By: Jillian Queri & Calvin Jouard
In a matchup between the two titans of the MPSF conference, the no. 13 Stanford Cardinal took Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium by storm on April 3 in Denver.
After a tough 15-7 loss to unranked Cornell on March 31, the Cardinal were ready to fight for victory against the Denver Pioneers, and won in convincing fashion, 14-7.
“We were really focused on making a statement for our conference games and setting the tone for how we want to play the rest of the conference season,” said Stanford head coach Amy Bokker.
Out of the gate, Stanford began their run and never looked back. Kelly Myers started off the scoring for the Cardinal after securing a free position shot past Denver goalie, Hannah Hook.
A few minutes later, Stanford would score again, this time coming from Denver native Lucy Dikeou after a doorstep feed from Mackenzie Tesei.
The first goal for the Pioneers would come from freshman Katherine Fischer after an unassisted drive to the cage. Fischer would later receive two yellow cards, removing her from the field for the remainder of the game.
Simple mistakes made by Denver in the first ten minutes of play gave Stanford the chance to take control.
“I think losing two defenders within the first ten minutes of the game was definitely tough. With Ali [Proehl] going down within 30 seconds, I felt like that really deflated us,” said Denver coach Liza Kelly.
Fifteen seconds into the game, Denver’s star defender Ali Proehl suffered an apparent knee injury near Stanford’s crease, and would miss the rest of the game.
“We worked so hard to try and get the ball back from them, but we just needed to take some better shots in the first half,” Kelly added.
A six-goal run at the end of the first half followed by four consecutive goals to open the first half saw Stanford take a 14-2 lead just five minutes into the second half.
Things went from bad to worse for the Pioneers, as the Cardinal dominated in nearly all phases of the game, controlling the draw and rarely turning the ball over.
The stellar Cardinal defense was highlighted by freshman goalie Allie DaCar’s six first half saves. She also allowed only one free position goal in the first half, making two saves on Denver’s other two opportunities.
“I think defensively this was our best performance of the year because everyone knew that we were going to have each other’s backs,” DaCar said. “We have defensive goals that we try to meet every game and we haven’t exactly been meeting those goals but this game we all turned it on and trusted each other and played for each other.”
Stanford seemed to let off the gas pedal with a 14-2 lead halfway through the second half. Midfielder Rachael Dillon jumpstarted what looked to be a Denver rally when she performed a hat trick to cut the Stanford lead to 14-6. Denver would score once more against Stanford’s second string. However, it was too little too late for the Pioneers.
Revenge was taken by the Cardinal, as the Pioneers won both games last year—one during the regular season and the other during the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) conference tournament. The win for Stanford also snapped Denver’s 17-game MPSF regular season win streak. This was the second loss Denver has experienced on their home turf this season, after their 12-game Peter Barton winning streak—which dated back to last year—was snapped by Louisville in February.
“Coming in after some tough losses we really had to look at ourselves, and see what we were doing right and what we weren’t,” Dikeou said. “We really focused on teamwork, and you can see from the variety of people that scored goals that we definitely executed our game plan and focused on the team rather than any individual effort.”
