Championship Season in ReviewChampionship Season in Review
Women's Lacrosse

Championship Season in Review

No. 16 Stanford (15-5 8-2 Pac-12)
2018 Pac-12 Tournament Champions
NCAA First Round
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STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford finished 2018 with the second-most wins in program history (15), and claimed the inaugural Pac-12 Tournament title en route to its seventh NCAA appearance in the last nine years.


Inaugural Pac-12 Season

» 2018 marked the first season in Pac-12 history. The conference consists of Cal, Arizona State, USC, Oregon, Colorado and the Cardinal. Each team played each other home and away for a total of 10 conference games. 
» Stanford played in the first-ever Pac-12 game at Colorado on March 9. Sophomore Daniella McMahon won the conference's opening draw control, but the then 18th-ranked Cardinal lost a seven-goal first-half lead and fell to the 19th-ranked Buffaloes, 18-16.
» In the first-ever Pac-12 game at Cagan Stadium, Stanford knocked off arch rival Cal, 21-5, on March 17.
» Stanford finished the first-ever Pac-12 regular season in second place with an 8-2 conference record. Both losses came to first-place Colorado. 
» Stanford won the first-ever Pac-12 Tournament. As the No. 2 seed, the Cardinal defeated third-seeded USC, 15-14, in the semifinal on Friday, April 27, and then knocked off host and top-seed Colorado, 15-6, to claim the title on Sunday, April 29.
» Kelsey Murray and senior goalkeeper Allie DaCar became the first duo from the same team to sweep the Pac-12 weekly awards. Murray was the conference's Offensive Player of the Week, and DaCar earned Defensive Player of the Week honors on March 5. 
» DaCar was Stanford's first two-time Pac-12 award winner as she also earned Defensive Player of the Week accolades on March 26. She was IWLCA's National Player of the Week that week as well.
» In all, Stanford had five players combine for seven Pac-12 Player of the Week awards.
» Murray was named the first Pac-12 Attacker of the Year, and Ali Baiocco was the first Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.
» Stanford led the league with six All-Pac-12 selections, including first-teamers Murray, McMahon and Julia Massaro, and second-teamers DaCar, Areta Buness and Baiocco. 
» Stanford, which was ranked in one Top 25 preseason poll (No. 23 by IWLCA), was selected to finish third in the Pac-12 in the conference's first preseason coaches poll. The Cardinal was ranked in the IWLCA Top 25 each week this season, and in every poll since March 19. Stanford went 5-4 against Top 25 opposition.

 


More Season Notables
 » Stanford made its eighth NCAA appearance. Now in its 24th year as a program, Stanford made one NCAA Tournament in the 14 years prior to head coach Amy Bokker, but has now made seven appearances in her 10 years at the helm.
» Stanford's 15 wins matched the second-most in school history and was one win away from the single-season school record of 16, set in 2011.
» Stanford finished the regular season 15-2 since Feb. 19 with its only losses to Colorado—by a combined three goals and including one overtime.
» Stanford's eight-game winning streak from March 11-April 8 was its longest since 10 in a row in 2015.
» The Cardinal led the Pac-12 in goals, ground balls per game, points per game, assists per game, points per game, draw controls, save percentage, shots per game and shots on goal per game.
» Four Cardinal were named All-Region as Kelsey Murray and Julia Massaro earned first-team recognition, and Daniella McMahon and Ali Baiocco garnered second-team honors.
 


All-time Leader

» Graduate senior Kelsey Murray set seven school records.
     1. Murray became Stanford's all-time leading scorer with her 146th career goal against Harvard on Feb. 23 at Cagan Stadium. Murray's first tally of the game was the record-setter -- a free position goal at the 23:05 mark to give the Cardinal a 6-1 lead. Murray, who has now scored 192 times in a Cardinal uniform, surpassed Sarah Flynn (2008-11).
     2. Murray became Stanford's all-time career assists leader on March 2 at Duke. She recorded the 89th of her career to surpass Claire Hubbard (2007-10). On March 11 at Oregon, she became the first player in school history with 100 career assists.
     3/4. Murray set two school records on March 4. She became the first Stanford player with 10 points in a game (five goals, five assists) and tied the school mark for assists in a game. 
     5. She then broke the school record with six assists in a game against Colorado on April 13. 
     6. Murray played in her 78th career game in the regular season finale at Cal on April 20. That set the school standard as no player has worn Cardinal in more games than Murray.
     7. Murray surpassed her school record of 87 points from last season with 89 in 2018.
» Murray also graduates with the school record for career points (314), including a team-high 89 (50 goals, 39 assists) in 2018.
» Murray had a 74-game point streak which dated from March 7, 2014 against Towson, and ended when she went without a point in her final collegiate game against Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on May 11. 
» Murray was named the first Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year. She graduated with an undergraduate degree in psychology and a 3.87 GPA, and has maintained a 4.03 GPA pursuing a master's degree in communication. More on the award here.

One of the best on the field and in the classroom ??????Congrats, @kmurrs21 #GoStanford

A post shared by Stanford Women's Lax (@stanfordwlax) on Apr 24, 2018 at 11:26am PDT

Record Breaker

» Junior Julia Massaro set the single-season school record for draw controls this year as she suprassed Lucy Dikeou, who had 64 in 2015. Massaro finished the year with 86 draw controls.
» In the same game she set the Stanford single-season record, Massaro set the Stanford single-game standard with 11 draw controls against Cal on April 20. 
» Junior Genesis Lucero also broke Dikeou's record with 66 draw controls in 2018.

 

On the Road Again

» The women of Stanford lacrosse had quite the 11-day adventure. From March 1-11, the team traveled more than 7,700 miles, spent time in five different airports and hit 10 different cities for its road games at No. 15 Duke, Elon, No. 19 Colorado and Oregon. 
» The team also lost an hour due to daylight savings time on this trip.
» Stanford flew in and out of airports in San Francisco, Raleigh, San Jose, Denver and Portland.  
» In addition to the airports, the Cardinal also took the team bus to Durham, Elon, Boulder, Eugene and Palo Alto. 
» In all, Stanford logged 7,317 miles in the air and 462 miles on the bus. 
» Stanford went 3-1 on the road trip. All three wins came by double digits and the only loss was to the 19th-ranked Buffaloes, 18-16.

Senior Weekend
 » Nine Stanford seniors played their final game on The Farm on April 15. The Cardinal honored Cameron Park, Kelly Myers, Maggie Nick, Sydney Shaw, Madison O'Leary, Kelsey Murray, Sandy Smith, Allie DaCar and Dillon Schoen. 
» Over the last four years the nine Stanford seniors led the Cardinal to 55 victories, two conference championships and three NCAA tournament appearances.
» On Senior Day, the seniors played a big part in the Pac-12 victory over Oregon. A full recap is here.
 


Freshman Features

» What is the transition from high school to Stanford like? The freshman class answered all your questions in Freshman Features:
» At what moment did you know you wanted to attend Stanford?
» What has surprised you the most about your first few months on campus?
» What is your favorite class so far and why?
» What were you most nervous about starting your freshman year and how has that changed?
» What is your favorite part about living in California?
» Describe what the team dynamic is like? 
» What advice would you give to future Cardinal laxers?


Follow the Cardinal

» You can follow Cardinal lacrosse all year long on instagram, twitter and snapchat (@StanfordWlax).