.
The Cardinal continues conference play next week as it travels to rival Cal next Friday and then hosts Pacific on Sunday.
