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Women's Lacrosse

Opener Awaits

No. 18 Stanford (0-0, 0-0 Pac-12) vs. No. 19 Denver (0-0, 0-0 BIG EAST)
Friday • 6 p.m. | Cagan Stadium | Watch | Live Stats | Game Notes
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 STANFORD, Calif. - No. 18 Stanford women's lacrosse is set to open the 2019 campaign as hosts to No. 19 Denver on Friday. The first draw control of the season is slated for 6 p.m. at Cagan Stadium.

MATCHUP VS. PIONEERS

  • Stanford is 18-10 all-time against Denver.
  • Denver has won two straight in the series, including a 12-9 victory over the Cardinal in last year's season opener in Colorado—the game was moved back a day after a snow storm in Denver forced the postponement. 
  • Stanford's last win in the series came in 2016, when the Cardinal topped the Pioneers, 9-5, in an MPSF matchup at Cagan Stadium on April 1.
  • Denver was picked first in the 2019 BIG EAST Preseason poll.
  • Last season, Denver finished 13-7 (6-3 BIG EAST) and made its third trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Pioneers defeated High Point in the first round, 19-10, then fell to Maryland in the second round, 15-4. The Crimson and Gold averaged 11.9 goals per game, 23.44 shots on goal per game, and 17.2 ground balls per game on the year.

QUICK NOTABLES

  • Stanford went 5-4 against Top 25 opposition in 2018.
  • Stanford has won 13 of its last 15 regular season games with its only losses to Colorado—by a combined three goals and including one overtime. The last time Stanford lost a regular season game to a team other than the Buffaloes was Feb. 19, 2018 against No. 2 Stony Brook (15-9).
  • Now in its 25th 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.

TEAM USA VISIT

  • Stanford hosted Team USA at the US Lacrosse Spring Premiere, Jan. 25-27. 
  • The event featured the U.S. women's national team and U19 team as well as the English National Team, the Japanese developmental team, Fresno State University and the defending Pac-12 tournament champion Stanford Cardinal.
  • Stanford played an exhibition against Team USA and the U19 team. In two quarters against the U19 squad and four quarters against the national team, the Cardinal fell 19-14. 
  • Stanford assistant coach Kristen Carr played for Team USA, as well as former Stanford assistant Caylee Waters.

TEAM CAPTAINS

  • Representing three different classes, senior Julia Massaro, junior Daniella McMahon, junior Mikaela Watson and sophomore Taylor Scornavacco were selected as 2019 team captains.
  • Head Coach Amy Bokker: "They represent all the leadership qualities that our team values—confidence, authenticity, caring and passion—and are committed to carrying out the culture and leadership put in place by those before them."

SENIOR SUMMERS

  • Areta Buness: Environmental engineering research at Stanford's Spormann Lab in the Clark Center, including sulfate-reducing bacteria in the gut microbiome that serve as biomarkers of inflammation.
  • Genesis Lucero: worked at an engineering firm (Hunsacker and Associates) in San Diego.
  • Julia Massaro: worked as an equity research intern at Morgan Stanley in New York City. Monica Sivilli: interned for ION Marketing Group, a consumer engagement agency in New York City, and shadowed the CEO of Silicon Alley Media, a communication and PR agency. 
  • As a team, Stanford traveled to Fiji and New Zealand where they held lacrosse clinics, soaked in the culture and participated in some humanitarian efforts.


PICKED TO REPEAT 

  • Defending champion Stanford was picked to finish first in the Pac-12 Preaseason Coaches Poll. 
  • The Cardinal earned five of the six first-place votes and totaled 25 points. Colorado earned the other first-place vote and was picked second with 21 points. USC was selected to finish third (17 points) followed by Oregon (13 points), Cal (8) and Arizona State (6). 
  • Last season, the Cardinal was picked to finish third in the conference and then posted the second-most wins in school history (15-5), which included an 8-2 record in the first Pac-12 regular season, where they finished second and went on to win the Pac-12 Tournament.


RECORD BREAKER

  • Last season, Julia Massaro set the single-season school record for draw controls in 2018 as she suprassed Lucy Dikeou, who had 64 in 2015. Massaro finished with 86 draw controls in 2018.
  • 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.
  • Then-junior Genesis Lucero also broke Dikeou's record with 67 draw controls in 2018.


SCHEDULE NOTABLES

  • Stanford plays nine of its 16 games at home, including four of its six non-conference contests.
  • Stanford plays four games against NCAA Tournament teams from last season.
  • Stanford will have five TV games this season. The contests at Cal (March 16), at USC (March 25), vs. USC (March 31), at Colorado (April 12) and vs. Cal (April 19) will all be on Pac-12 Networks.


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. Then-sophomore Daniella McMahon won the conference's opening draw control, but the 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 and earned the conference's first automatic NCAA berth. 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. 
  • In all, Stanford had five players combine for seven Pac-12 Player of the Week awards.
  • Stanford led the conference with six All-Pac-12 selections, including the first Pac-12 Attacker of the Year in Kelsey Murray, and the first Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, Ali Baiocco.
  • Stanford was one of two Pac-12 schools to qualify for the NCAA Tournament (Colorado). 


LAST TIME OUT

  • Stanford finished the 2018 season with the second-most wins in school history (15-5) and claimed the inaugural Pac-12 Tournament title en route to the program's seventh NCAA appearance in the last nine seasons.
  • Stanford fell to Virginia, 12-3, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Harrisonburg, Va., on May 11, 2018.


UP NEXT

  • Stanford has a near two-week break before its second game of the season. The Cardinal will host Fresno State (Thursday, Feb. 21) and UC Davis (Sunday, Feb. 24) before the first road trip of the year at Albany (March 1) and Stony Brook (March 3).