Cardinal Closes at Cal

No. 8 Stanford (10-3-4, 7-1-1 Pac-12)
at California (5-9-2, 1-7-1 Pac-12)
Friday, Nov. 11 • 1 p.m.
Edwards Stadium • Berkeley, Calif.
Complete Release (PDF)
Television • Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Bay Area
Live Statistics •Available via CalBears.com

LOOKING AHEAD » Pac-12 champion Stanford (10-3-4, 7-1-1 Pac-12) concludes its regular season on the road at Cal (5-9-2, 1-7-1 Pac-12) on Friday, Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. Troy Clardy and Christopher Sullivan have the call on Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Bay Area.
 
WEEKEND RECAP » Stanford was idle last weekend, but still had a reason to celebrate on Sunday. The Cardinal claimed its third consecutive Pac-12 championship and fourth in program history by virtue of San Diego State's 1-0 win at Washington. Aztec redshirt freshman Pablo Pelaez scored on a free kick from the top of the box with two seconds remaining in regulation to dash the Huskies' title hopes. It's the second straight season Stanford has clinched its conference title while on a bye.
 
HISTORY VS. CAL » Stanford is 28-22-9 in 59 all-time meetings with the Bears dating back to 1973. The Cardinal is 5-0-1 in its last six games against Cal, including a 1-0 victory on The Farm earlier this season. Stanford has concluded its regular season against Cal every year since 2003, is 7-6 in those games and has won the last five.
 
TREE-PEAT » 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.

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 Friday, 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 20-3-6 and its overall record since 2014 is 41-8-10.
 
AMONG THE BEST » Stanford is the nation's second-winningest program in terms of percentage since 2014 through games played as of Nov. 7. The Cardinal has won 78 percent of its games the past three seasons (41-8-10). Denver is first at .781 (41-9-7), North Carolina is third at .776 (41-9-8), Creighton is fourth at .762 (45-12-6) and Syracuse in fifth at .742 (43-12-9).

Winningest Programs Since 2014 (By Percentage)

10+ IN THREE STRAIGHT » In just his fifth year at the helm, Jeremy Gunn has already led the Cardinal to four straight seasons of 10 or more wins, the third-longest stretch in over 100 years of Stanford men's soccer and best since the program won at least 10 every year from 1996-2002.
 
IN THE FIELD » The Cardinal will also appear in its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament beginning later this month, the second-longest stretch in Stanford history behind a six-year run from 1997 to 2002.
 
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. Since Sept. 10, the Cardinal has gone 10-2-1, is averaging 2.15 goals per game and has posted a goals against average of 0.73 in those 13 outings. On the year, Stanford is 27th nationally in scoring offense (1.82 goals per game) and 21st in team goals against average (0.71).
 
IN THE POLLS » The Cardinal dropped out of the polls on Sept. 27 for the first time in two years, but has worked its way back up the polls during its winning streak. Stanford, the nation's preseason No. 1 team, is currently No. 8 in the NSCAA top 25 and the top-ranked squad in the Pac-12. The Cardinal is also No. 6 in the official NCAA RPI released on Monday.
 
BAIRD ASSISTS » Corey Baird has tallied six assists in Stanford's last six matches and has 23 in 59 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 tied for ninth among active NCAA players.
 
RECORD WATCH » Redshirt junior Andrew Epstein is working his way into the conversation with some of Stanford's all-time best goalkeepers. His 19 career solo shutouts are third in school history and his career goals against average (0.73) would be second only to Adam Zapala's 0.63 from 1997-2000. His 156 career saves are eighth in the Cardinal record books and his 5,527:28 minutes in goal are already fourth all-time. Epstein owns a career record of 41-8-10 (.780) and is tied for 11th among active players in solo shutouts. His 0.729 goals against average this season is currently 25th in the country.
 
SENIOR CLASS CANDIDATE » On Nov. 2, senior co-captain Brian Nana-Sinkam was named one of 10 NCAA 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. Stanford has done well recently as far as the Senior CLASS Award is concerned. Last season, Brandon Vincent was named a Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-American in addition to being selected as the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT » Andrew Epstein was selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Men's Soccer Team for the second consecutive season on Oct. 27 and now advances to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second- and third-team All-America honorees will be selected in the coming days. Epstein is an electrical engineering major with a 3.76 GPA.
 
AMERICAN FOR GOALS » Forward Foster Langsdorf has a career-high 11 goals through the first 17 games of his junior campaign, a total which leads the team and the Pac-12 and ninth in the nation. Langsdorf has tallied the first three braces of his career this year against Harvard (Sept. 16), Omaha (Sept. 18) and Oregon State (Oct. 27).
 
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.
 
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, Jeremy Gunn's teams are 60-23-15 (.689) in his four-plus seasons on The Farm, including 41-8-10 (.780) since 2014.  He is one of only three coaches in program history to lead Stanford to four straight seasons of 10 or more wins along with Bobby Clark (1996-2000) and Nelson Lodge (1978-83). In guiding the Cardinal to consecutive conference championships, Gunn was awarded Pac-12 Coach of the Year and NSCAA Far West Region Coach of the Year honors in both 2014 and 2015. He owns a career record of 247-84-46 (.716) in 17+ seasons, a mark which makes him the third winningest active coach at the Division I level (by percentage).

Winningest Active Coaches (Entering 2016)

SKUNDRICH SCORES » Junior co-captain Drew Skundrich has tallied the first four goals of his career this season, is second on the team goals and third in points (10). 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 50 of Jeremy Gunn's 97 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 44-0-6 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.
 
MLS » Four of Jeremy Gunn's players at Stanford are currently on MLS rosters. Jordan Morris in 2016 and Aaron Kovar in 2014 signed with the Seattle Sounders as Homegrown Players, Brandon Vincent was the fourth overall pick of the 2016 MLS SuperDraft by the Chicago Fire and Adam Jahn was recently traded from the San Jose Earthquakes to Columbus and resigned with the Crew on Oct. 21. Off of last year's national championship team, Vincent was a 2016 MLS All-Star and Morris is a finalist for AT&T Rookie of the Year. The two-time Stanford All-American and 2015 MAC Hermann Trophy winner, Morris topped the Sounders in scoring in his first professional season, set MLS rookie records for game-winning goals (6) and consecutive games with a goal (4) in addition to a new scoring mark for U.S.-born rookies (12). He was called up by United States national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann for the U.S.' first two Hexagonal matches in CONCACAF 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifying, but was replaced by Alan Gordon due to a hamstring strain.