No. 5 Stanford (12-3-4)
vs. No. 16 Virginia (11-3-5)
Sunday, Nov. 27 • 5 p.m.
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium • Stanford, Calif.
Complete Release (PDF)
Tickets
Live Stream • Available via GoStanford.com
Live Statistics •Available via NCAA.com
LOOKING AHEAD » Pac-12 champion Stanford (12-3-4) hosts a third round NCAA match for the second consecutive year when Virginia (11-3-5) comes to The Farm on Sunday, Nov. 27 at 5 p.m. Kevin Danna and Tim Swartz have the call on GoStanford.com's live stream.
HISTORY VS. VIRGINIA » The Cavaliers' won the schools' first meeting in overtime, 2-1, on Oct. 15, 1989 at the Stanford Pacific Soccer Classic. The Cardinal returned the favor in 1998, knocking off Virginia in a NCAA quarterfinal in Charlottesville, 3-0. Stanford (2015) and Virginia (2014) have won the last two national championships.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY » The defending NCAA champions are 20-12-4 all-time in the NCAA tournament and 12-2-3 at home, advancing on penalty kicks in two out of those three draws. Stanford is No. 5 in both the latest NSCAA coaches' poll and NCAA RPI and is seeded fifth in the NCAA Tournament field. Its stretch of four consecutive postseason berths is the second longest in program history behind a six-year run from 1997 to 2002. Stanford, which won the program's first national title last year over Clemson, will attempt to become the first back-to-back NCAA champion since Indiana in 2003 and 2004.
POSTSEASON DEFENSE » Stanford has posted shutouts in three straight postseason matches and hasn't allowed a postseason goal in the last 316:39, since Ian Harkes' 70th-minute penalty kick at Wake Forest in last year's quarterfinals. It hasn't given up a goal in open play in the postseason in the last 414:56 since Abdi Mohamed (62') headed one in for Ohio State in the third round last season at Cagan.
TREE-PEAT » Stanford finished its regular season 11-3-4 overall and 8-1-1 in league action, setting a school record for Pac-12 wins. Stanford's 2016 conference title will sit on the mantle alongside championships from 2015, 2014 and 2001. The Cardinal is the second Pac-12 school to win three in a row. UCLA won four consecutive conference crowns from 2002-05.
Three-peat complete. #GoStanford
A photo posted by Stanford Men's Soccer (@stanfordmenssoccer) on Nov 11, 2016 at 3:50pm PST
BEEN AWHILE » Stanford's title is the 14th conference championship in program history, but the first three-peat since it won four straight University and Club Soccer League (UCSL) championships from 1919-23. The Cardinal also won UCSL titles in 1915 and 1916, the California Intercollegiate Conference in 1931, the Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference in 1962 and 1963 and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in 1997.
SWEEP » The Stanford women's soccer program claimed its outright Pac-12 title on Nov. 4 with a 4-1 win at Cal. It's the second consecutive season the Cardinal has swept the league's soccer championships. Before last year it hadn't happened since 2008 (UCLA).
KING OF THE PAC » The Cardinal's Pac-12 record during its three-year run of dominance is 21-3-6 and its overall record since 2014 is 43-8-10.
AMONG THE BEST » Stanford is the nation's second-winningest program in terms of percentage since 2014. The Cardinal has won 78.7 percent of its games the past three seasons (43-8-10). Denver is first at .792 (44-9-7), North Carolina is third at .767 (42-10-8), Creighton is fourth at .761 (48-13-6) and Syracuse (44-12-9) and Wake Forest (42-12-7) are tied for fifth at .746.
LEADING THE PAC » The Cardinal cleaned up when it came to the conference's postseason awards announced on Nov 15. Foster Langsdorf was named Co-Pac-12 Player of the Year, Tomas Hilliard-Arce was selected as the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and Jeremy Gunn earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors. Langsdorf is Stanford's fourth-ever Pac-12 Player of the Year, joining Jordan Morris (2015), Roger Levesque (2001) and Ryan Nelsen (2000). Hilliard-Arce made sure the Pac-12's top defensive honor stayed on The Farm as well. Brandon Vincent won the award, which was instituted in 2014, in each of its first two years of existence. In five years at Stanford, Jeremy Gunn has gone 61-23-15 (.692) and has now won three consecutive Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards, becoming just the second in conference history to do so.
ALL-PAC-12 » Stanford led the way with a school-record tying five players on the All-Pac-12 first team. In addition to Langsdorf and Hilliard-Arce, junior forward Corey Baird, redshirt junior goalkeeper Andrew Epstein and senior defender Brian Nana-Sinkam gave the Cardinal nearly half of the 11-member squad. It's the most conference first teamers for the Cardinal since it had five in 2000, the first year of Pac-12 men's soccer. Junior midfield Drew Skundrich earned his first conference postseason accolade in being named to the All-Pac-12 second team and fellow junior midfielder Bryce Marion also received his first award, receiving All-Pac-12 honorable mention.
CONFINES OF CAGAN » The Cardinal is 27-2-8 in its last 37 matches at home and unbeaten in regulation since 2013.
COMING TOGETHER » Stanford, which started its season 0-1-3, averaged 0.75 goals and gave up 0.83 per game in those four matches has gone 12-2-1 in its last 15, averaging 2.13 goals per game and with a goals against average of 0.67. On the year, Stanford is 20th nationally in scoring offense (1.84 goals per game) and 16th in team goals against average (0.69).
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, Jeremy Gunn's teams are 62-23-15 (.695) in his four-plus seasons on The Farm. His program is the second-winningest in the nation since 2014 with a .787 winning percentage (43-8-10) and is even better in Pac-12 play, combining to go 21-3-6 (.800) the past three seasons. Gunn is the third-winningest active Division I coach by percentage. He owns a career record of 249-84-46 (.718), behind only Carlos Somoano at North Carolina (.756) and Ray Reid at UConn (.752).
BAIRD ASSISTS » Corey Baird finished his regular season with six assists in Stanford's final seven games. He has 23 in 61 career games to rank seventh in Stanford history. The junior tied for second in the nation in assists last season with 13, but didn't record one in Stanford's first 11 outings this year. His 23 career assists are 10th among active NCAA players.
RECORD WATCH » Andrew Epstein in the conversation with some of Stanford's all-time best goalkeepers. His 20 career solo shutouts are third in school history and his career goals against average (0.72) would be second only to Adam Zapala's 0.63 from 1997-2000. His 159 career saves are eighth in the Cardinal record books and his 5,715:21 minutes in goal are already fourth all-time. Epstein owns a career record of 43-8-10 (.787) and is tied for 11th among active players in solo shutouts. His 0.703 goals against average this season is currently 17th in the country.
SENIOR CLASS FINALIST » On Nov. 2, co-captain Brian Nana-Sinkam was named one of 10 men's soccer student-athletes selected as a finalist for the 2016 Senior CLASS Award, which recognizes seniors that have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN » Andrew Epstein was named to the 2016 Academic All-America Division I first team on Tuesday as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Epstein, who was on the Academic All-America Division I third team last season, joins Taylor Graham (2002) as the Cardinal's only first team Academic All-Americans in men's soccer. Epstein is an electrical engineering major with a 3.76 GPA.
AMERICAN FOR GOALS » Forward Foster Langsdorf has a career-high 13 goals for the Cardinal in 2016, a total tied for 14th in program single-season history. The management science and engineering is the Pac-12 leader in both goals (13) and points (28). He is ninth nationally in total goals, ninth in goals per game (0.68) and fourth in game-winning goals (6). Langsdorf is one of three Stanford players with at least five game winners in a season in the past 19 years (Jordan Morris – 2015; Jamie Clark – 1998).
DOUBLE-DIGIT GOALS » Jordan Morris led Stanford with 13 goals a season ago. It's the first time since 2000 and 2001 that the Cardinal has had two players put together 10-goal seasons in back-to-back years. Scott Leber (13) and Corey Woolfolk (12) combined for 25 of Stanford's 68 scores in 2000 and Roger Levesque followed that up with 14 goals in 2001.
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford headed into 2016 with the task of replacing five starters from a year ago, including MAC Hermann Trophy winner Jordan Morris and two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Brandon Vincent. Those two, along with Slater Meehan, Ty Thompson and Eric Verso, accounted for 53 percent of the Cardinal's goals (23-of-43), 48 percent of its assists (23-of-48) and 52 percent of its points (69-of-134) last season.
SKUNDRICH SCORES » Junior co-captain Drew Skundrich has tallied the first four goals of his career this season, is tied for second on the team goals and third in points (11). Skundrich has been able to up his offense with a move to the central midfield, the position at which he was recruited coming out of Lancaster, Pa. He was a stalwart right back during Stanford's championship run in 2015, starting all 23 games.
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 52 of Jeremy Gunn's 100 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 46-0-6 in those games. The Cardinal hasn't lost when scoring at least two goals since Nov. 11, 2010, when it fell 3-2 at Cal.