No. 5 Stanford (14-3-4)
vs. No. 10 North Carolina (14-3-3)
Friday, Dec. 9 • 5:45 p.m. PT/7:45 p.m. CT
BBVA Compass Stadium • Houston, Texas
Complete Release (PDF)
Television • ESPNU
Live Statistics •Available via NCAA.com
LOOKING AHEAD » In the College Cup for the second consecutive season and fifth time overall, Pac-12 champion Stanford (14-3-4) heads to Houston for a national semifinal against North Carolina (14-3-3) at BBVA Compass Stadium on Friday, Dec. 9 at 5:45 p.m. PT/7:45 p.m. CT. Glenn Davis and Kate Markgraf will have the call on ESPNU and the match will also be carried on WatchESPN.
HISTORY VS. NORTH CAROLINA » The Cardinal and Tar Heels have met once before in a NCAA semifinal in 2001. North Carolina took that one 3-2 in quadruple overtime and beat Indiana 2-0 two days later to claim its first of two national championships in men's soccer. Stanford was up on UNC 2-0 with ten minutes remaining, but the Tar Heels scored twice in in a two-minute span to send the match into overtime.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY » The defending NCAA champions are 22-12-4 all-time in the NCAA tournament - 13-2-3 at home, 6-7-0 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.
SEMIFINAL HISTORY » The Cardinal is one of four teams remaining for the second consecutive season and fifth time overall (2015, 2002, 2001, 1998). Stanford is 2-1-1 all-time in the semifinals, beating Creighton in 2002 (2-1) on a Chad Marshall header and Maryland in 1998 (1-0) on a Lee Morrison goal. After a scoreless 110 minutes in last year's semifinals, Stanford prevailed 8-7 on penalties over Akron. The Cardinal's four-overtime loss to North Carolina in 2001 is its only semifinal defeat.
FIRST CHANCE » Men's soccer has a chance to keep an incredible departmental streak intact. Stanford teams have won 109 NCAA titles and the school owns an active 40-year stretch with at least one NCAA team championship dating back to 1976-77.
GUNN AT THE COLLEGE CUP » Head coach Jeremy Gunn is 2-1-1 at the College Cup. In addition to last year's title, he led Charlotte to the 2011 event in Hoover, Ala. The 49ers beat second-seeded Creighton in penalty kicks (4-1) in one national semifinal before falling to North Carolina, 1-0, in the championship.
POSTSEASON DEFENSE » Stanford has posted shutouts in five straight postseason matches and hasn't allowed a postseason goal in the last 512:17, 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 610:34, 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.
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.
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 45-8-10.
AMONG THE BEST » The four teams in Houston are the nation's four winningest by percentage the last three seasons. Stanford is second, having won 79.4 percent of its games since 2014 (45-8-10). Denver is first at .798 (46-9-7), North Carolina is third at .774 (44-10-8), Wake Forest is fourth at .754 (44-12-7) and Creighton is fifth at .750 (48-14-6).
HERMANN TROPHY SEMIFINALIST » Junior center back Tomas Hilliard-Arce was named one of 15 semifinalists for the 2016 MAC Hermann Trophy on Nov. 29. 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.
ALL-REGION » Stanford tied a program record set last season and placed five on the NSCAA NCAA Division I Men's All-Far West Region Teams. Goalkeeper Andrew Epstein, defender Tomas Hilliard-Arce and forward Foster Langsdorf were first team selections and co-captains Brian Nana-Sinkam and Drew Skundrich earned spots on the second team. Before 2015, the Cardinal had four players honored in 2014, 2000, 1998 and 1997.
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 64-23-15 (.701) 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 14-2-1 in its last 17, averaging 2.06 goals per game and with a goals against average of 0.59. On the year, Stanford is 24th nationally in scoring offense (1.81 goals per game) and eighth in team goals against average (0.62).
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, Jeremy Gunn's teams are 64-23-15 (.701) in his four-plus seasons on The Farm. His program is the second-winningest in the nation since 2014 with a .794 winning percentage (45-8-10) 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 against Virginia in the third round, is the third-winningest active Division I coach by percentage. He owns a career record of 251-84-46 (.719), behind only Carlos Somoano at North Carolina (.760) and Ray Reid at UConn (.752).
AMERICAN FOR GOALS » Forward Foster Langsdorf has a career-high 15 goals for the Cardinal in 2016, tied for eighth in program history and the most for a Cardinal since Willie Guicci had 22 in 1981.The management science and engineering major is fourth nationally in total goals, eighth in goals per game (0.71) and leads the country in game-winning goals (8).
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.
GETTING DEFENSIVE » Stanford has allowed only 14 goals through its first 21 matches, its stingiest defensive effort since it let in 13 through the first 21 games of 2002. The Cardinal has had 11 shutouts each of the past two seasons, its most since 2002 (12).
GETTING DEFENSIVE II » Stanford is among the nation's defensive leaders, ranking eighth in team goals against average (0.62). Continuity has led to Andrew Epstein only being called upon for 53 saves thus far and as a team the Cardinal has made 56, an average of 2.67 per game which is tied for the 13th fewest in the country. Epstein's nine solo shutouts this season are a career high and tied for sixth in program history with John Moore (2009), Robby Fulton (2002) and Chris Helling (1988).
RECORD WATCH » Andrew Epstein is in the conversation with some of Stanford's all-time best goalkeepers. His 22 career solo shutouts are third all-time at Stanford and his career goals against average (0.70) would be second. His 167 career saves are seventh and his 5,910:59 minutes in goal are third. Epstein owns a career record of 45-8-10 (.794) and is tied for seventh among active players in solo shutouts. His 0.634 goals against average this season is 12th in the country and he hasn't allowed a goal in his last 506:04 postseason minutes.
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 63 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 53 of Jeremy Gunn's 102 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 47-0-6 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.