GS1_1749GS1_1749
Grant Shorin/Stanford Athletics
Men's Soccer

We Meet Again

Stanford (16-2-2)
Wake Forest (19-1-2) | Sat. • 4 p.m. PT
Spry Stadium •Winston-Salem, N.C.
Stream • ESPN3/WatchESPN
Live Statistics •NCAA.com
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LOOKING AHEAD » In the quarterfinals for the third consecutive season and seventh time in program history, two-time defending NCAA champion and No. 9 seed Stanford (16-2-2) heads to Winston-Salem, N.C. for a match with No. 1 Wake Forest (19-1-2) at Spry Stadium on Saturday, December 2 at 4 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3/WatchESPN.
 
MEETING AGAIN » Stanford is 3-0-1 all-time against the Demon Deacons and the two will be playing in the postseason for the third consecutive season. The Cardinal beat Wake Forest in penalties of last year's College Cup final following a scoreless 110 minutes. The Demon Deacons had match point in the fifth round of penalty kicks, but Andrew Epstein's fifth-round save prolonged the shootout. Stanford's redshirt junior keeper lunged to his left to stop Hayden Partain's championship-winning attempt and swing momentum back to the Cardinal. Sam Werner next put Stanford ahead, 5-4, with a shot up the middle, and Epstein followed with the save of his life, diving to his right to block the try of Wake's Brad Dunwell and secure back-to-back NCAA crowns for the Cardinal.

QUARTERFINALS AT WAKE » Foster Langsdorf buried a header in the 97th minute off a free kick from Corey Baird to push No. 8 seed Stanford to a 2-1 win at top-seeded Wake Forest in the quarterfinals on Dec. 5, 2015. Before that, the Cardinal swept a regular-season tournament at Wake Forest, beating Davidson, 1-0, on Sept. 2, 1995 and the Deacs, 1-0, on Sept. 4. Stanford and Wake Forest first met in a tournament at UNLV on Sept. 12, 1992, a 3-1 Cardinal win.
 
TOURNAMENT HISTORY » The Cardinal is 24-12-6 all-time in the NCAA tournament - 14-2-4 at home, 6-7-0 on the road and 4-3-2 at the College Cup. 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).
 
QUARTERFINAL HISTORY » The Cardinal is one of eight teams remaining for the third consecutive season and seventh time overall (2016, 2015, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1998). Stanford is 5-1 all-time in the quarterfinals, beating Louisville 2-0 last season, Wake Forest in overtime in 2015, 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 fourth quarterfinal road match in program history along with the 2-0 win at Louisville on Dec. 3, 2016, the 2-1 win at Wake Forest on Dec. 5, 2015 and the 3-0 win at Virginia on Dec. 6, 1998.
 
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 nine consecutive matches, an NCAA record, and 932:17 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 1,030:34, since Ohio State's Abdi Mohamed headed one home at 61:41 in a third-round match on Nov. 29, 2015.
 
PREVAILING IN PENALTIES » Stanford has played three scoreless draws among its last four postseason matches 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 62-10-13.
 
FOUR SEASONS OF SUCCESS » The nation's most successful collegiate soccer program over the past four seasons, Stanford is 62-10-13 and leads the nation in winning percentage since 2014 (.806).

HERMANN SEMIFINALISTS » All-Americans Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Foster Langsdorf were two of 15 players named MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalists earlier this week. The Cardinal, the only school that returned multiple All-Americans this season, is one of two with multiple Hermann semifinalists (North Carolina).

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 landed 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 81-25-18 (.726) in his five-plus seasons on The Farm. He owns a career record of 268-86-49 (.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).

AGAINST RANKED » Stanford is 24-14-7 all-time against ranked opponents under Jeremy Gunn, including 17-2-5 in its last 24. The Cardinal is 11-6-2 in true road games against ranked opponents since 2012.
 
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 43 goals this season, just the second time since 2002 that it has tallied more than 40 in a season (2015 - 43). Stanford is ninth in the nation in scoring offense (2.15) and third in goals against average (.440)
 
LANGSDORF LEADS » The Pac-12's career scoring leader with 36 goals is 11th nationally with 13 this season. He is also ninth in the country in total points (32) 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 and is also the country's second-leading goal scorer the past two seasons with 28. Central Arkansas' Niklas Brodacki is two ahead with 30 since the start of the 2016 season. Langsdorf is sixth in school history in career goals and alone in seventh with 84 career points. His 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 missed five games earlier this season due to injury. Baird's 29 career assists are 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 tied for fourth among active players, behind Wisconsin's Christopher Mueller (35), Rider's Jose Aguinaga (32) and Colgate's Jared Stroud (30).
 
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 11 solo shutouts in 20 games, tied for fourth in the program's single-season history. He's fourth nationally in goals against average (0.446) and his shutout total is fifth 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.

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. Brandon Vincent and Brian Nana-Sinkam have earned Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-America status the past two years.
 
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 64 of Jeremy Gunn's 124 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 58-0-6 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.
 
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 an 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.