STANFORD, Calif. – No. 1 Stanford held off a hard-charging No. 6 Pacific squad, 14-13, to advance to the Mountain Pacific Invitational semifinals and remain undefeated at 12-0.
The Cardinal advanced to play No. 2 UCLA in the second semifinal match of the evening, scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday. No. 3 USC will face No. 4 California in the other semifinal match, scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
Stanford led by as many as six goals (12-6) on a Tyler Abramson score with a little less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter, but the Tigers began to slice into the Cardinal advantage from there.
Pacific's Luis Araya slipped the ball in the cage for the second of back-to-back scores for the Tigers with just over a minute remaining in the third to cut it to four.
After Stanford was forced to change goalies following a second yellow card, the Cardinal and the Tigers traded scores in the final 42 seconds of the period.
Pacific continued to cut into the Cardinal lead with a Luke Pavillard score with six minutes remaining, but senior Blake Parrish countered with a cross-cage score for the hat trick moments later. More importantly, the goal with 5:34 remaining proved to be the difference.
The Tigers found the back of the cage three times in the final five minutes, but were denied the equalizer. After an Engin Ege Colak goal for Pacific with 15 seconds remaining cut it to one, Stanford took possession and held on for the win to advance to the semifinals.
Starter Oliver Lewis posted six saves in nearly three quarters of action in goal, while freshman George Hagestad finished with one stop over the final 9:09 of the contest for Stanford.
Sophomore Ben Hallock had another impressive performance, with four first-half goals for Stanford. Williams also had a hat trick for the Cardinal in the win.
