Road Trip Concludes at Northeastern

BOSTON — With a second-consecutive shutout, the best start for the Stanford field hockey team under Roz Ellis continued as the Cardinal finishes off its first road trip of the season on Sunday, September 13 against Northeastern. First strike against the Huskies is slated for 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT. 

FIRST STRIKE

Stanford completes the road trip following a clinical 3-0 win over Holy Cross on Friday night to earn its first 5-0 start in the Roz Ellis era. Stanford, which completed the season-opening four stand with four wins in eight days, remains one of nine NCAA DI teams unbeaten heading into Sunday. 

Stanford got it done on both ends against the Crusaders with a pair of Jenny O’Grady tallies offensively mixed with a two-save shutout from Anya Jackson on the other end. Stanford showed strong in the first half defensively, stymying the Crusaders penalty corner attack in the first 30 while Star Horlock’s game-opening tally stood as the difference into the halftime break. 

Into the second half, the Cardinal battered Holy Cross with relentless offensive pressure and stout defense. O’Grady converted on the penalty corner attack to push Stanford ahead 2-0 in the third before closing the scorebook with a backhander off a feed from Natalie Hoppe to push Stanford ahead and in the clear. Defensively, Jackson secured her first collegiate shutout while recording two saves and leading Stanford’s penalty corner defense that went 8-for-8 on the night and remains one of the last few teams to have conceded from a penalty corner.  

Star Horlock leads the Cardinal in points through five games this season after collecting a 1-1-3 line against the Crusaders on Friday. Horlock’s seven points scrapes the top of the leaderboard while Jenny O’Grady’s three goals ties Horlock for the team lead while ranking second in points (6). Having secured an assist in the win on Friday, Natalie Hoppe leads the Cardinal in helpers with her third of the campaign while ranking third on the team in points (5). 11 Cardinal have found themselves on the scoresheet including an already career-high three points for Bea Varley and the first points from freshmen Grace Essalih, Jula Proschel and Opal Sparling. 

Defensively, four players have started all five games on defense with Puja Nanjappa  leading the team in minutes with 238 on the campaign. Spearheading Stanford’s penalty corner defense, Nanjappa and the Cardinal have gone 20-for-20 on Penalty Corner clearances this season. Between the posts, Anya Jackson has earned the start and decision in each of the five games this season, earning a new career high in wins (5) while posting a 0.63 goals-against average and an .850 save percentage. Jackson tied her career-high for saves in a game with seven in the win over CMU last Monday and has only allowed two field goals.

Stanford’s bout against the Huskies is the ninth meeting all-time between the two squads after the Huskies took the last meeting with a 1-0 win at Stanford’s Varsity Turf in 2024. Stanford has yet to post a win on the road against Northeastern as the Huskies lead the all-time series 6-2.