STANFORD, Calif. – There are seven freshmen on the Stanford women's soccer team and Jordan DiBiasi hopes they're paying attention.
During these weeks of camp, until Friday's opener at UC Davis, DiBiasi wants them to notice. It's not just the effort DiBiasi puts into each drill, scrimmage, and conditioning repetition, it's the focus. This, DiBiasi is saying, is the standard of a national champion. The standard of Stanford.
"The preseason is when the tone is set and the culture is created," DiBiasi said. "This is where the little details matter the most and where the habits are formed. We don't need to be peaking right now, but we need to set the foundation."
They couldn't ask for a better role model than DiBiasi, a senior midfielder who learned these standards from her older teammates. Along with fellow seniors Averie Collins, Alana Cook, Tegan McGrady, and Michelle Xiao – so close they were christened "The Mob" – DiBiasi wants to pay it forward.
A science, technology and society major focusing on design, management and computer science, DiBiasi reads the game so well, she sees plays develop before they happen. She is skilled at maneuvering in tight spaces and can shoot and distribute equally well, and she's tireless.
"Jordi's someone that knows what has to get done and won't stop until the job is done," said midfield partner Jaye Boissiere.
Said her club coach from the Colorado Rush, Erik Bushey, "Jordan values training. That's not the same for most players, or not nearly enough. Jordan is passionate about the game and is a person of great character. Her work ethic is a result of who she is as a person and what the game means to her."
Perhaps that's how DiBiasi developed one trait that dwarfs all others – clutch play.
A game-winning goal is defined in the NCAA statisticians' manual as the one that "is one more than the opposing team's final total." Of DiBiasi's 21 collegiate goals, 12 have been game-winners. In 2017, six of DiBiasi's nine goals were winners.
DiBiasi scored on a rebound of her own shot in the 67th minute of a 1-0 victory over Arizona, waited at the post during a first-half scramble to nudge in the only goal in a Pac-12 showdown at UCLA, and rewarded a brilliant Tierna Davidson run with a textbook one-two finish in the 79th minute of a 1-0 NCAA third-round victory over Florida State.
.@StanfordWSoccer is #NCAASoccer quarterfinals bound!
— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) November 19, 2017
Jordan DiBiasi slots in the winning goal with 11 minutes left to defeat FSU. pic.twitter.com/e4aghnYSOT
Two of her 10 assists led to game-winners as well.
"Jordan comes through in the biggest moments," said Paul Ratcliffe, Stanford's Knowles Family Director of Women's Soccer.
"Since she's been little," said her father, Joe DiBiasi, "no game or situation has been too big for her."
When she was 7, DiBiasi found her team, the Speedy Midgets, trailing in the final of a national 3-on-3 tournament in Orlando, Florida.
"We need two goals," the coach said. DiBiasi scored twice.
In the 10th minute of the 2017 College Cup semifinal against South Carolina, DiBiasi stood at the top of the 6-yard box and met a free kick from Tegan McGrady with a glancing header while leaning away from the goal and with a defender on her back. The ball spun inside the far post for the first of her two goals in a 2-0 victory.
"That was the craziest," she said. "I don't know how that even happened. I remember standing in the box and I knew I was going to beat my defender to the ball. I didn't realize I moved my body in a weird way until I watched it later. Nine out of 10 times I don't think I'm going to get to that."
Coaches and teammates know better, recalling the goal with a sense of awe.
DiBiasi played with the same Colorado Rush club as U.S. national teamer Lindsey Horan, who is known for her skill in the air.
"Jordan always watched her and looked up to her," Joe DiBiasi said. "Jordan worked hours in the air to do that. When that goal happened, it was like, Yeah, that's what she does."
Ratcliffe, too, saw the work behind it.
"Look at that goal," he said. "Determination, to get into that spot and be brave and strong and hold that player off. Amazing technique, to be able to head it backwards, across your body to the other corner of the goal. Fantastic.
"That's what I think of when I think of Jordan – great determination, perseverance, work ethic, and exceptional technique."
So, freshmen … when you're sweating in the sun, the legs are getting heavy, the touches are getting wild, and you need inspiration … look at No. 11. That's how you do things at Stanford.