Second Round RematchSecond Round Rematch
Jim Shorin/Stanford Athletics
Men's Soccer

Second Round Rematch

Stanford (15-2-1, 9-0-1 Pac-12)
Pacific (13-4-1, 4-2-1 WCC) | Sun. • 5 p.m. PT
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium •Stanford, Calif.
Tickets
Stream • Stanford Men's Soccer Facebook
Live Statistics •NCAA.com
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LOOKING AHEAD » Two-time defending NCAA champion and No. 9 seed Stanford (15-2-1, 9-0-1 Pac-12) opens its NCAA Tournament when it hosts Pacific (13-4-1, 4-2-1 WCC) on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. Kevin Danna and Chris Fitzgerald have the call on GoStanford.com's live stream which will be carried on the Stanford Men's Soccer Facebook page.
 
POSTSEASON REMATCH » Stanford is 12-0-1 all-time against the Tigers with the first 12 meetings coming between 1973-85 when the teams were members of the Pacific Soccer Conference (1976-85) and West Coast Intercollegiate Soccer Conference (1973-74). Last season, Stanford's run to its second national championship began with a 2-0 win over the Tigers on Nov. 20. Foster Langsdorf (37') and Tomas Hilliard-Arce (70') scored and Andrew Epstein earned his 20th career shutout in the win and first in a tournament run of five consecutive clean sheets. The teams also played an exhibition on Aug. 19 of this year, with Stanford winning 1-0 behind a 19th-minute Langsdorf goal.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY » The Cardinal is 23-12-5 all-time in the NCAA tournament and 13-2-3 at home, advancing on penalty kicks in two out of those three draws. Its stretch of five consecutive postseason berths is the second longest in Stanford history behind a six-year run from 1997 to 2002. Stanford, one of six programs to win back-to-back national championships, is attempting to become just the second program to win three straight NCAA titles (Virginia; 1991-94).
 
POSTSEASON STREAKS » Stanford hasn't lost an NCAA tournament match in 1,093 days. Its last postseason defeat came at home in the second round on Nov. 23, 2014 to UC Irvine in overtime, 1-0. The Cardinal won the 2016 title without allowing a goal throughout the entire tournament, becoming just the third program to ever do that (Wisconsin – 1995, San Francisco 1976). Stanford owns an active postseason shutout streak of seven consecutive matches, an NCAA record, and 732:17 of match time. It last surrendered an NCAA tournament goal in the quarterfinals at Wake Forest on Dec. 5, 2015, an Ian Harkes penalty in the 70th minute. Stanford hasn't conceded a goal during the run of play in the tournament in the last 830:34, since Ohio State's Abdi Mohamed headed one home at 61:41 in a third-round match at Cagan Stadium on Nov. 29, 2015.
 
MAKE IT FOUR » Stanford finished its regular season 15-2-1 overall and was unbeaten in conference action for the first time (9-0-1). The Cardinal's 2017 conference title sits on the mantle alongside championships from 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2001. Stanford is the second Pac-12 school to win four in a row. UCLA won the same number of consecutive conference crowns from 2002-05. Jeremy Gunn is the only coach in league history to win more than two consecutive Pac-12 titles as UCLA's four-year run was split evenly between Tom Fitzgerald and Jorge Salcedo.
 
BEEN AWHILE » Stanford's title is the 15th conference championship in program history, but the first four-peat since it won four straight University and Club Soccer League (UCSL) championships from 1919-22. 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 Sunday, Oct. 29 with a 3-1 win at USC. It's the third consecutive season the Cardinal has swept the league's soccer championships. Before 2015 it hadn't happened since 2008 (UCLA).
 
KING OF THE PAC » The Cardinal's Pac-12 record during its four-year run of dominance is 30-3-7 and its overall record since 2014 is 61-10-12.
FOUR SEASONS OF SUCCESS » The nation's most successful collegiate soccer program over the past four seasons, Stanford is 61-10-12 and leads the nation in winning percentage since 2014 (.807).
 
LEADING THE PAC » It was déjà vu for Stanford as far as the 2017 Pac-12 postseason awards were concerned. For the second consecutive season Foster Langsdorf (player), Tomas Hilliard-Arce (defensive player) and Jeremy Gunn (coach) received the league's highest honors. Langsdorf, who was Co-Pac-12 Player of the Year last season, becomes the first in conference history to win the award twice. The Pac-12's top defensive honor has been dominated by the Cardinal since it was first instituted in 2014 with Brandon Vincent (2014, 2015) and Tomas Hilliard-Arce (2016, 2017) each winning twice. Jeremy Gunn has now won four consecutive Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards, becoming the first 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, senior forward Corey Baird, redshirt sophomore defender Tanner Beason and senior midfielder Drew Skundrich gave the Cardinal nearly half of the 11-member squad. It's the third time the Cardinal has boasted five conference first teamers (2000, 2016). Redshirt junior midfielder Sam Werner earned his first conference postseason accolade in being named to the All-Pac-12 second team and redshirt senior goalkeeper Nico Corti also received his first award, receiving All-Pac-12 honorable mention.
 
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, head coach Jeremy Gunn's teams are 80-25-17 (.725) in his five-plus seasons on The Farm. He owns a career record of 267-86-48 (.726) in 18-plus seasons, a mark which makes him the fourth winningest active coach at the Division I level by percentage. With Stanford's 2016 NCAA title Gunn became the seventh coach in Division I history to win back-to-back national championships along with Jerry Yeagley (Indiana), Bruce Arena (Virginia), Steve Negoesco (San Francisco), Harry Keough (Saint Louis), Gene Kenney (Michigan State) and Bob Guelker (Saint Louis).

CONFINES OF CAGAN » Stanford has posted a 36-3-7 (.859) record at home since 2014.
 
CONVERTING CHANCES » Stanford, which scored a school-record 26 times in Pac-12 play, has put in three or more in a game nine times this season, the program's most since 2001 (13). The Cardinal is the only team in the nation in the top five in both scoring offense (2.28) and goals against average (.494). Stanford has scored 41 goals this season, just the second time since 2002 that it has tallied more than 40 in a season (2015 - 43).
 
LANGSDORF LEADS » The Pac-12's career scoring leader with 35 goals is 15th nationally with 12 this season. He is also 12th in the country in total points (30), 19th in goals per game (0.67) and fifth in game-winning goals (5). The senior, who was fifth nationally with 15 goals a year ago, is the first Cardinal with back-to-back, double-digit goal campaigns since Jim Talluto in 1990 and 1991. He is sixth in school history in career goals and alone in seventh with 82 career points. Langsdorf's career goal total is the most for a Stanford player in 34 years. Jorge Titinger finished his four years with 48 from 1980-83, the second-best mark in school history.

BAIRD'S BACK » Paired with Langsdorf up top is Corey Baird, who has missed five games this season due to injury. Baird's 28 career assists are tied for fourth in the Cardinal record books, shy of only Roger Levesque (30; 1999-2002), Dan McNevin (42; 1977-79) and Ted Rafalovich (62; 1978-81). His assist total is also fifth among all active players, behind Rider's Jose Aguinaga (32), Wisconsin's Christopher Mueller (32), Cal's Jose Carrera-Garcia (29) and Colgate's Jared Stroud (29).
 
FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME » For the first time since 2013, someone other than Andrew Epstein is between the pipes for the Cardinal. Redshirt senior Nico Corti has taken over for Stanford's All-American keeper and recorded nine solo shutouts in 18 games, already tied for seventh in program history. He's sixth nationally in goals against average (0.501) and his shutout total is 14th in the country. Entering the year, Corti hadn't allowed a goal in 76 career minutes. He was a part of seven shutouts as a substitute from 2014-16.
 
NOT JUST SOCCER » Corti, one of 19 Stanford student-athletes majoring in political science, spent last summer interning with the Crime Strategies Unit at the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office where he analyzed the impact of various statewide public policies, including Prop 47, on crime and incarceration rates in Santa Clara County.

TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD » Stanford was honored by United Soccer Coaches on Oct. 5 with the College Team Academic Award for the most recent academic year. The Cardinal posted a cumulative 3.48 GPA during 2016-17, the fourth-best among Division I schools (Denver - 3.58; Memphis - 3.50; Notre Dame - 3.49).
 
SENIOR CLASS FINALISTS » Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Foster Langsdorf were each named to a list of 10 NCAA student-athletes selected as finalists for the 2017 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. Brandon Vincent and Brian Nana-Sinkam have earned Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-America status the past two years.
 
VOM STEEG WITH U-18'S » Continuing the program's strong ties with U.S. Soccer, freshman Carson Vom Steeg was with the U-18 Men's National Team for an international camp in Marbella from Oct. 1-10, which included friendlies with Belgium and Russia.
 
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 63 of Jeremy Gunn's 122 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 57-0-6 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.
 
WATCH LISTS » All-Americans Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Foster Langsdorf are two of 31 players on the 2017 MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List. The Cardinal is the only school in the country with multiple players recognized and also the only one returning multiple All-Americans this year.
 
WHAT'S BACK, WHAT'S NOT » Unlike last season, when Stanford was forced to replace nearly have of its lineup, nine of 11 starters returned in 2017, including two All-Americans, three all-region performers and five All-Pac-12 players. Goalkeeper Andrew Epstein, who finished his superb career with a 46-8-11 record and a NCAA-record 0.34 postseason goals against average, graduated from Stanford with his degree in electrical engineering and is working with the Peace Corps in Benin. Brian Nana-Sinkam became the Cardinal's eighth first-round selection when he was chosen with the 22nd overall pick by the Seattle Sounders in January's MLS SuperDraft and is currently playing with Sounders FC2.