Quarterfinal at Cagan

LOOKING AHEAD » In the quarterfinals for the fourth consecutive season and eighth time in program history, three-time defending NCAA champion and No. 9 seed Stanford (12-3-5) hosts Akron (13-6-2) on Friday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. PT in a match broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.
 
MEETING AGAIN » Stanford is 1-2-1 all-time against the Zips and the two will be playing in the postseason for the third time in four years. Andrew Epstein saved the 10th Akron penalty kick following a scoreless draw in a 2015 semifinal and Stanford beat Akron, 8-7, in a shootout in Kansas City. The two played in another semifinal last December in Philadelphia, with the Cardinal winning 2-0 behind goals from Foster Langsdorf (26') and Sam Werner (79'). Before the 2015 semifinal, Akron won a third-round match at home on Nov. 29, 2009, 2-0, behind goals from Teal Burnbury (29') and Anthony Amaipitakwong (37'). The first Stanford/Akron match came on Oct. 2, 1994, a 4-3 win for the Zips at the Reebok/Cardinal Classic on The Farm.
 
TOURNAMENT HISTORY » The Cardinal is 28-12-7 all-time in the NCAA tournament - 15-2-4 at home, 7-7-1 on the road and 6-3-2 at the College Cup. Its stretch of six consecutive postseason berths is tied for the longest in Stanford history with a six-year run from 1997 to 2002. Stanford, one of two programs to win back-to-back-back national championships, is attempting to become the second program to win four straight NCAA titles (Virginia; 1991-94).
 
QUARTERFINAL HISTORY » The Cardinal, 6-1 all-time in the quarterfinals, is one of eight teams remaining for the fourth consecutive season and eighth time overall (2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1998). Stanford will be hosting this round of the tournament for the fourth time, but first since 2002. The Cardinal hosted quarterfinal matches for three consecutive seasons at the turn of the millennium, losing 2-1 to SMU in 2000, beating Saint Louis 1-0 in 2001 and knocking off Clemson 2-0 in 2002. Stanford advanced to its past three College Cups with road victories in the round of eight, with wins at Wake Forest in 2015 and 2017 and Louisville in 2016.
 
POSTSEASON STREAKS » Stanford hasn't lost an NCAA tournament match in over 1,467 days and is unbeaten in its last 17 matches (12-0-5). Its last postseason defeat came at home in the second round on Nov. 23, 2014 to UC Irvine in overtime, 1-0. The Cardinal owns an active NCAA-record postseason shutout streak of 14 consecutive matches and 1,414:20 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 1,512:37, 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 five scoreless draws over the last four postseasons and prevailed in penalties each time, including at Saint Mary's on Sunday (4-2). The Cardinal has come out on top in seven 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."
 
HALF-DECADE OF DOMINANCE » Stanford won its fifth consecutive conference championship this season, a Pac-12 record, and sixth overall. The Cardinal's league record during its five-year run of dominance is 37-5-8 and its overall record since 2014 is 77-13-18. Jeremy Gunn is the only coach in league history to win more than two consecutive Pac-12 titles.
 
HERMANN SEMIFINALIST » On Tuesday, redshirt junior center back Tanner Beason was named one of 15 semifinalists for the 2018 MAC Hermann Trophy. Beason, who was not on the award's preseason watch list, has played himself into contention with a brilliant junior campaign. Vital to the Cardinal's run to a fifth consecutive outright league title, Beason was voted both the Pac-12 Player of the Year and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, the first in conference history to receive both honors. He led the Pac-12 in both goals (6) and points (15) in conference matches and has career-high totals of seven goals and five assists this season. This is the fourth consecutive year a Stanford player has received Player of the Year honors, following Jordan Morris (2015) and Foster Langsdorf (2016, 2017). Stanford has never failed to win the Defensive Player of the Year award since it was created in 2014, with Beason following Brandon Vincent (2014, 2015) and Tomas Hilliard-Arce (2016, 2017).
 
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR » Beason's center back partner, Adam Mosharrafa, was named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year on Nov. 19, the Cardinal's third awardee, joining Brandon Vincent in 2015 and Bobby Warshaw in 2010. A computer science major, Mosharrafa owns a 3.52 GPA and is a three-time Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention selection. This past spring, he was awarded best senior group project in CS-210, a software project experience class, for Aerie-Tech, a platform that provides situational awareness to first responders by using autonomous drones to survey desired areas. Mosharrafa has also interned as a software developer at Tophatter, a revolutionary e-commerce company, where he will work full-time starting in January. He will graduate from Stanford at the end of this quarter with his degree in computer science specializing in human computer interaction.
 
ALL-CONFERENCE » Stanford placed seven on the Pac-12's various all-conference teams with Beason, Amir Bashti and Andrew Thomas landing on the first team. Jared Gilbey and Zach Ryan were second-team selections while Logan Panchot and Charlie Wehan earned honorable mention accolades. It's the sixth consecutive season Stanford has had at least seven players honored by the conference.
 
AGAINST RANKED » Stanford is 30-14-8 all-time against ranked opponents under Jeremy Gunn, including 23-2-6 in its last 31.
 
CONFINES OF CAGAN » The Cardinal has 44-5-10 (.831) record at Cagan Stadium since 2014 with a goals against average of 0.49.
 
OFFENSE/DEFENSE » Stanford's passing and movement in the final third kicked into high gear with the start of league play. The Cardinal, which had scored seven goals in its first seven matches of the season while going 3-1-3, is averaging 1.85 goals per game since Sept. 27. With 12 shutouts this season, the Cardinal is sixth in the nation in goals against average (0.514) and redshirt freshman goalkeeper Andrew Thomas is seventh individually in that category (0.515).
 
SHUTOUT STREAK SNAPPED » Stanford had an active shutout streak of 974:15 before Georgetown scored on Sept. 3, the longest stretch in program history. Ethan Lochner's 65th-minute tally was the first goal the Cardinal had surrendered since a Brian Iloski penalty kick for UCLA on November 2, 2017, a span of nine matches. It was also Stanford's first goal allowed from open play since October 19, 2017 at Washington when Kyle Coffee headed in a cross (1,208:02). The Cardinal's nine-match streak of not allowing a goal from November 5, 2017 to August 31, 2018 is tied for the eighth-longest in NCAA history.
 
BOUNCING BACK » The Cardinal's loss to Pacific on Sept. 20 (1-0) was its first in 363 days. That result ended Stanford's program-record unbeaten streak at 21 consecutive matches and also snapped its 12-match home unbeaten run. The defeat was Stanford's first since Sept. 23, 2017 at Saint Louis (2-0) and its first home loss since Sept. 9, 2017 against Tulsa (2-0). Stanford still has not been beaten in two consecutive matches in the same season since 2012, Jeremy Gunn's first year as head coach.
 
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford headed into 2018 with the task of replacing seven starters from a year ago, including the conference's career goal scoring leader Foster Langsdorf and 2017 Top Drawer Soccer Player of the Year Tomas Hilliard-Arce. Those two, along with Corey Baird, Nico Corti, Bryce Marion, Drew Skundrich and Sam Werner led Stanford to three national championships, four Pac-12 titles, a 65-10-13 overall record (.813) and 30-3-7 (.838) conference mark in their four years on The Farm. They combined for 71 percent of Stanford's scoring last season (34 of 48) and are all playing professionally. (Nico Corti – RGVFC; Foster Langsdorf – Timbers FC2; Tomas Hilliard-Arce – LA Galaxy; Bryce Marion – RGVFC; Corey Baird – Real Salt Lake; Drew Skundrich – Bethlehem Steel FC; Sam Werner – Israel).
 
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, head coach Jeremy Gunn has led a team to the College Cup final four times in the past seven seasons. He and Virginia's Bruce Arena (1991-94) are the only coaches to win three consecutive NCAA men's soccer championships. His teams are 96-28-23 (.731) in his seven seasons on The Farm and he owns a career record of 283-89-54 (.728) in 20 seasons, a mark which makes him the fourth winningest active coach at the Division I level and the 18th winningest coach all-time (both by percentage). Gunn and his staff were named the 2017 National Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches and he also secured the first national men's coach of the year award handed out by Top Drawer Soccer.
 
THE CAPITAL OF COLLEGE SOCCER » Last season Stanford became the first Division I school to win national titles in both men's and women's soccer in the same season. Stanford has won more NCAA titles (117) than any other school and owns an active 42-year stretch with at least one NCAA team championship dating back to 1976-77.
 
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 76 of Jeremy Gunn's 147 matches as head coach and is 69-0-7 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.