May 8, 2005
Stanford, Calif. - Stanford field hockey announced an 18-game regular season schedule for the 2005 campaign on Sunday. The Cardinal is scheduled to play eight contests against teams that played in the 2004 NCAA Field Hockey Championship last season, including a matchup against defending national champion Wake Forest. Stanford also has 2004 NCAA runner-up Maryland and national semifinalist Michigan State on its 2005 schedule.
The Cardinal will also play a pair of contests versus Pacific, an NCAA team for the first time last season, in addition to games versus 2004 NCAA squads American, Delaware and Iowa.
"We have planned an extremely tough schedule this year," said Stanford head coach Lesley Irvine. "We really feel as though the team will be ready for the many tough challenges and will grow from the type of competition we will face."
"Last year we had some notable wins against some very strong competition and we expect to do the same again this year," Irvine continued. "To go out of conference and schedule the caliber of games we are doing will undoubtedly prepare us well for our conference play. This is a huge priority for us, particularly as the conference now has an automatic bid to postseason play this year."
After a pair of home scrimmages versus Northern California rivals Pacific (August 16) and California (August 23), the Cardinal officially opens its 2005 campaign with a five-game homestand. Stanford hosts Miami (Ohio) in its regular season opener on Saturday, August 27. Delaware (August 30), Iowa (September 2), Syracuse (September 4) and Michigan State (September 5) also visit Stanford on the homestand.
Stanford will then hit the road for the next six contests, starting with its NorPac opener at Appalachian State on Wednesday, September 7. The Cardinal will also visit American (September 10), Maryland (September 11) and Bucknell (September 13) on the East Coast before finishing its stretch of road games with a NorPac contest at California (September 17) and a non-conference game at Pacific (September 25).
The Cardinal is home for just one game, its NorPac home opener versus Pacific (October 1), before returning to the road. Stanford begins a three-game trip at Davidson on Friday, October 7, before back-to-back contests versus North Carolina (October 9) and Wake Forest (October 10) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Stanford will play its final three games of the regular season at home, starting with a NorPac contest against Longwood (October 15), followed by a non-conference game versus California (October 29) and a visit from Radford (October 31) in the regular season finale for the Cardinal. Stanford will also host its Alumnae (October 22) in the midst of its final string of home games.
Stanford's NorPac schedule changes from last year when the Cardinal played NorPac West Division foes California, Pacific and Southwest Missouri State in a double round-robin. This season, the Cardinal will play each of its NorPac foes only once in conference games with contests scheduled against traditional rivals California and Pacific, as well as Appalachian State, Davidson, Longwood and Radford.
The 2005 NorPac Championship will be hosted by California and take place Thursday-Saturday, November 3-5.
The winner of the NorPac Championship will claim the conference's first ever automatic NCAA berth. In past years, the NorPac champ would have to win a NCAA Play-In Game to get in the 16-team NCAA field.
The 2005 NCAA Championship begins with Regional from Saturday-Sunday, November 12-13. The national semifinals will be held on Friday, November 18, with the two winners advancing to the NCAA Championship Game on Sunday, November 20. All sites and times for NCAA Championship action are still to be announced.