STANFORD, Calif. — Martha Oakey’s career-high seven points and Kaleigh Sommers' stellar defensive outing catapulted the No. 10/8 Stanford lacrosse team to its eighth Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) win of the season as the Cardinal dispatched Bay Area rivals, Cal, 17-5 on Thursday night. With the win, Stanford claims the No. 2 seed in the upcoming ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championships while earning a program-best eighth conference win.
Stanford (13-3, 8-2 ACC) got out the early rust following last weekend’s road trip split, notching the first goal of the game with an Ava Arceri tally that the junior finished off the dish from Oakey just five minutes into the contest. The Cardinal then went back-to-back with goals 23 seconds apart just moments later with Aliya Polisky and Jordyn Case giving the Cardinal a 3-0 lead in the first seven minutes of the game.
However, California (6-11, 1-9 ACC) bookended the scoring in the final portion of the frame as two Golden Bears goals countered Stanford’s Amanda Lawson’s and Rylee Bouvier’s lone goals of the day as the Cardinal entered the second quarter up, 5-2.
In the second quarter, Oakey and Arceri took the reigns for the Cardinal offensively as the former notched her first of the day from the eight-meter hash to put Stanford ahead by four. Though Cal answered with two goals of its own, Oakey doubled down with an unassisted tally before Arceri went back-to-back late in the half to complete the hat trick.
Entering the half with a 9-4 advantage, the Cardinal dominated out of the gates in the third quarter, needing just 36 seconds to open the scoring with Jordyn Case slotting the brace. Stanford continued the onslaught with Oakey snatching the hat trick goal with under 11 minutes to go before Case earned the hat trick on the power-play 36 seconds after the Oakey goal. Peep Williams finalized the scoring in the frame on the power-play with Elise Murphy finding the senior for a layup in front of cage as the Cardinal claimed a 13-4 lead into the fourth.
Defensively, The Cardinal stymied the Golden Bears heading into the waning minutes of regulation as the shutout streak stemmed from the 10-minute mark of the second quarter onward. Kaleigh Sommers’ career-high five turnovers led the Cardinal as Stanford forced 13 of Cal’s 17 turnovers on Thursday, marking the second-highest amount of caused turnovers for the Cardinal defense this season. In total, eight players recorded a caused turnover for Stanford.
With all of the momentum in favor of the hosts, Stanford continued its torrid work offensively as Arceri snatched her fourth of the evening before Lindsey Devir grabbed her first of the game just minutes later off another Oakey assist. Lexi Rodell became the ninth different goal-scorer on the night, marking the 11th time this season Stanford has had eight or more goalscorers in a game with her finish off an Annabel Frist assist before Oakey snagged her fourth of the evening to complete the scoring for Stanford with over four minutes to go.
Ella Morton saw all 60 minutes in net as the sophomore racked up 11 saves on the evening while aiding her defense to a shutout run of 37:11 of elapsed game time, grabbing a near second-half shutout. Morton grabbed five of her 11 saves in a contentious second quarter to keep Stanford in the driver's seat as the Cardinal busted through for the eventual 17-5 win.
Stanford is back in action next week as the No. 2-seeded Cardinal square off against the 7th-seeded No. 13/16 Boston College Eagles on Wednesday, April 22. Opening draw from American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina is slated for 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT.