MUNCIE, Ind. - Stanford delivered another dominant performance on Sunday afternoon, defeating Ball State, 5-0, to sweep the season-opening road trip.
The Cardinal maintained control from start to finish, outshooting Ball State 19-2 and holding an 11-2 advantage in penalty corners. With the victory, Stanford improves to 2-0 on the young season, while Ball State falls to 0-2.
"No matter who you are, winning two games on the road is extremely difficult," head coach Roz Ellis said. "We told the team they would need to choose to work harder than they did on Friday, so it was really great to see them dig in and come away with a win today."
Among the goal scorers for the Cardinal were Alayna Burns, Chantal Eiwanger, Star Horlock, Liv Martin, and Cara Sambeth. Sambeth added an assist alongside Kate Nemec, while Daisy Ford moves to 2-0 as Stanford's starting goalkeeper.
"We've trained a lot this offseason on earning scrappy goals," Ellis added. "Everybody has embraced that mentality of just putting the ball on cage and that has generated a lot of goal scorers, which is threatening for our opponents.
For the second consecutive game, the Cardinal opened up the scoring early as Martin found the back of the edge off a deflection to take an early lead. Chantal Eiwanger then added to the lead with her first career goal off a backhand shot to give Stanford a 2-0 lead at halftime.
Stanford continued its offensive pressure after the break, maintaining offensive pressure for a majority of the second half. Cara Sambeth scored off a penalty corner for the second consective game, rattling the cage from the top of the circle to extend the lead to 3-0.
Alayna Burns found her first goal as a Cardinal in the fourth quarter, cleaning up another penalty corner near the back post. Star Horlock rounded out the scoring with her second goal of the weekend, sealing the 5-0 win for Stanford.
"We've worked really hard in practice this week on our attacking movement," Burns said. "Our main goal was to be relentless in our movement even if you're off the ball but it only works if everyone embodies that, so I think we've been able to have success because nobody has been afraid to take those selfless leads."
The Cardinal will now look ahead to its home opener in Varsity Turf on Thursday, Sept. 5 as they play host to Kent State. Stanford will also welcome Northeastern on Sunday, Sept. 8. Both games will take place at noon PT and will be streamed live on ESPN+.