LOS ANGELES – Career-best performances from Elizabeth Cusick with six goals and Areta Buness with five helped fuel the Cardinal's 19-5 rout of Cal in the MPSF quarterfinals Thursday afternoon at USC's McAlister Field.
With the victory, Stanford moves its win streak to 15 against the Golden Bears as well as a 14-0 record under Amy Bokker and advances to the MPSF semifinals for the 14th time.
The Bears (5-13) jumped out to a two-goal lead to open the game, but the Cardinal (12-5) had seen that deficit before in its first meeting with Cal this season. Stanford answered with eight consecutive goals though, while the defense stymied the Golden Bears for over 20 minutes to send the Cardinal into the break up 11-3.
Stanford kept up the offensive grind in the second half, leading to a season-high 46 shots. Cal opened the half scoring first, but the Cardinal shut the Bears down again and went on another eight-goal spree to finish posting the third-highest score of the season.
The Cardinal will face the second-seeded Colorado Buffaloes in Friday's semifinal for a chance to make its 20th straight appearance in a conference championship game. Game time is set for 4 p.m. PT at McAlister Field in Los Angeles, Calif.