STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford field hockey suffered their second straight ranked loss on Sunday afternoon, falling to No. 16 Rutgers, 2-0. The Cardinal falls to 0-2 on the young season, while Rutgers remains undefeated on opening weekend.
Rutgers did all their scoring in the first period, striking first on a penalty corner at the 8:30 mark of the opening frame. The Scarlet Knights added to their lead less than a minute later, burying a penalty stroke for their second score.
Stanford was not able to get in an offensive rhythm throughout the game, as they were outshot by the Scarlet Knights, 16-4. Rutgers also held a 6-3 advantage on penalty corners.
"I thought Rutgers came in really aggressive, they are a sharp side," head coach Roz Ellis said. Meredith [Civico] has been doing some really great things with their program for a long time. Some good stuff came out of that game. We grew in areas that we wanted to from Friday's match, and that's real positive."
Both of Stanford's goalkeepers saw action in today's game, with Daisy Ford securing two saves in the first half before Kendall Dowd made her first appearance of the season with a shutout second half on four saves. Haley Mossmer led the Cardinal with a pair of shots, while Caroline Guden and Scout Butler also registered an attempt.
It was the first the Cardinal has opened the season with two consecutive ranked opponents since 2019, when they welcomed No. 15 Northwestern and No. 4 Connecticut to Varsity Turf in losing efforts.
"We wanted to open the season with two Big Ten teams, we wanted to set the tone and be able to analyze how we improve," coach Ellis added. "As long as we're on a trajectory of growth, this is just the beginning of the season. It doesn't determine where we are at the end of the season."
Stanford continues at home on Sunday, Sept. 3 at noon PT against No. 5 Penn State (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten). The action will air on Pac-12 Insider.