No. 5 Stanford (13-3-4)
at No. 7 Louisville (14-5-2)
Saturday, Dec. 3 • 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET
Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium • Louisville, Ky.
Complete Release (PDF)
Television • ESPN3
Live Statistics •Available via NCAA.com
LOOKING AHEAD » In the quarterfinals for the second consecutive season and sixth time in program history, Pac-12 champion Stanford (13-3-4) heads to Louisville, Ky. for a match with Louisville (14-5-2) at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 4 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3/WatchESPN.
HISTORY VS. LOUISVILLE » Stanford and Louisville will be meeting for the second time on Saturday in what is the program's second trip to the state of Kentucky. The Cardinal traveled to Louisville and beat the No. 18 Cardinals in its second match last season, 1-0. The victory was the first of the year for Stanford on its run to the national championship and ignited an eight-match winning streak and 15-match unbeaten streak.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY » The defending NCAA champions are 21-12-4 all-time in the NCAA tournament - 13-2-3 at home, 5-7-0 on the road and 3-3-1 at the College Cup. 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.
QUARTERFINAL HISTORY » The Cardinal is one of eight teams remaining for the second consecutive season and sixth time overall (2015, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1998). Stanford is 4-1 all-time in the quarterfinals, beating Wake Forest in overtime last season (2-1), Clemson in 2002 (2-0), Saint Louis in 2001 (1-0) and Virginia in 1998 (3-0), and losing to SMU in 2000 (2-1). Saturday will be the Cardinal's third quarterfinal road match in program history along with the 1-0 win at Wake Forest on Dec. 5, 2015 and the 3-0 win at Virginia on Dec. 6, 1998.
POSTSEASON DEFENSE » Stanford has posted shutouts in four straight postseason matches and hasn't allowed a postseason goal in the last 422:17, since Ian Harkes' 70th-minute penalty at Wake Forest in last year's quarterfinals. It hasn't given up a goal in the run play in the postseason in the last 520:34, since Abdi Mohamed (62') headed one in for Ohio State in the third round last season at Stanford.
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 sits 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.
Three-peat complete. #GoStanford
A photo posted by Stanford Men's Soccer (@stanfordmenssoccer) on Nov 11, 2016 at 3:50pm PST
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 44-8-10.
AMONG THE BEST » Stanford is the nation's second-winningest program in terms of percentage since 2014. The Cardinal has won 79 percent of its games the past three seasons (44-8-10). Denver is first at .795 (45-9-7), North Carolina is third at .770 (43-10-8), Creighton (48-14-6) and Wake Forest (43-12-7) are tied for fourth at .750 and Syracuse (44-13-9) and Maryland (43-12-11) are tied for sixth at .735.
HERMANN TROPHY SEMIFINALIST » Junior center back Tomas Hilliard-Arce was named one of 15 semifinalists for the 2016 MAC Hermann Trophy on Tuesday. Last year, two-time Stanford All-American and 2016 Major League Soccer Rookie of the Year Jordan Morris became the first Cardinal men's player to win the honor. Stanford, one of just four schools in the history of the award to have both men's and women's winners, is also the only one with semifinalists on both lists this year. Maddie Bauer and Andi Sullivan are up for the Hermann Trophy on the women's side.
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 63-23-15 (.698) 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.
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 13-2-1 in its last 16, averaging 2.06 goals per game and with a goals against average of 0.62. On the year, Stanford is 26th nationally in scoring offense (1.80 goals per game) and 12th in team goals against average (0.65).
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, Jeremy Gunn's teams are 63-23-15 (.698) in his four-plus seasons on The Farm. His program is the second-winningest in the nation since 2014 with a .790 winning percentage (44-8-10) and is even better in Pac-12 play, combining to go 21-3-6 (.800) the past three seasons. Gunn, who won his 250th career game on Sunday against Virginia, is the third-winningest active Division I coach by percentage. He owns a career record of 250-84-46 (.718), behind only Carlos Somoano at North Carolina (.758) and Ray Reid at UConn (.752).
AMERICAN FOR GOALS » Forward Foster Langsdorf has a career-high 14 goals for the Cardinal in 2016, a total tied for ninth in program single-season history. The management science and engineering is sixth nationally in total goals, ninth in goals per game (0.70) and tied for first in game-winning goals (7). His goal total is the most for a Stanford player since Roger Levesque had that many in 2001. No one has had 15 or more since Willie Guicci scored 22 in 1981.
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 his 14 in 2001.
RECORD WATCH » Andrew Epstein is in the conversation with some of Stanford's all-time best goalkeepers. His 21 career solo shutouts are third in school history and his career goals against average (0.71) would be second only to Adam Zapala's 0.63 from 1997-2000. His 163 career saves are seventh in the Cardinal record books and his 5,820:59 minutes in goal are third all-time. Epstein owns a career record of 44-8-10 (.790) and is tied for 10th among active players in solo shutouts. His 0.664 goals against average this season is 14th in the country.
ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN » Epstein was named to the 2016 CoSIDA Academic All-America Division I first team on Nov. 22. 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. He is an electrical engineering major with a 3.76 GPA.
SENIOR CLASS CANDIDATE » 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.
BAIRD ASSISTS » Corey Baird leads the Cardinal with six assists this season and his 23 in 62 career games rank seventh in Stanford history. The junior tied for second in the nation in assists last season with 13. His 23 career assists are tied for 10th among active NCAA players.
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.
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 52 of Jeremy Gunn's 101 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.