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John Todd/ISI Photos
Men's Soccer

Regular-Season Finale

No. 3 Stanford (14-2-1, 8-0-1 Pac-12)
No. 22 Cal (11-5-0, 6-3-0 Pac-12) | Thurs. • 7 p.m. PT
Laird Q. Cagan Stadium • Stanford, Calif.
Tickets
Television • Pac-12 Networks
Live Statistics • GoStanford.com
Complete Release (PDF)
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LOOKING AHEAD » Pac-12 champion and No. 3 Stanford (14-2-1, 8-0-1 Pac-12) concludes its regular season at home against No. 22 Cal (11-5-0, 6-3-0 Pac-12) on Thursday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. Rich Cellini and Cobi Jones have the call on Pac-12 Networks.
 
WEEKEND RECAP » Five different players scored and the Cardinal emphatically secured its fourth consecutive Pac-12 title with a 5-1 drubbing of UCLA on Thursday, Nov. 2. The fifth Pac-12 trophy overall for the Cardinal, it was the first the program has clinched outright at home. Stanford followed that up with a 4-0 rout of San Diego State on Senior Day, Sunday, Nov. 5.
 
PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK » Corey Baird was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the fourth time in his career on Tuesday. The senior accounted for a third of the Cardinal's goals in its wins against UCLA and San Diego State, scoring once against the Bruins and tallying his third career brace against the Aztecs. Baird also assisted on another of Stanford's five goals against UCLA.

STANFORD-CAL SERIES » Stanford is 30-22-9 in 61 all-time meetings with the Bears dating back to 1973. The Cardinal is 7-0-1 in its last eight games against Cal with four coming in overtime. The Cardinal's 3-0 victory in Berkeley on Oct. 8 was the only win during the recent run that has been by more than one goal. Stanford is unbeaten at home against Cal dating back to 2010 (4-0-2). The Bears' last win in the overall series came on Oct. 20, 2013 (1-0).
 
MAKE IT FOUR » Stanford's 2017 conference title will sit on the mantle alongside championships from 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2001. The Cardinal 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 three-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 29-3-7 and its overall record since 2014 is 60-10-12.

CARDINAL QUICK HITTERS »

  • Stanford is one of six programs to win back-to-back national championships and was the first to do it in a dozen years. The Cardinal joined Indiana, Virginia, San Francisco, Saint Louis and Michigan State as the only collegiate soccer programs to win two consecutive championships.
  • This season the Cardinal will attempt to become just the second program to win three straight NCAA titles (Virginia; 1991-94).
  • Stanford on 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).
  • The Cardinal had a shutout streak of 820:27 ended with Garrett McLaughlin's goal at 1:58 for SMU on Sept. 7. Stanford would go on to score three unanswered to beat the Mustangs 3-1.
  • McLaughlin's goal ended Stanford's streak of eight consecutive matches without conceding. That scoreless match number is tied for the 12th-longest in NCAA history.
  • The Cardinal still owns an active postseason shutout streak of seven consecutive matches, an NCAA record, and 732:17 of match time.

FOUR SEASONS OF SUCCESS » The nation's most successful collegiate soccer program over the past four seasons, Stanford is 60-10-12 and leads the nation in winning percentage since 2014 (.805). Wake Forest (.786; 62-14-8) is second and followed by North Carolina (.778; 58-13-10), Denver (.750; 56-16-8) and Indiana (.738; 51-12-19).
 
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 79-25-17 (.723) in his five-plus seasons on The Farm. He owns a career record of 266-86-48 (.725) in 18-plus seasons, a mark which makes him the fourth winningest active coach at the Division I level by percentage. Carlos Somoano of North Carolina is first (.763; 104-25-21), followed by Ray Reid of Connecticut (.746; 433-123-73) and Schellas Hyndman at Grand Canyon (.744; 487-150-54). 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).

CONVERTING CHANCES » Stanford has already scored a school-record 25 times in Pac-12 play, besting the previous mark of 22 set in 2012, and 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 that has scored 40 and given up fewer than 10. Stanford is fifth in the nation in scoring offense (2.35) and second in assists per game (3.12). This season is just the second time since 2002 that the Cardinal has scored more than 40 goals in a season (2015 - 43).
 
LANGSDORF LEADS » Last year's Co-Pac-12 Player of the Year Foster Langsdorf is menacing defenses again in 2017 and the senior is 20th nationally in total goals (11) and 22nd in goals per game (0.65). 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 with 34 career goals and alone in seventh with 80 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.
 
BACK-TO-BACK OF A DIFFERENT SORT? » Since men's soccer became a Pac-12 sport in 2000, no one has earned multiple Pac-12 Player of the Year awards. Langsdorf currently leads the league lead in both goals and points and is close to breaking the conference's career scoring record. He is tied with Kevin Forrest of Washington who scored 34 from 2003-07.

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 fourth among all active players, behind Rider's Jose Aguinaga (32), Cal's Jose Carrera-Garcia (29) and Wisconsin's Christopher Mueller (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 eight solo shutouts in 15 games, already tied for 10th in program history. He's eighth nationally in goals against average (0.531) and his shutout total is 13th 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.

NCAA RANKS » Defensively, Stanford is sixth in the nation in both shutout percentage (0.588) and goals against average (0.523).
 
HOME OR ROAD, IT DOESN'T MATTER » Stanford has posted a 35-3-7 (.856) record at home since 2014 with a goals against average of 0.53. The Cardinal is unbeaten in road Pac-12 matches the past two seasons after going a perfect 5-0 this year. Stanford is 9-0-1 in its last 10 league contests away from Cagan.
 
AGAINST RANKED » Stanford is 23-14-7 all-time against ranked opponents under Jeremy Gunn, including 16-2-5 in its last 23. The Cardinal is 9-6-5 at home against ranked opponents since 2012.
 
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 recently returned from Spain 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 121 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 56-0-6 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. Stanford also placed a league-best four on the All-Pac-12 preseason team in seniors Corey Baird, Hilliard-Arce, Langsdorf and Drew Skundrich. Hilliard-Arce was also voted to the Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Best XI first team, Langsdorf the second team, Skundrich the third team and Logan Panchot the freshman team. Stanford's four preseason honorees tied Virginia for the national lead.
 
WHAT'S BACK, WHAT'S NOT » Unlike last season, when Stanford was forced to replace nearly have of its lineup, nine of 11 starters return 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.