Pair on the Road

STANFORD, Calif. - No. 19 Stanford women's lacrosse gets set for its first Pac-12 road weekend of the season. The Cardinal heads to Tempe to take on Arizona State on Saturday at noon, and then makes the trip to Los Angeles to face No. 20 USC in a Monday matinee on Pac-12 Network at 4 p.m. 
 

MATCHUPS

• Fun fact. Stanford played both these teams on the exact same dates a year ago. On March 23, 2018, Stanford beat Arizona State, 17-7, at Cagan Stadium, and 365 days from the matchup against USC (March 25), Stanford defeated the 13th-ranked Trojans, 12-11, in three overtimes. 
• Stanford won both games against Arizona State in the Sun Devils' first season of existence in 2018. That included a the win on The Farm and a 20-8 victory in Tempe on March 30.
• Stanford holds a 6-5 edge in the series against USC due to a three-game season sweep of the Trojans last year—decided by a total of five goals. Four of the 11 matchups have been decided by one goal and each of the last six have been decided by three goals or less. Stanford is 1-3 all-time at USC, including a 14-8 loss to the fifth-ranked Trojans in the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

DRAW CONTROL DUO

• Seniors Genesis Lucero and Julia Massaro are both within striking distance of the program's all-time career record for draw controls. Massaro is just one away from matching the record and two from breaking the 14-year-old mark. 
• The pair each entered the season in fourth-place in the Stanford record book with 121 draw controls. 
• Both have moved up a spot in the record book this year, passing Kelly Myers (2015-18), who had 123 during her career. Massaro is now second all-time in Stanford history with 160 draw controls, while Lucero is currently fourth with with 149.
• Against Cal, Massaro passed Lucy Dikeou, who finished two shy of the school record with 159 draw controls between 2013-16. 
• Kelsey Twist (2002-05) holds the school record with 161.
• Last season, Julia Massaro set the single-season school record for draw controls with 86. She suprassed Lucy Dikeou, who had 64 in 2015. Then-junior Genesis Lucero also broke Dikeou's record with her 67 draw controls in 2018. 
• On April 20 against Cal last season, Massaro broke the Stanford single-season record, and in the same game, set the Stanford single-game standard with 11 draw controls.

SEASON NOTABLES

• Entering the weekend...
• Stanford  has won six of its last seven. 
• Stanford has won eight straight road games dating back to an 18-16 setback at No. 19 Colorado on March 9, 2018 — the first-ever Pac-12 lacrosse game.
• Stanford leads the Pac-12 in goals (14.4/game), assists (7.0), points (21.4) and draw controls (15.3).
• Stanford's only losses this season were to ranked teams—against No. 23 Colorado and at the buzzer in the season opener against now-No. 11 Denver.
• Stanford's 15-12 victory at No. 10 Stony Brook on March 3 was the program's first road victory over a top 10 opponent since Feb. 28, 2015 at No. 10 Ohio State (12-10). It also halted Stony Brook's 33-game home winning streak at LaValle Stadium, which dated back to 2016.
• The Cardinal won four straight from Feb. 21-March 3 and has had at least one four-game winning streak in all 11 seasons under head coach Amy Bokker.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARDS

• Stanford swept the Pac-12 Player of the Week awards for the fourth time in the two-year history of the awards on March 4. Sophomores Ali Baiocco and Trudie Grattan won offensive and defensive recognition, respectively.
• Grattan also won the honor on Feb. 25 and is the first Pac-12 goalkeeper to win the weekly Pac-12 award in back-to-back weeks and just the second player (any position) to win two straight defensive honors. 
• Baiocco earned her second career weekly conference award. She was also a recipient last season and is the first Cardinal to win offensive honors since Kelsey Murray on March 5, 2018.

PINK GAME/ONE LOVE

• Stanford hosted its Pink Game on Feb. 21 to raise awareness for breast cancer. The team wore pink socks, pink laces and pink warmup shirts, and the field lines at Cagan were painted pink. The scoreboard and game programs were also pink as Stanford beat Fresno State, 17-7.
• Stanford hosted its One Love game to raise awareness for relationship violence on March 8. The team wore blue shirts and laces, the field lines were painted blue and the scoreboard was turned blue.

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. 
• Monika 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.

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 had its four-game winning streak snapped against No. 23 Colorado, 20-13, in the Pac-12 opener on Friday night at Stanford Stadium.
• Sophomore goalkeeper Trudie Grattan made 11 saves and sophomore Katherine Gjertsen scored four times to lead Stanford to a 15-8 victory over Oregon on Johnson Turf on Sunday.

UP NEXT

• Deja Vu. The Cardinal plays the same two teams in the same order just six days later. Stanford hosts Arizona State on Friday, March 29 at 7 p.m., and then welcomes USC to Cagan Stadium on Sunday, March 31 at 1 p.m.
• Stanford wraps up its three-game homestand with its final non-conference game against San Diego State on Thursday, April 4 at 4 p.m.