Cardinal Gets CCU at CaganCardinal Gets CCU at Cagan
Jim Shorin/Stanford Athletics
Men's Soccer

Cardinal Gets CCU at Cagan

Stanford (15-2-2, 9-0-1 Pac-12)
Coastal Carolina (14-6-1, 4-1-0 Sun Belt) | Sun. • 5 p.m. PT
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium •Stanford, Calif.
Tickets
Stream • GoStanford.com
Live Statistics •NCAA.com
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LOOKING AHEAD » Two-time defending NCAA champion and No. 9 seed Stanford (15-2-2) hosts a third round NCAA match for the third consecutive year when Coastal Carolina (14-6-1) comes to The Farm on Sunday, Nov. 26 at 5 p.m. Kevin Danna and Tim Swartz have the call on GoStanford.com's live stream.
 
HOW WE GOT HERE » Sunday's match will be the first meeting between the Cardinal and Chanticleers. Stanford and Pacific played to a scoreless draw last Sunday and the Cardinal advanced on penalty kicks, 4-1, eliminating the Tigers in the second round for the second consecutive season. Also on Sunday, CCU went to No. 8 seed Clemson, scored twice in the first five minutes and beat those Tigers 3-1 to advance to the third round for the fourth time in program history and first since 2013. Coastal Carolina hosted a first-round game on Nov. 16 and beat Mercer 1-0.
 
SOME FAMILIARITY » Jeremy Gunn's Charlotte teams played Coastal Carolina twice from 2007-11, going 1-1. The Chanticleers won 2-1 in overtime on Sept. 12, 2008 at the UNCW Classic in Wilmington, N.C. and the 49ers began their run to the College Cup final with a season-opening, 2-1 win at Coastal Carolina on Aug. 29, 2011.
 
TOURNAMENT HISTORY » The Cardinal is 23-12-6 all-time in the NCAA tournament and 13-2-4 at home, advancing on penalty kicks in three out of those four 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 over 1,100 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 eight consecutive matches, an NCAA record, and 842:17 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 940:34, since Ohio State's Abdi Mohamed headed one home at 61:41 in a third-round match at Cagan Stadium on Nov. 29, 2015.
 
PREVAILING IN PENALTIES » Dating back to last year's College Cup, Stanford has played three straight scoreless draws and prevailed in penalties each time. The Cardinal has come out on top in six consecutive postseason shootouts dating back to 2002. Says Jeremy Gunn of penalties: "I don't want to praise it too much because you never know when you're going to take them. It's part of a knockout tournament and we prepare for everything. When you prepare in a deliberate way it makes you better, it builds your confidence and it gives you a better chance. It's as simple as that."

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 61-10-13.
 
FOUR SEASONS OF SUCCESS » The nation's most successful collegiate soccer program over the past four seasons, Stanford is 61-10-13 and leads the nation in winning percentage since 2014 (.804).

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 80-25-18 (.724) in his five-plus seasons on The Farm. He owns a career record of 267-86-49 (.725) 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 36-3-8 (.851) 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 has scored 41 goals this season, just the second time since 2002 that it has tallied more than 40 in a season (2015 - 43). Stanford is the tied for seventh in the nation in scoring offense (2.16) and third in goals against average (.463)
 
LANGSDORF LEADS » The Pac-12's career scoring leader with 35 goals is 16th nationally with 12 this season. He is also 13th in the country in total points (30), 24th in goals per game (0.63) and sixth 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 Wisconsin's Christopher Mueller (33), Rider's Jose Aguinaga (32), Colgate's Jared Stroud (30) and Cal's Jose Carrera-Garcia (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 10 solo shutouts in 19 games, already seventh in program history. He's fifth nationally in goals against average (0.469) and his shutout total is ninth 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 123 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.