STANFORD, Calif. — Kate Nemec and Maroussia Walckiers found the back of the net as the Stanford field hockey team dropped a narrow contest in the finale of its four-game homestand, falling to the No. 7 Michigan Wolverines at Varsity Turf, 3-2.
“We played nearly a full game of excellent hockey,” said head coach Roz Ellis. “I am really proud of the team for the gameplan and intentions the team set entering today. No doubt we panicked, and Michigan is a team that will jump on you when they’re down, but we will learn from it.”
The Cardinal, which had stumbled out of the gates against Ohio on Friday, played nearly 55 minutes of perfect hockey on Sunday, storming out of the gates with Walckiers’ second of the season just over three minutes into the contest. Having earned a second chance following a Mia Clark shot that got blocked off the first penalty corner of the game, Walckiers found space along the far side, sweeping home a feed from Liv Martin to give the Cardinal a 1-0 lead 181 seconds into the game.
Stanford, looking for the second, continued to funnel chances on the Wolverine defense, earning a 3-1 advantage in shots through the first 15 minutes while negating Michigan’s lone penalty corner attempt.
Keeping pace in the second quarter, the Cardinal doubled its lead following an ebb-and-flow spell of possession from both sides. With Chantal Eiwanger powering her way into the circle, the senior midfielder funneled the ball toward the net waiting for a deflection. Michigan, which dealt with the initial chance, failed to clear the ball out of the circle as Kate Nemec poached the ball into the back of the cage to give Stanford a 2-0 advantage. On the defensive end, Daisy Ford and her defensive corps stymied the Wolverines in the frame, earning one save while negating five shots faced to take the lead into the halftime break.
Coming out of the break, Stanford continued to pester the Wolverines in their own half, eventually outshooting the visitors 4-3 while forcing Michigan’s new goalkeeper into one save in the frame. However, the Wolverines mustered the lone goal of the frame to bite into the Stanford lead with eight minutes gone in the half. The Cardinal, though, kept Michigan at bay for the remainder of the quarter, taking a 2-1 lead into the final frame.
Stanford, knowing its opposition would throw everything at it, kept the gameplan going up until the final five minutes of regulation as the Wolverines eventually turned up the pressure. The Wolverines found the tying goal late in the frame, capitalizing on a retry from its second of two penalty corners in the frame.
Looking to get the final goal of the afternoon to negate overtime, Stanford continued to move forward. However it was the visitors who found themselves with the final chance of the afternoon.
“Our team has said it every single time but we feel as though we are not playing against top-10 teams which means they understand how powerful we are,” said Ellis. “Sure we feel the salt in the wounds on this one, but we will continue to grow and get back to work.”
With under 15 seconds to go, Michigan - which had switched its gameplan against the Cardinal halfway through the third quarter - sent a long ball into the circle that deflected off the stick of Abby Tamer and past Stanford’s Ford to give Michigan a 3-2 lead in the dying embers of the game. Though Stanford launched one final attack, a foul off an aerial ball allowed the clock to run out as the Cardinal fell, 3-2.
Stanford is back in action this week, heading back out east to take on Duke and North Carolina to begin Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) action. The Cardinal faces off against the Blue Devils on Friday, September 19 at 2 p.m. PT while Sunday’s finale against the Tar Heels is slated for 10 a.m. PT.