Andrew Mather – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Sat, 27 Apr 2019 00:43:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Andrew Mather – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Sailing sweeps Pacific Coast Championships https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/03/sailing-sweeps-pacific-coast-championships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/03/sailing-sweeps-pacific-coast-championships/#respond Thu, 04 May 2017 06:13:27 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126975 Over the last three weeks, the Stanford sailing team swept all three Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference championships, qualifying itself for the national championship events in the women's, coed and team racing formats.

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Over the last three weeks, the Stanford sailing team swept all three Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference championships, qualifying itself for the national championship events in the women’s, coed and team racing formats.

The Cardinal started off their streak with a narrow win at the Women’s Pacific Coast Championship, where senior skipper Maeve White, sophomore skipper Martina Sly and their crews, sophomore Meg Gerli and freshman Madeline Bubb, narrowly bested a strong UCSB challenge to hold on to the title. After a bit of a rocky start, the team found itself trailing the Gauchos by as many as 17 points early, but it quickly regained its composure to draw within a point by the ninth set of the event.

The four then survived a pitched battle for the final 14 races of the event, taking a narrow lead in the 11th rotation and doing just enough to hold onto it to squeeze out a 3-point victory.

Tensions were lower at the PCCSC Coed Championship two weeks later, where the Cardinal put on a dominant performance to iab their eighth consecutive victory in the event. A collection of five Stanford skippers and crews combined for a runaway win in the event’s A division, while freshman Jacob Rosenberg and junior crews Sarah Placek, Haley Fox and Elena VandenBerg squeezed into first place in the B division.

The wins qualify each team for the national semifinals in their respective events, which take place at the end of May.

Stanford’s team racing squad then completed the trifecta by edging Hawaii at the PCCSC Team Race Championships on April 30. Though the team came up short against the Rainbows in the first round of the double round robin tournament, it recovered in the second leg with a strong 1-2-4 victory in their head-to-head race.

UCSB then assured Stanford’s victory in the event by handing Hawaii a second loss in the final race of the day.

Both Hawaii and the Cardinal qualified for the national team racing finals, which are scheduled for May 28-29.

Stanford will take a quick break before sailing in the Sun and Satisfaction Alumni Team Race this Saturday, where many of the team’s alumni will return to the Stanford Rowing and Sailing Center to compete against the current team and other former college sailors. The Cardinal will then focus all of its energy into preparing for these championship events as the team continues its search for its first ever national title.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: Grading Haase’s first season https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/03/mather-grading-haases-first-season/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/03/mather-grading-haases-first-season/#respond Thu, 04 May 2017 06:02:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1124544 Stanford basketball's first regular season under Coach Jerod Haase is finally in the books. There were plenty of good moments, although barring a miracle the team will miss the postseason for the program's second consecutive year.

With the Pac-12 Tournament starting today, let's break down how everything went for Haase and the Cardinal this year:

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This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.

 

The ink has now been dry on Jerod Haase’s first season as head coach of the Stanford Cardinal for almost two months, and it was certainly a bit of a mixed bag. While the team played extremely well in stretches and nearly landed a win over an eventual Final Four competitor, much of this was overshadowed by its failure to make a postseason tournament for the second straight year.

Let’s take a more detailed look of how everything went for Haase and the Cardinal this year:

Record: B-

It’s no secret that Stanford didn’t exactly set the world on fire when it came to win percentage this season. It’s not fair to put all of the responsibility for that on Haase — he was working with a young team that wasn’t all that used to winning, after all — but there were certainly times in which the Cardinal seemed slow to adjust to the strategies the competition was throwing at them.

Take the run in December and January, for instance, when it seemed that every player facing Stanford could knock down threes like Steph Curry. In some of these games, the Cardinal’s opponents were practically running the same play each possession to get their shooters open looks, and it still worked most of the time. Or take the team’s difficulty in finding ways to beat the extra-effort defenses that its competitors would employ at the end of the games. These trends became features of Stanford games this season, yet it seemed at times like the team lacked a strategy to combat them.

Of course, Stanford did seem to play quite a bit better than its record might suggest this season and, while earning wins is the point of the sport, some of the team’s near-upsets do deserve some acknowledgement. Which brings us to…

Competitiveness: B+

The Jerod Haase era at Stanford started on a pretty solid note, with the team winning six of its first seven games and only losing narrowly to a talented Miami team. Then, things took a dive. The Cardinal lost seven of their next nine games against admittedly tough competition, and for a time, it looked like the 2016-17 season might be a disaster for the team.

Quietly, however, Stanford managed to recover a bit of composure down the stretch. While the win-loss record only marginally improved from the beginning of conference play, the Cardinal went from losing games by wide margins to at least being competitive deep into the final minutes of the game. Stanford took ranked conference opponents Arizona and Oregon down to the wire, nearly upsetting the Wildcats in Tucson for the first time in years.

The Cardinal’s inability to close out down the stretch was troubling, but with (almost) every major player returning next season, there’s room to hope that experience could improve the team’s finishing. If Stanford could add a useful piece or two, it seems possible that a lot of narrow losses might flip to the wins column.

Recruiting: A-

Fortunately, Stanford does have a few interesting players coming in the door next year who might be able to make an immediate difference. Haase made an early recruiting splash by landing Kezie Okpala, the 38th-ranked recruit in the country according to 247, and, according to a coach quoted by ESPN, international recruit Oscar Da Silva is even better. A stroke of luck then landed Daejon Davis, another top-50 recruit who had originally chosen Washington over Stanford before Lorenzo Romar was fired.

The verdict on Da Silva won’t be in until we can actually witness him playing college basketball, and Davis’ highlight reel doesn’t suggest he’s a terrific shooter, which might mean it takes him a while to adjust to college ball. Okpala’s high school pedigree suggests he’s a real winner, however, as he led his team to its first ever California Division II state basketball championship and made some truly big shots in the process. Hopefully, these players can contribute some necessary depth to Stanford’s rotation that might help the team take the next step during some of its tougher stretches.

While Haase’s first true class doesn’t have anyone that simply outclasses recruits, it favorably compares to all but the best of Dawkins’ classes. If the new players can learn Haase’s system quickly, Stanford fans might finally be in for a measurably better season next year.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: In basketball, Pac-12 refs are pretty much like the others https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/19/in-basketball-pac-12-refs-are-pretty-much-like-the-others/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/19/in-basketball-pac-12-refs-are-pretty-much-like-the-others/#respond Wed, 19 Apr 2017 07:54:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126112 Whenever there’s a controversial foul called in any college football or basketball game, it doesn’t take long for people on Twitter to start assigning the blame. And, whether these whistles occur during some #Pac12AfterDark showdown, March Madness regional, or, heck, the NBA playoffs, the officiating in our conference has become synonymous with ridiculous, over-zealous penalization.

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This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.

 

Whenever there’s a controversial foul called in any college football or basketball game, it doesn’t take long for people on Twitter to start assigning the blame. And, whether these whistles occur during some #Pac12AfterDark showdown, March Madness regional or, heck, the NBA playoffs, the officiating in our conference has become synonymous with ridiculous, over-zealous penalization.

This characterization of referees in the Conference of Champions isn’t always unfair. In football, there’s quite a bit of surface-level evidence that Pac-12 officials are fonder of throwing flags than referees in other conferences, and many coaches have questioned both the number of penalties levied in the conference and the decision-making behind each one.

Basketball, however, is a very different story. Despite garnering almost as much criticism as their counterparts in football, Pac-12 basketball referees actually tend toward the conservative side when it comes to using their whistle, according to an analysis I ran based on data from ncaa.com.

In fact, the Pac-12 referee average of 34.6 fouls per conference game in 2016 is actually the second lowest across five major basketball conferences. This places the conference narrowly above the ACC (34.4) but well below of the Big 10 (35.9), Big 12 (37.2) and SEC (39.6) in terms of number of fouls called.

Furthermore, the distribution of different types of fouls was about the same in the Pac-12 as it was in the other conferences. Around 38.4 percent of all whistles in the Pac-12 were for shooting fouls and 8.9 percent were for offensive fouls, both of which rank right in the middle of the pack. The conference was also comparatively light on technical fouls this year, tying with the Big 10 for the lowest total with 30.

Mather: In basketball, Pac-12 refs are pretty much like the others

Of course, counting raw foul numbers is a bit unfair on the officials, as many basketball games include good deal of intentional fouling by players to keep the score close. While it’d be nearly impossible to totally exclude these fouls from an examination of officiating trends, I made a fairly rough attempt to reduce their effect on the results, effectively by removing fouls called in the last couple minutes of the second half and overtime periods of every game.

Low and behold, this evens things up a bit. The Pac-12 called by far the fewest fouls per game during the final possessions, possibly because there just wasn’t as much parity – and, by extension, close finishes – in conference play as there was in many of the others. Accounting for this effect significantly narrows the overall gap between the Pac-12 and Big 10/Big 12/SEC, while also placing the ACC almost a full foul per game below the rest of the field.

Still, this correction doesn’t prevent the conference from hanging on to its overall position as the second most conservative in terms of foul-calling.

Mather: In basketball, Pac-12 refs are pretty much like the others

It’s worth noting that a lot of the reason why there isn’t a ton of difference in fouls called across conferences is that many of the conferences actually share the same referees. Unlike in some sports, where each league will have its own set of officials, college basketball refs are “independent contractors” who can work in the Pac-12 one day and the Big 12 the next.

It is also a fair point that even if foul-calling in each conference is roughly the same, foul-calling in college basketball overall can still be fairly derided. I still firmly believe that the NCAA should adopt a “continuation” rule, which would increase the relative prevalence of shooting fouls and prevent so many baskets from being waived off (for now, I’ll have to be comforted with the fact that this analysis suggests the current policy is being implemented evenly.)

And, despite the evenness on the surface, it’s admittedly still possible that Pac-12 refs are still making large numbers of terrible foul calls that don’t show up in the stats. The even number of fouls by no means guarantees that the foul calls are of even quality; it’s totally conceivable that conference officials could be erroneously marking clean plays as fouls and marking fouls as clean plays at approximately the same rate, at least to some degree.

Even so, it might be time for us to go a bit easier on our local officiating crews. The next time you see a decision you disagree with, perhaps you should consider whether your objection really has anything to do with the specific conference involved.

Hey, come to think of it, perhaps I should, too.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu if you want to explain to him that West Coast bias can also be just as real as East Coast bias. 

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Mather: Are international recruits the key to men’s basketball’s success? https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/14/mather-are-international-recruits-the-key-to-mens-basketballs-success/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/14/mather-are-international-recruits-the-key-to-mens-basketballs-success/#respond Wed, 15 Feb 2017 07:15:59 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123027 This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.   If you listen to the 247Sports recruiting page for Stanford men’s basketball, the team’s 2017 class has two commits. One is an impressive but unsurprising blue chip recruit from the Los Angeles area. The […]

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This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.

 

If you listen to the 247Sports recruiting page for Stanford men’s basketball, the team’s 2017 class has two commits. One is an impressive but unsurprising blue chip recruit from the Los Angeles area. The second, Isaac White, is an under-scouted Australian who plays for a club in the city of Adelaide.

The Cardinal have a third commit too, however, who doesn’t even make it onto the team’s recruiting profile. Head coach Jerod Haase has also obtained a pledge from Oscar Da Silva of Munich, Germany — a player so far away from the average recruitment radar that 247 doesn’t even have enough information to generate a composite score.

Da Silva and White are Stanford’s first international recruits since Stefan Nastic in the class of 2010 (unless you count Rosco Allen, who was born in Hungary but went to high school in Nevada). The search for hidden gems abroad is hardly a new practice within Pac-12 basketball, however, and a number of the league’s best players have come from overseas in recent years. Utah’s Jakob Poetltl became last season’s conference’s player of the year and was named a second-team All-American despite the fact that he’s actually from Austria. Lauri Markkanen, who is the top scorer on the conference-leading Arizona Wildcats this season, had played his entire career in Finland until he made the trip to Tuscon in the summer of 2016.

The surging popularity of basketball abroad and the growing number of “one and done” players have simply changed the college basketball recruiting landscape, affecting established programs and up-and-comers alike. Of all the programs in the country, few have been hit more sharply by these forces the Cardinal. Stanford’s academic requirements make it difficult to seriously compete for players, many of whom have little interest in completing a degree before heading to the NBA (admission aside, there just wouldn’t be that much of a point to it). The fight over athletes who do not fall into that category has forced the team to take on juggernauts like UCLA and even Duke.

Stanford has tried to evolve into the “one and done” market, but thus far it has yet to receive much of a reward for its efforts. Fans were briefly abuzz when Jabari Parker named the school in his top five or when Justice Winslow tweeted about meeting Condoleezza Rice, but in the end it seemed little had all that much interest in coming to the Farm.

The pitch for international players to make a trip to Palo Alto seems a lot stronger, however. The Stanford name is well known in many foreign countries where the difference between “Butler” and “Baylor” might get lost. And, while internationally born “one and done” players certainly exist, they do seem to be a bit less prevalent for whatever reason. Poetltl’s much lauded 2015-16 season was actually his second season at Utah, which he played in full even though he would have been a clear first-round draft pick after his freshman year.

Offering overseas prospects can be risky, but Stanford needs to look no further than the other side of the bay to see the potential payoffs. Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett recruited a single Australian player in 2001 and has since funneled a near continuous stream of talent onto his team’s roster (the likes of which including Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavadova). Even if neither Da Silva or White materializes, starting relationships abroad may lead to increased payouts as the sport continues its globalization. As more courts are constructed in Australia and more TVs are tuned in France, it’s growing increasingly likely that the next Lebron might get his start outside the U.S.

It’s possible that this year’s heavily international class on the Farm is more a coincidence than anything else. Haase had less than a year to pull together his 2017 recruiting crop, and many of the American players who might have otherwise considered Stanford had probably started to develop relationships with other schools. But it seems like most of the key components are in place for the Cardinal to attract recruits from abroad, and if White and Da Silva can realize their potential then others may begin to follow. Regardless of how it fairs in the heartland, Stanford may want to keep its recruiting sights turned to the seas.

 

Contact line Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Women’s golf starts 2017 fast with Peg Barnard win https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/14/womens-golf-starts-2017-fast-with-peg-barnard-win/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/14/womens-golf-starts-2017-fast-with-peg-barnard-win/#respond Tue, 14 Feb 2017 11:56:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122948 Despite not having competed since November, the No. 1 Stanford women's golf team showed few signs of rust last weekend as it cruised to a first place finish in the Peg Barnard Invitational.

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Despite not having competed since November, the No. 1 Stanford women’s golf team showed few signs of rust last weekend as it cruised to a first place finish in the Peg Barnard Invitational.

Led by two rounds of 4-under 67 from star freshman Andrea Lee, the Cardinal took an early lead and never looked back as they defended their home course against regional competition. The victory marks the first outright tournament win of the season for Stanford.

“Good team effort,” said head coach Anne Walker. “Always pleased with a W.”

Lee’s total of 134 put her in first overall on the weekend by six strokes. The number three-ranked individual in the country shot 10 birdies and only two bogies on the weekend as she earned her third individual title of the season.

“I’m really happy to be back in competition,” said Lee. “We haven’t played in a tournament for three months. I was kind of wondering how I would do today, but I played really well, so I’m excited about that.”

Lee was followed closely by senior Casey Danielson, who worked her way up to fourth place with a 2-under 69 on her second day of play. Freshman Albane Valenzuela finished two strokes further back to tie for eighth at +4 on the weekend.

The Cardinal fielded a B team at the event as well, which was boosted into fifth place by a number of strong individual performances. Freshman Madie Chou’s +4 tied her with Valenzuela for eighth, while senior Quirine Eijkenboom finished a stroke behind to tie for eleventh overall.

“It was a good team effort and I loved seeing those three freshmen do well,” said Walker. “The big takeaway, regardless of the win, was I saw a ton of stuff that we need to brush up on.”

The Cardinal will get just a brief rest before returning to action next week for the All-State Sugar Bowl Classic. The event runs from February 19-21 at the English Turn Golf and Country Club in New Orleans.

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: Emotional Pac-12 power rankings, part 2 https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/24/mather-emotional-pac-12-power-rankings-part-2/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/24/mather-emotional-pac-12-power-rankings-part-2/#respond Wed, 25 Jan 2017 03:27:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121882 This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.   You’ve read part one. Now it’s time for the second half of my annual Pac-12 power rankings, the bottom (and perhaps more interesting) half of the conference. No. 7: Utah After its emergence from […]

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This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.

 

You’ve read part one. Now it’s time for the second half of my annual Pac-12 power rankings, the bottom (and perhaps more interesting) half of the conference.

No. 7: Utah

After its emergence from the bottom of the Pac-12 South in 2014, Utah has shown that it’s not about to be pushed back down without a fight. The team has utilized the transfer market to reload quite well from recent losses, and I don’t expect the graduation of running back Joe Williams or loss of a number of linemen to set the team too far back. The team is also bringing in an intriguing offensive coordinator in Eastern Washington’s Troy Taylor, and he should have a competent quarterback to work with, whether it’s the experienced Troy Williams or up-and-coming Tyler Huntley.

No. 8: Colorado

It’s probably unfair of me to place the Buffs this far down. Colorado’s offense should be solid with running back Phillip Lindsay and experienced backup quarterback Steven Montez, and the team is coming off a championship in the (admittedly somewhat weak) Pac-12 South. The Buffaloes are going to have a lot of questions to answer on defense, however, which may pose a bit of a problem since three of their wins came by less than one possession. And, while pushing Michigan off the schedule is probably a good thing, the addition of a late-September matchup against Washington probably isn’t.

Above all, Colorado looks like it may regress a bit in a conference that overall looks set to be stronger, which can be a bit of a problem for a team that’s still not completely used to winning. As much fun as it would be, I’d be quite surprised if the Buffaloes seriously contend for the conference next season. Even so, the future looks bright in Boulder, and I think this team will remain dangerous to most of the opponents it faces.

No. 9: Arizona

Arizona seemed to try a lot of different things during the 2016 season, and almost all of them didn’t work. Still, the Wildcats showed enough heart to push conference champion Washington to overtime and thrash in-state rival Arizona State, and I think they might be primed for a bit of a resurgence next season.

Part of that is just by virtue of the number of players they return — at least 70 percent of their starting roster. The Wildcats should also benefit by having a relatively solidified quarterback in Brandon Dawkins, who flashed potential while picking up over 1,300 yards through the air and nearly 1,000 yards on the ground as well. If Dawkins can find a bit more consistency in his passing game and Arizona can utilize its returning talent to make some incremental defensive improvements, I think we could see the Wildcats make some serious strides next year.

No. 10: Oregon State

This is one of those picks where the team “feels” like it should be higher, but it’s hard to place exactly how. Oregon State actually salvaged a pretty respectable season last year after earning convincing wins in both its last two contests, and I think six or seven games on the Beavers’ schedule next year could be winnable if someone emerges from their quarterback battle. Gary Andersen and his team still undeniably need another year or two to jump back into the conference fold, but things are gradually starting to turn around in Corvallis. Earning a conference road win for the first time since 2014 would be a great sign of progress.

No. 11: Arizona State

Like a lot of the teams on this list, it seems like something could click with Arizona State and propel them to six or even seven wins. That something could be transfer quarterback Blake Barnett, who started briefly for Alabama (yes, that Alabama) and actually made a few nice plays before transferring to the Sun Devils.

Still, there’s a little more reason to be skeptical of an Arizona State rebound, mostly because of just how poorly the team’s prospects look on the defensive side of the ball. The Sun Devils have finished in the bottom two in the FBS in pass defense in both of the last two years and aren’t adding anyone to the roster who appears likely to reverse that trend. Head coach Todd Graham probably made the right call by bringing in a new defensive coordinator, but it still figures to be a year or two before the Sun Devils can completely crawl out of the Pac-12’s cellar.

No. 12: California

Justin Wilcox is probably a good hire for the Bears, but unfortunately, he’s pretty much starting at square zero when it comes to the Cal roster. While Demetris Robertson and Melquise Stovall should give him two offensive weapons to begin building around, all the rest of the improvements supposedly made under Sonny Dykes seem to have gone out the window with the departures of Davis Webb and a couple of key linemen. It’s probably fair to say the Cal defense is due for a bit of improvement under Wilcox, but then again, when you allow 42.6 points per game, there’s pretty much only one direction to go. Barring a miracle, 2017 could be dreadful for the Golden Bears.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu if you would like to tell him about your feelings. He’s a good listener.

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Mather: Emotional Pac-12 power rankings, Part 1 https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/10/mather-emotional-pac-12-power-rankings-part-1/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/10/mather-emotional-pac-12-power-rankings-part-1/#respond Wed, 11 Jan 2017 06:15:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121246 Welcome to the second edition of Andrew Mather's annual power rankings, an assessment of how things should happen in the upcoming college football season while trying as hard as I can to ignore things like the 10-year history of how a program did in the past.

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This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.

 

Welcome to the second edition of my annual power rankings, an assessment of how things should happen in the upcoming college football season while trying as hard as I can to ignore things like the 10-year history of how a program did in the past. My first go at this wasn’t really all that successful, but did hit at least a few things that others seemed to miss (show me another preseason ranking that had Colorado in the single digits, for instance, or Oregon outside the top four). Stay tuned for part two in the coming weeks.

No. 1: Washington

I certainly erred when I didn’t give Washington enough respect in my power rankings from last year. I was a bit skeptical of how “sexy” of a pick the team was, and this caused me to miss how effective Chris Petersen had become at building the Huskies into a contender. Now that Washington has officially arrived, however, I feel like it’s everyone else who isn’t giving this team enough respect. Despite winning the conference with relative ease and giving Alabama a real test in the College Football Playoff, Washington seems to have lost out to USC in most early assessments of next year’s field.

The Huskies are losing a lot on defense, but anyone who that thinks a bit of attrition is going to make it much easier to score against Petersen’s boys needs to catch up on their history. Meanwhile, offensive playmakers like Jake Browning, Dante Pettis and Myles Gaskin should continue to annihilate the team’s weaker opponents and fight hard against the best.

Washington and USC don’t play each other during the regular season next year so the top two spots in the conference might be a bit arbitrary, but it’s hard for me to see how the Trojans have better odds of making it to a potential showdown in the conference championship game than the Huskies do. Sexy or not, Washington is going to be a tough king to dethrone.

No. 2: USC

How many times has USC “found” the missing formula to return to their days of domination after losing Pete Carroll? At least four, by my count. True, one of those actually did amount to an objectively strong year (their 10-2 performance in 2011), but the more recent “resurgences” in 2012, 2014 and even at the end of 2015 have all attracted a lot of hype before ultimately burning out.

I’m actually quite a bit more optimistic that USC’s most recent rise is for real — Sam Darnold is a stud, and I have always firmly believed that head coach Clay Helton is the right choice for what has proved a quite difficult job. With Adoree’ Jackson, JuJu Smith-Schuster and a number of key linemen departing, however, there won’t be a huge margin of error for Darnold and Helton if they want to top their Rose Bowl showing this year. My bet is on it going less than perfectly.

No. 3: UCLA

As one of my friends put it, last year’s Stanford-UCLA game was really quite costly for both the Bruins and the Cardinal. While Stanford at least snuck away with a win, for the Bruins, it seemed to trigger the self-destruction of what on the surface seemed a quite talented squad. UCLA coaches, players and fans were just exhausted of losing to Stanford, and once their ninth consecutive defeat was secured, I think it took away some of the sense of purpose that the Bruins had going into the season. The team lost four of its next five games by similarly narrow margins before eventually throwing in the towel after its star quarterback got injured and with bowl eligibility only a distant hope.

This year is a new year, however, and if a few things go UCLA’s way, I think the outcome could be dramatically different. The Bruins’ defense will likely take a step back, but if Josh Rosen can find his stride and if new offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch can find some answers for the running game, then the Bruins could be a lot more dangerous than people expect.

No. 4: Stanford

You can never complain too much about winning 10 games in a season, but 2016 was still a bit of a mess for the Cardinal. The team did generally manage to sort things out by the end of the year, but the Sun Bowl injury to Keller Chryst and departures of Solomon Thomas and Christian McCaffrey have managed to reopen many of the questions that David Shaw had assuredly hoped to settle before his team entered the offseason. The loss of Solly on the defensive side probably won’t lead to catastrophe, but the Stanford offense is going to face a real challenge in replacing McCaffrey and (at least for much of the offseason) Chryst while simultaneously fixing some of the weaknesses that dragged it to a halt at times this year. The pathway to the very top will still be open if the offensive line comes together and if Bryce Love takes the next step in his development, but at this point I think that’s far from guaranteed.

No. 5: Washington State

Pac-12 fans probably recall that the Cougars were only one game away from winning the Pac-12 North this season. That’s only part of the truth, however. Washington State, in fact, needed wins in just two games in order to win the Pac-12 North in two consecutive seasons. That’s not the type of thing that happens by luck.

The Cougars are losing much of the talent that was critical to this run, like wide receivers Gabe Marks and River Cracraft, but with quarterback Luke Falk and All-American guard Cody O’Connell slated to return, this offense will still pack a punch. All Mike Leach and his boys need are a few key defensive stops to be right back in the thick of things next season.

No. 6: Oregon

Oregon’s 2016 was ghastly. It’s honestly hard to fathom how quickly this team fell off from its national title challenge at the end of the 2014 season. More than most of the conference’s other laggards, however, the Ducks were able to find some answers in their decline with the emergence of Justin Herbert at quarterback and the hiring of Willie Taggart as head coach. Throw in Jim Leavitt, the architect of Colorado’s defensive turnaround, at DC, and Oregon should have a pretty solid cast set for next season.

It is probably too early to ask too much from the Ducks, but I expect them to rise more quickly than most people imagine. The conference undeniably lost a bit of excitement this year without the kings of the spread in their normal place, and I hope for all our sakes that they get quacking again soon.

 

If Andrew Mather’s duck puns ruffle your feathers, tell him at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: College Football Playoff made a hard choice easy https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/07/mather-college-football-playoff-made-a-hard-choice-easy/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/12/07/mather-college-football-playoff-made-a-hard-choice-easy/#respond Wed, 07 Dec 2016 10:13:39 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120784 Under the BCS system, which for so long determined the college football champion, computers and analysts had to answer one deceptively complex question: Who are the best two teams in the country? Simple as it seems, that question would be practically impossible to resolve this year. It’s not because selecting the top team is particularly […]

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Under the BCS system, which for so long determined the college football champion, computers and analysts had to answer one deceptively complex question: Who are the best two teams in the country?

Simple as it seems, that question would be practically impossible to resolve this year. It’s not because selecting the top team is particularly difficult — defending national champion Alabama has never even hinted it deserves to lose its spot atop the rankings.

Indeed, the problem is that deciding on just one team to follow the Tide forces a comparison between teams that have hardly even played any common opponents (let alone each other). Rather than choosing a single one of these squads based on the hottest new metric, it makes much more sense to settle the question in the fairest way possible: by pitting them against each other and seeing who emerges.

Enter the College Football Playoff.

This year, choosing four challengers is much easier than selecting two. Alabama is the only undefeated team from a major conference, and just three major programs — Clemson, Washington and Ohio State — have escaped their seasons with only one loss. This would have been a mess for the BCS, but the College Football Playoff sorts things out cleanly. It’s fair to say that, at least for this year, the teams who have earned a shot at the national championship will all get one.

That’s not to say the Playoff has removed all controversy from the decision. Fans of two-loss teams like Michigan and Penn State have already cried foul, and there’s at least some basis for their displeasure. Penn State has a particularly compelling case, having beaten playoff-bound Ohio State and captured the Big Ten title over the Buckeyes. Michigan lost two nail-biters and brings in a quality out-of-conference win over Colorado.

When viewed as part of the greater picture, however, the decision to exclude this teams didn’t have to be that complicated. While the Playoff was intended to fix inequity when more than two teams deserved a shot at a national title, it wasn’t about handing out extra do-overs. When Penn State and Michigan both lost for the first time (the Nittany Lions to Pittsburgh and the Wolverines to Iowa), it should have been fairly clear given the performance of others around the country that their mulligans had been used up. The second loss each team sustained drove the nail in their coffins.

College football has simply always demanded near-perfection from championship teams, and the Playoff era is no different. While admittedly your team can do slightly worse these days and still potentially win a title, the CFP is still fundamentally different from the more lenient postseason systems of other sports. The playoff has improved the BCS in that it makes it more difficult for a top-performing team to be denied a chance to win it all. It’s unreasonable for a team to expect, however, that the hurdles in the way of a championship have been significantly lowered.

If anyone can be a bit outraged about not being chosen in the Playoff, I think it’s Western Michigan.

The Broncos went undefeated in a fairly respectable conference (the MAC) and didn’t even come close to cracking the top four. While this may create an undesirable situation like that of 2006 Boise State in which a team finishes the season undefeated but not a champion, it probably won’t put too much of the college football world up in arms. The emphasis on strength of schedule in recent years has not worked in the favor of teams outside the Power 5, and I think it would take an almost-unprecedented effort from one of these programs if it wanted to crack the Playoff.

Ultimately, all of this left the committee with a simple decision as to who gets to compete in this year’s Playoff. While certain people will undoubtedly remain convinced their squads deserved a shot, I think it’s worth asking how the system could have worked out much better this year. And in a realm that seems continuously mired in controversy, it’s nice to be able to say that for now, all is right in the college football world.

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu if you want to purchase a vial of Andrew’s tears from when he was forced to delete “Stanford” out of the column he had prepared months ago. Proceeds will go towards a fund to purchase a passing game.

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Mather: Past and future collide in basketball’s battle against Saint Mary’s https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/29/mather-past-and-future-collide-in-basketballs-battle-against-saint-marys/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/29/mather-past-and-future-collide-in-basketballs-battle-against-saint-marys/#respond Wed, 30 Nov 2016 07:26:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120479 When Stanford put a basketball team named the Gaels on the team’s schedule last season, I have to admit that I scarcely blinked an eye. It wasn’t until the Cardinal suffered a 78-61 drubbing at the hands of Saint Mary’s that I took a second look at this program from a small school in Moraga, California. While […]

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When Stanford put a basketball team named the Gaels on the team’s schedule last season, I have to admit that I scarcely blinked an eye.

It wasn’t until the Cardinal suffered a 78-61 drubbing at the hands of Saint Mary’s that I took a second look at this program from a small school in Moraga, California. While I thought I half remembered the team challenging Gonzaga for a few West Coast Conference titles some years back, I hadn’t really considered that they’d be able to hang with a Power Eight program like Stanford.

It turns out, however, that Saint Mary’s has been hanging with Stanford for a long time. Stanford’s series history with the Gaels goes back all the way to the 1913-14 season, when the Cardinal lost a low-scoring game at home by a 34-30 margin. The Cardinal would only win one of their next three matchups against the Gaels before finally asserting a bit of control in the series when they began a sequence of 16 consecutive home games in 1918.

Stanford’s 56-game history with Saint Mary’s seems to date back to an era in which college basketball was a bit more of a local affair and the team made a number of stops around the Bay Area in any given season. Along with Saint Mary’s and the program’s annual games against California, Stanford enjoyed long histories with teams like San Francisco, San Jose State, Pacific and Santa Clara.

While only the Bears proved able to hang with Stanford on a year-in and year-out basis, each team enjoyed at least some success topping its neighbor from Palo Alto. Saint Mary’s got 15 wins against the Cardinal before last year, the third most of this group behind Santa Clara’s 26 and San Francisco’s 21.

Of course, as time progressed and long-distance travel became more practical, the importance of playing these nearby opponents began to wane. Matchups against teams like Saint Mary’s went from being a fixture for the Cardinal in the ’50s and ’60s to more occasional in the ’70s and ’80s, until they started to disappear altogether in the ’80s and ’90s.

Today’s game will mark just the third time that Stanford has played Saint Mary’s in my lifetime; the last real home-and-away before the present one culminated in 1989.

Still, the timing for the present-day throwback could hardly be better. Saint Mary’s is currently ranked No. 12 in the country in the AP poll, and the Cardinal are off to their best start since 2011 under first-year coach Jerod Haase. Despite its historic dominance, Stanford will face a real gut check against Saint Mary’s, and even just keeping this iteration of the rivalry close would be a strong achievement for this young squad.

The Cardinal’s rocking run of play has been impressive thus far, and Wednesday’s game gives them an opportunity to take it to the next level. Aside from some chaos in the final 10 minutes of the team’s only loss against Miami, Stanford has looked to be buying into the new system of Haase, riding it to wins against quality competition like Harvard and Seton Hall.

Saint Mary’s is a different caliber of opponent, and its strong Australian recruiting pipeline that has included the likes of Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova seems to be at work again with players like Jock Landale and Emmett Naar. What’s more, this squad figures to be especially hungry after its promising season last year ended in only an NIT berth. If the Cardinal can at least keep these talents from completely dominating the scoreboard, it might indicate that the team’s progress is real and not just another one of the false starts that have teased Stanford fans in recent years.

While Saint Mary’s and Stanford have undeniably evolved in different directions, there’s something kind of cool about seeing them meet again in a high-stakes matchup. As much as the game of basketball has changed since these programs first met, this series is a reminder of how much a few players in this sport can change the entire fortune of almost any given program, as they currently are for the Gaels and as they may soon for Stanford. I hope tonight’s game continues to embody the surprising competitiveness that has defined this series ever since 1913. It’s possible that this old rivalry may still have a few new twists in store.

 

Contact Andrew Mather if you believe his choice not to major in history was a mistake at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu. Potential thesis topics he considered include “The gender politics within men’s basketball, post-Maples construction” and “David Shaw: An analysis.” 

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Mather: What Stanford football can learn from Cal (and vice versa) https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/16/mather-what-stanford-football-can-learn-from-cal-and-vice-versa/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/16/mather-what-stanford-football-can-learn-from-cal-and-vice-versa/#respond Thu, 17 Nov 2016 06:02:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120026 In the spirit of unity on this week of the 119th Big Game, here's a look at what I think both Stanford and Cal do well -- and what each program's counterpart would be wise to look at more closely.

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For two teams that are located so near each other and often find themselves chasing the same recruits, Stanford and Cal play pretty dramatically different styles. The Cardinal is known for their pro-style offense and stifling defense, while the Golden Bears live and die by the spread (with whatever defense they can muster).

Neither style is, strictly speaking, better than the other; however, I think it’s safe to say that elements of each team’s methodology could easily be applied on the other side of the Bay. In the spirit of unity on this week of the 119th Big Game, here’s a look at what I think both Stanford and Cal do well — and what each program’s counterpart would be wise to look at more closely.

Trust your quarterback. There is a lot, and I mean really a lot, to like about David Shaw’s offense at Stanford. Despite the quality that Shaw has had at quarterback, however, the passing game has often been an area that has, at least comparatively, been a bit of a weakness at times. The Cardinal have seemed unable to make much progress through the air this season, and aspects of the play calling — particularly against high-caliber opponents like Washington and Washington State — seemed to prioritize avoiding mistakes (even when the team was already down big) over creating big plays.

Sonny Dykes falls somewhere on the opposite end of the spectrum. Part of this has just been the sheer quality of the quarterbacks he’s had to work with — Jared Goff’s record speaks for itself, and Davis Webb has done a more than adequate job of filling his shoes — but the Bears’ coach deserves his fair share of credit for sticking with his game plan even in tough situations. While the teams from the Evergreen State swept the Bears as they did the Cardinal, Cal more than doubled Stanford’s offensive output against them, suggesting that perhaps at least part of Dykes’ plan was successful.

Run the clock. Cal’s offense is darn good, and, with the likes of Demetris Robertson and Melquise Stovall to build around, it figures to continue to be for some time. Cal’s defense, by comparison, doesn’t really measure up. Unimpressive only begins to describe this squad’s performance this season — the Bears rank dead last in the country in scoring defense and only barely beat out what may be the least defensively-oriented team in the country, Texas Tech, in terms of total defense.

Obviously, part of the path to improvement has to come from the defense itself. However, quite interestingly, Cal’s players have shown plenty of signs of life when they’ve been called upon. The team’s goal-line stand against Utah is probably the best example of this, while its fairly solid performance against Washington’s Miles Gaskin shows the players can sustain their efforts for large parts of a game.

Unfortunately, the defense seems like it’s called upon a bit too often. While some might write this off as a natural byproduct of an air-focused attack, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Mike Leach has really incorporated the run into his system in the past two years and to great effect — Wazzu was a 42-yard field goal away from winning the Pac-12 North last year and sits atop the standings so far this season — and even simply sacrificing a bit of efficiency in terms of yards per play to give the defense a break might do a lot for this team. David Shaw is the master of time of possession, and I think that the Bears and their surprisingly adequate running game might benefit from taking a closer look at his model.

Don’t get penalized. Another area where Cal ranks at the bottom of the FBS? Penalty yards per game. This is perhaps a bit unfair to Cal, which runs many more plays per game than most other schools, but, either way, penalty yards matter. A poorly timed flag can really kill momentum, and in general, they create yet another headache for a team to overcome in close games.

Penalties are a point of potential improvement for Stanford this year as well. The Cardinal have needed every yard they can get in many of their games, and David Shaw has certainly been hard on his team when flags have impaired it. Dykes has emphasized the need to reduce his side’s penalization as well, but improvement has been a lot patchier with the Golden Bears. While Cal’s coaches have occasionally attempted to spin some of their penalties as “aggressive penalties” that aren’t as big of a problem, the bottom line is that numbers are blind to intent.

Dykes has done a tremendous job of instilling discipline in this Cal program as a whole, and I think penalization is the last place where the team needs to play a little catch-up. If the Bears could find their way back to Stanford-esque numbers in this category, a couple of those close games might just have flipped in the other direction.

Create better stadium promotions. Marshawn Lynch bobblehead day was awesome. Your move, Stanford.

 

Ask Andrew Mather whether he thinks Stanford needs a Richard Sherman-Harry Potter bobblehead at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: Pac-12 basketball power rankings https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/09/mather-pac-12-basketball-power-rankings/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/09/mather-pac-12-basketball-power-rankings/#respond Wed, 09 Nov 2016 10:02:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1119416 Any avid readers of my column out there probably know this spiel already, but traditional media polls and preseason power rankings have never done all that much for me. Most analysts don't give much more than a cursory glance to teams before the season begins, and as a result most rankings end up reflecting past seasons more than they do the unique circumstances of the upcoming year.

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Any avid readers of my column out there probably know this spiel already, but traditional media polls and preseason power rankings have never done all that much for me. Most analysts don’t give much more than a cursory glance to teams before the season begins, and, as a result, most rankings end up reflecting past seasons more than they do the unique circumstances of the upcoming year.

In an attempt to fix that, I’ve put together my own rankings of what should happen based on this season alone. These rankings are likely to be significantly wrong, but if my preseason football power rankings are any indication there’s a chance I get a few things significantly right as well.

Without further ado, I bring you my preview of the 2016-17 Pac-12 men’s basketball season, a year that is already shaping up to be one of the most exciting in recent memory.

No. 1: Arizona

Man, this team is going to be fun. Allonzo Trier is back, which should on its own guarantee that the Wildcats will be competitive for the Pac-12 crown. Joining him will be a characteristically strong Sean Miller recruiting class, including Kobi Simmons, Rawle Alkins and, my personal favorite, Lauri Markkanen. Markkanen has obtained mild notoriety by leading the Finnish team at home in the FIBA U20 European Championship, and between his impressive 3-point shooting and surprisingly solid handling he appears to have the whole package. It’s going to take a lot for Markkanen, Trier and company to rise above the fray of the conference this year but, with Miller at the helm, the sky is the limit.

No. 2: Oregon

Oregon is the best team on paper in this conference, and, at least in the last couple years, head coach Dana Altman can probably lay claim to being the Pac-12’s best coach as well. I’m honestly a huge believer in what the Ducks can achieve — they’ve got a solid “Big Three” going for them in Tyler Dorsey, Chris Boucher and Dillon Brooks, and the return Dylan Ennis should add some more depth to a talented backcourt. The only question this year is really how Altman and his gang can handle high expectations — starting at the top is a new situation for the crew from Eugene, and I’m not sure it goes 100% smoothly.

No. 3 California

Last year wasn’t the ideal season for Bay Area native Ivan Rabb, but this season very well might be. With Jaylen Brown and Tyrone Wallace moving on, it’s up to Rabb to be the focal point of the Cal offense this year. While the sophomore still has a lot to prove, if Rabb can live up to the potential he’s shown the results could be quite spectacular. With a little luck, the Bears might become this year’s Utah and seriously challenge for the conference title.

No. 4: UCLA

Isn’t the conference just a little bit more exciting when UCLA is a decent team? Steve Alford still has a long way to go before he proves he’s worth his lofty salary, but this year seems like a great chance for him to start. If Alford can build some synergy between his experienced returners and five-star recruits Lonzo Ball and T.J. Leaf, this team could take a big step toward getting back to its glory days. If he can’t, Bruin fans may be in for another long, disappointing year.

No. 5: Stanford

Yes, this is a hometown pick. But there seems to be quite a drop-off between the top four teams in the conference and everyone else this season, and if everything works out right for Stanford then I think a top-five Pac-12 finish is within the realm of possibility. As dangerous as it is to get excited about the prospects of Cardinal basketball, there’s at least some reason to hope that the new energy brought in by Jerod Haase can lead to real improvement on the court this year. This program needs a bit of optimism, and I say we get that started now.

No. 6: USC

Andy Enfield seems to be proving the doubters wrong at USC, and this season has a chance to be his best yet. While has USC faced some attrition after its first return to the NCAA Tournament since 2011 last year, it seems like Enfield still has a talented group of players that believe in his process (like Jordan McLaughlin and Bennie Boatwright). Like most teams in the middle stretch of the conference this year, a lot could go right for the Trojans too. If nothing else, the days of easy road wins at the Galen Center are long over.

No. 7: Colorado

The Buffaloes are probably the safe pick to get No. 5 in the conference this season. While lead-everything forward Josh Scott is gone, the team returns most of the rest of a 2016 tournament roster and also gets a boost from the return of 2015 starter Xavier Johnson. I doubt Colorado will be some flashy upset king but, more than most other teams outside the top of this conference, they should be able to take care of business against the league’s bottom feeders. That just might be enough to see them back in action next March.

No. 8: Oregon State

I honestly expected the Beavers to do a bit more with the talent that they had last year. Making the tourney is always a good thing, but a first-round exit isn’t ideal when your program theoretically has its best roster in years. Oregon State’s sophomore core of Tres Tinkle, Stephen Thompson Jr. and Drew Eubanks has a lot of potential, however, and with few key breaks, the Beavers could put together another strong season. Doing better than a first-round tourney exit will still be a tall order.

No. 9: Washington

The Huskies have to be one of the most bizarre participants in the one-year wonder era of college basketball. Washington has cobbled together some pretty impressive recruiting classes as of late, yet, unless you follow the Huskies closely you wouldn’t necessarily know it. This year, the Dawgs add top-10 recruit Markelle Fultz to the roster, who has the unenviable task of replacing Andrew Andrews, Marquese Chriss and Dejounte Murray. If Fultz can add some offensive productions and the Huskies can get some stops then this team could accomplish a lot — if not, their time might be better spent getting ready for the even better class that’s on its way next year.

No. 10: Arizona State

It seems like Arizona State’s rebuild is finally going somewhere. Bobby Hurley put a really nice recruiting class together for the 2016 season, and Tra Holder has become a solid option to run the team’s offense through. It’s probably a little early to ask for too much from Arizona State, especially with top recruit Romello White ruled academically ineligible for the season, but don’t sleep on this team going into 2017.

No. 11: Utah

Good teams don’t tend to fall off drastically, but Utah is facing a seriously difficult situation this season. The team lost Jakob Poeltl to the NBA, lost Jordan Loverage and Brandon Taylor to graduation and then lost a number of their bench players to transfer. Kyle Kuzma should provide Larry Krystkowiak with one solid piece to build around, but it’s going to take a lot of young guys stepping up to move the Utes to the top of the pack. Other than history, I don’t see much that suggests they do.

No. 12: Washington State

I looked for every reason to bring Washington State out of the gutter of the Pac-12, but unfortunately it just doesn’t look like this is the year. Still, this is a fairly exciting squad for a consensus worst-in-conference pick, led by one of the nation’s best double-double earners in Josh Hawkinson. I’m almost certain that Washington State will get more wins than the lone conference victory it earned last season. I’m less sure that it’ll get enough to meaningfully move up the latter.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: The Pac-12 should expand (again) https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/02/mather-the-pac-12-should-expand-again/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/02/mather-the-pac-12-should-expand-again/#respond Thu, 03 Nov 2016 06:56:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1119110 Up until about two years ago, there was a pretty consistent narrative about how the Pac-12’s 2011 enlargement had gone. The conference’s two expansion teams, Utah and Colorado, had been uncompetitive in the league’s highest-grossing sport, and the disparity seemed so significant that there were even suggestions that the Buffaloes might leave the conference in search […]

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Up until about two years ago, there was a pretty consistent narrative about how the Pac-12’s 2011 enlargement had gone. The conference’s two expansion teams, Utah and Colorado, had been uncompetitive in the league’s highest-grossing sport, and the disparity seemed so significant that there were even suggestions that the Buffaloes might leave the conference in search of greener pastures.

This year in particular, the narrative has completely flipped. Utah and Colorado sit in first and second in the Pac-12 South, and the league’s competitiveness would be seriously suspect without them.

What’s more, it doesn’t look like this is just a fluke — both teams seem to have truly established a system and are primed for success in years to come. If expansion were a thesis, it seems its defense has been successful.

Now that the previous teams have been fully integrated into the fold, the question becomes, “Is it time to stop?” It’s easy to say yes — a lot of us still haven’t gotten past the fact that the conference is no longer the Pac-10 — but ultimately, I think that the possibilities are too tempting to put a moratorium on growth.

Expansion has already helped this conference improve, and I think a few choice additions are the best way to make it better.

Above anything, expansion offers the opportunity to bring in talented programs that, with a bit of luck, could help the conference end its drought in FBS national championships. The four-team playoff has created a strong incentive system for each conference to have lots of teams with difficult schedules, and while the Pac-12 already rates well in this category, I think there’s room for improvement.

The recent rise of San Diego State and perennial strength of Boise State have broken the Pac-12’s monopoly of power in the West, and integrating them could add two potential contenders to the conference to bolster the resumes of others — or chase a title themselves. Before Boise State lost to Wyoming, a serious case could be made that they deserved a playoff spot above the Pac-12 champion. Had they been folded into the North, it would have helped the conference by adding national intrigue to an already epic North division battle.

Interestingly, however, while the expansion should help the conference’s appearance of competitiveness, it might also actually help some of the old guard by allowing them to rotate more teams through their schedule. To see this, just look at the Big Ten after its leap to including 14 teams. While some of its members, like Wisconsin, are currently stuck with extremely tough schedules, others, like 2015 Iowa, rotated away from most of the conference’s contenders to extremely beneficial results.

Though Stanford put an abrupt end to the Hawkeyes’ fantasy last year, Iowa’s comparatively easy run at things allowed them to put on a show for the fans and ultimately helped them punch a ticket to their first Rose Bowl in over two decades. The nation’s three largest conferences have never missed a playoff, and this greater variance of schedules appears to be at least one reason why.

Football isn’t the only game in town, however, and I think that the impact of adding teams to the Pac-12 would enhance the amateur sporting world on this side of the Mississippi.

With Pac-12 TV revenues boosting their finances, expansion schools will be able to focus more attention on building strong programs in every sport, so they can compete in the conference’s deep leagues. With time, this should help these new communities build new cultures around these activities from youth levels up, helping more students get to college in the process. Put another way, we’re already staying up until midnight to watch these Pac-12 football games — that money might as well be put to promoting a more equitable system for talented athletes everywhere.

Ultimately, I think the evidence is firmly in favor of expansion. While the phrase Pac-12 has a better ring to it than Pac-14 and Pac-16 do, the advantages to staying small really end there. Here’s to hoping that Stanford’s future is full of trips to Boise or Provo, in football, basketball and every other sport.

 

Ask Andrew Mather whether he thinks sailing should be a Pac-12 (Pac-14?) sport at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: Chryst is the quarterback that Stanford needs right now https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/26/mather-chryst-is-the-quarterback-that-stanford-needs-right-now/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/26/mather-chryst-is-the-quarterback-that-stanford-needs-right-now/#respond Wed, 26 Oct 2016 07:41:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1118595 Stanford needs a quarterback to work with the group it has now, and I think that man is Keller Chryst.

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Before last week’s game, I made an informal wager with The Daily’s Do-Hyoung Park that the Stanford offense wouldn’t complete a play longer than 25 yards against Colorado.

While Christian McCaffrey ended up narrowly handing me a loss in this bet by turning what looked to be a short gain into a 26-yard reception in the middle of the fourth quarter, I think the point generally took. The Buffaloes were able to contain Stanford’s running game to relatively short gains, and Stanford wasn’t able to open up the passing game enough to make up the difference.

As with any stagnating offense, this lack of explosiveness wasn’t due to failures at any single position. Not even McCaffrey, a former Heisman runner-up, can totally escape the blame for the struggles that have caused the Cardinal to basically stop scoring meaningful touchdowns in the last few games. The offensive line seems a far cry from the very good unit of last year, Stanford’s receivers and tight ends have dropped passes and the coaches have hardly helped things along with some fairly uncreative playcalling.

With all this in mind, it didn’t seem exactly fair when the team announced Tuesday that the biggest attempt to jumpstart the offense would involve replacing just a single player, quarterback Ryan Burns, with another, Keller Chryst. Burns was hardly the root of every offensive problem that the Cardinal had, and in a limited sample size he had actually looked to be a better all-around player than Chryst. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Burns’s skills didn’t seem to work within the framework provided by the rest of the team, and a lack of depth at other key positions left the Cardinal with limited options to change it. Stanford needs a quarterback to work with the group it has now, and I think that man is Keller Chryst.

In his limited playing time, Chryst hasn’t clearly shown that he’ll be any sort of major improvement. I’m in no position to disagree with the Stanford coaches’ assessment that Burns has been a more complete player in practice. However, Chryst has shown he can bring a few things to the table that could help break the offense out of its stagnation. If he’s able to execute them against Arizona this week, I think it could go a long way to fixing some of the team’s struggles.

Perhaps the most important item on Chryst’s list of talents is his ability to throw longer passes. Even when he was in high school, Chryst’s tape showed he’s capable of hitting receivers in stride, something that Burns struggled to do against Colorado last weekend. While this skill might have been redundant if the Cardinal’s offensive line could steamroll over the other team anyways, it might just be what the current squad needs. At the very least, it should help turn around Stanford’s big play problem and allow it to run new packages that catch its opponents off guard.

Chryst’s physicality is another trait that might help turn the offense around. Much of the Stanford offensive line’s current problems seem to be psychological — the group was dominating talented groups early in the season, but simply got used to getting beat after the disheartening loss to Washington. It might go a long way to helping the team’s confidence if Chryst — a self-proclaimed lover of “hitting people” — starts doing his thing this Saturday. While it’s hard to fault Ryan Burns for being less skilled in this area, I think it could greatly change the team’s energy if it sees its quarterback stepping up with big blocks on key plays.

It’s possible that Chryst’s ratings will never compare to some of Burns’. Despite his apparent proficiency with the deep ball, Chryst has incomprehensibly struggled on short passes, an area that Burns seemed to execute quite consistently. However, even if he’s far from perfect, I think that Chryst’s unique set of talents are just what Stanford needs to get moving back in the right direction. Chryst may not be the better quarterback, but he’s the right one.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: It’s time to end Stanford’s quarterback ‘battle’ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/11/mather-its-time-to-end-stanfords-quarterback-battle/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/11/mather-its-time-to-end-stanfords-quarterback-battle/#respond Wed, 12 Oct 2016 06:36:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117882 Someone losing this battle will be what Stanford needs to start winning more of its wars.

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It seems like almost every year, at least one college football coach insists that he can handle putting off the decision on who to start at quarterback until well into the season. Though conventional wisdom has always dictated that the best course of action is to pick a player to lead a team’s offense and stick with him, some coaches inevitably seek to eschew tradition and try out some sort of collaboration or competition before they make a decision.

A handful of these systems have seen some success, but these hybrid models have rarely worked out as well as advertised. Generally speaking, these same coaches end up having to backtrack over their innovation pretty quickly — if their school’s athletic director hasn’t already done it for them.

David Shaw isn’t just any college football coach, however, and when he mentioned that he had a system for alternating between “starter” Ryan Burns and “backup” Keller Chryst, it certainly caused me to raise an eyebrow. It would have been oddly fitting that a student of history like Shaw might find the answer that has eluded so many of the greats of college football in the home of “intellectual brutality,” and my underlying skepticism was replaced more by curiosity about what sort of scheme he would trot out.

Five weeks later, it’s clear to me that his experiment has failed. And while getting rid of this system won’t solve all of Stanford’s recent problems, I think it’s a fairly good place to start.

At the end of the day I’m just not sure exactly what the Cardinal staff’s system has really brought to the team. Shaw has been “scripting drives” for Chryst to replace Burns as leader of the offense, apparently to get a preview of what the Palo Alto native can do without risking damage to Burns’ confidence.

On paper, this kind of seems like a good solution to this perpetually difficult problem. But after watching Chryst struggle mightily in these isolated opportunities, it’s become painfully obvious that this taste of a larger workload isn’t really doing anybody any good.

There’s a better Keller Chryst out there than the one who went 2-9 with just 13 yards and an interception against Wazzu. Watch a few minutes of his high school tape and it’s easy to see that Chryst can make huge throws, many of the explosive variety that could serve a stagnant Stanford offense well right about now. But between Stanford’s shaky offensive line, its struggling run game and the fact that the offense will make a scripted shift back to Burns regardless of how he does, it seems like there’s basically no way for Chryst to gain any confidence and start making these big plays.

Burns has done better in this system, which is probably to be expected given that it’s largely tailored to his needs. At this point, however, I just can’t see the justification in interrupting any of his momentum for these pointless tryouts of Chryst. At minimum, inserting a cold, anxious Keller Chryst into the game simply wastes a drive. If watching Chryst’s mistakes in any way shakes the Burns’ confidence, it might be doing a whole lot more to derail the team than that.

I’m not advocating for one quarterback over the other just yet. Personally, I would have liked to see Chryst be offered a similar opportunity to what Burns has received to see if his ability to go long could open up the field a little more for Christian McCaffrey. But more than anything, it would be great just to see this awkward system finally put to rest. When you have two quarterbacks that both are struggling to move the offense forward, the choice between them can’t be “all of the above.”

Switching up how things work at quarterback can have non-obvious consequences for how the rest of the team performs as well, like it has for USC now that Sam Darnold has fully relieved Max Browne of quarterback duties. A couple weeks ago, USC looked like they might be severely undermanned on almost every front. In each game since, they’ve looked like a competitive, powerful team that just might be able to reinsert themselves in the race for the Pac-12 South.

It’ll be tough for Stanford to exorcise its demons in the same manner and regain the momentum that it had when it was an undefeated defending Rose Bowl champion. After watching the proverbial train wreck that the team was against Washington State, however, sitting and waiting out the storm no longer seems like a viable action. It’s hard to admit defeat and terminate any in-game strategy, especially when it means one talented player will have to sit the bench. But with critical contests against Notre Dame and Colorado looming, I think it’s time that Shaw gives it a try.

Someone losing this battle will be what Stanford needs to start winning more of its wars.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu. 

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Wednesday roundtable: Can Shaw play conservatively in Seattle? https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/28/wednesday-roundtable-can-shaw-play-conservatively-in-seattle/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/28/wednesday-roundtable-can-shaw-play-conservatively-in-seattle/#respond Wed, 28 Sep 2016 07:15:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117336 Can Shaw afford to be his same reserved self in this week’s trip to Seattle against a team that is averaging 45.8 points per game?

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In last weekend’s comeback at the Rose Bowl, head coach David Shaw put on his conservative hat, settling for a field goal three times and electing to punt on 4th and 1 from the Stanford 39 toward the end of the 4th quarter. Can Shaw afford to be his same reserved self in this week’s trip to Seattle against a team that is averaging 45.8 points per game?

Andrew Mather (AM): David Shaw’s inarguably restrained decision making can certainly be frustrating, but at least this season there’s a very good reason to back it up: the Stanford defense. In their three matches so far this season — all of which pitted Stanford against legitimate Power 5 opponents — the Cardinal have only allowed a grand total of three touchdowns, and one of those came on a shortened field after a Ryan Burns interception. When you know that your defense stands a pretty darn good chance of keeping your opponent off the scoreboard, it’s a whole lot more forgivable to punt or kick in coin toss situations — especially when your punter has proven one of the best in the country at pinning the other team in deep. David Shaw’s team has been winning football games precisely because of this “conservative” decision making, and I expect to see it in full effect this Friday.

Lorenzo Rosas (LR): If a decision comes again where Shaw feels confident enough in his defense and the rhythm of the game has frustrated a high-powered Washington offense, then Cardinal fans and journalists know that adept and creative Shaw could definitely punt again in similar situations. That being said, Shaw’s usually versatile options will definitely be limited heading into this Pac-12 showdown as both the Cardinal’s starting cornerbacks, sophomore Quenton Meeks and junior Alijah Holder, were recently ruled out from the game in Seattle. Following their injuries in last week’s Rose Bowl classic, Stanford evidently began to leave holes in their passing defense, as UCLA’s sophomore celebrity QB Josh Rosen continually found patterns in the middle of the field.

Although the secondary ultimately held the Bruins in that pivotal late fourth-quarter drive, Stanford’s defense will have to rely on this weakened secondary for an entire game against a strong Washington offense centered around steamrolling Husky sophomore QB Jake Browning. In the first four games, Browning has been enjoying success through the air, scoring a total of 14 touchdowns while already nearing the 1000-yard passing mark ahead of their fifth game of the season. With Browning posing such a threat in each drive this upcoming weekend, Stanford’s thin secondary could ultimately affect how Shaw and his team decide to play close 4th-and-1 calls on the other side of the ball in a close game down the stretch. Therefore, whether or not Shaw trusts his defense, more importantly his secondary, will ultimately become a major deciding factor in close drives and plays as the game continues.

Tristan Vanech (TV): While I didn’t agree with Shaw’s decision to punt with just 4:40 left in the game at the time, it ultimately pinned UCLA back against their own end zone and resulted in a defensive stand that set up the game-winning touchdown drive. Junior punter Jake Bailey has been stellar in his first three games, and there is no reason not to have faith in him. However, with the Stanford secondary short on hands, the success of Shaw’s call may have actually had more to do with Jim Mora’s unwise conservatism in the fourth-quarter Bruin offensive scheme. While Washington barely passed its first real test against Arizona last week, its offense doesn’t seem to be at all tamable. Since we can’t count on a thinned out Cardinal defense to hold the opponent to its average of 12 points, offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren will need to dial up some big-impact plays and Shaw must give him the opportunities to execute those plays.

Senior wide receiver Francis Owusu, junior cornerback Alijah Holder and sophomore Quenton Meeks all left Saturday’s game with injuries and will not play against Washington. How will their absence be felt on Friday?

AM: We’ve been hearing all year about the depth of the Stanford secondary and receiving corps since the spring, and honestly I think they’ll fully live up to the hype when they roll into Husky Stadium this Friday. Losing Meeks and particularly Holder will hurt on defense, but Alameen Murphy and Terrence Alexander both filled in quite nicely for the team in the latter half of the UCLA game. This isn’t a case of replacing dependable veterans with untested freshman — Murphy and Alexander have practically grown up with Meeks and Holder under the watchful eye of Duane Akina, and while they might make some minor mistakes here or there I can’t imagine that the secondary is due for any ridiculous collapse.

LR: As I’ve discussed before, Holder and Meeks’ absence will pose serious problems for the Cardinal defensively against strong-armed quarterback Jake Browning and will ultimately affect Stanford on both sides of the ball. While Owusu will be dearly missed and can always provide electricity to any ball thrown to him (see last year’s UCLA catch), Holder and Meeks’ starting presence will definitely affect Stanford’s defensive capabilities and options overall, most likely shifting the Cardinal defense into less one-on-one situations against such a passing threat. In addition to being missed defensively, the thin secondary could ultimately change Shaw’s trust in his defense in close plays on offense. With Browning capable of making throws across the field, Shaw and his staff will definitely be looking to keep his defense off the field as much as possible, essentially changing some of his play-calling.

Owusu, on the other hand, has a strong list of teammates and wide receivers who can step into some of the roles played by the concussed absentee, and while he will be missed by senior quarterback Ryan Burns and playcallers on the staff, I’m more confident that Stanford’s WR core will pick up the slack left by their veteran. While Stanford continues to be silent about the injuries, these three key players, as well as junior fullback Daniel Marx, will all definitely change Shaw’s play calling on both sides of the field, but whether the Stanford team can adjust to some of their other weapons will be a big deciding factor in this Pac-12 north clash.

TV: The Cardinal’s backup cornerbacks are anything but inexperienced, so while the loss of both starters will definitely affect the passing defense, Terrence Alexander and Alameen Murphy are hardly newbies. They have played in pressure situations in big-time games, and I expect them to continue the “bend, don’t break” attitude defensive coordinator Lance Anderson’s squad espouses. Losing Owusu to concussion is truly heartbreaking, yet again the position boasts tremendous depth. One need look no further than sophomore receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside’s heroics during the 70-yard drive in the final stanza of Saturday’s game to see that when Burns can hit targets, Stanford receivers will come down with catches.

Husky quarterback Jake Browning has put on a show in his first four games this year with 14 touchdown passes and an insane 194.9 passing efficiency. Who will be most instrumental to stopping the Northern California native?

AM: No single player or unit stops a talent like Jake Browning, but I’m going to give the honor to Solomon Thomas and the defensive line. It’s not that this group has just been piling on the stats or anything, but on almost every big play for UCLA last weekend they seemed itching to get involved. The forced fumble returned for a touchdown in the game’s final seconds may have been the most visible example of this, but the defensive line also made a few big third down stops and sacked Rosen on UCLA’s fourth-down conversion attempt near the end of the third quarter. Obviously the Cardinal’s other units will have to show up to give the defensive line a chance, but if they do I expect Thomas, Harrison Phillips and company will give Browning just enough to think about to bring his efficiency stats back down to earth.

LR: I’ve already talked a lot about the importance of the injuries to Cardinal starting cornerbacks sophomore Quenton Meeks and junior Alijah Holder, but I cannot stress enough how important their absence will be throughout this showdown in Seattle. If backup cornerback pair of juniors Terrence Alexander and Alameen Murphy can provide a strong showing against the Husky quarterback, Shaw’s options both on offense and defense widen immensely as a result.

While the rest of the defense remain integral parts in helping provide success against Browning, offensive-minded Husky head coach Chris Peterson will definitely attack this weakened Cardinal secondary, and if the cornerbacks prove stout early on, Stanford will have a lot more flexibility in terms of game management that comes as a consequence of a regained trust in his defense. This defensive line can provide a lot of help to this secondary if they can immediately pressure pocket quarterback Browning consistently, but overall, Stanford will have to dig themselves out of a huge hole if their cornerbacks cannot hold their own this Friday.

TV: The defensive line will certainly be vital to preventing Browning from getting too comfortable in the pocket, but I’d say the safeties will be the most instrumental. The Husky quarterback has averaged 13.49 yards per completion, meaning sophomore Justin Reid and fifth-year seniors Zach Hoffpauir and Dallas Lloyd must step in to provide that extra deep protection. Only then will the Cardinal stop a quarterback who is ranked third in the nation in passing efficiency.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu, Lorenzo Rosas at enzor9 ‘at’ stanford.edu and Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Football mounts comeback to extend streak over Bruins https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/25/football-mounts-comeback-to-extend-streak-over-bruins/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/09/25/football-mounts-comeback-to-extend-streak-over-bruins/#respond Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:33:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1117219 In a game where both teams struggled to consistently execute on offense, the score explosion of the last few minutes left Stanford (3-0, 2-0 Pac-12) feeling lucky to escape with a win in Pasadena -- and the Bruins wondering what might have been.

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For nearly all of Stanford’s Saturday night showdown against UCLA, it looked like the Bruins had what it took to hand the Cardinal their first defeat of the 2016 season.

That changed in a hurry in the final two minutes, when senior quarterback Ryan Burns led the Cardinal on a 70-yard touchdown drive to give them a lead with 24 seconds remaining. Junior defensive end Solomon Thomas then returned a Josh Rosen fumble for a touchdown as time expired, cementing No. 7 Stanford’s 22-13 victory and robbing UCLA of a chance to break its eight-game losing streak against the Cardinal.

In a game in which both teams struggled to consistently execute on offense, the score explosion of the last few minutes left Stanford (3-0, 2-0 Pac-12) feeling lucky to escape with a win in Pasadena — and the Bruins wondering what might have been. UCLA (2-2, 0-1) kept the Cardinal out of the end zone for 59 of the game’s 60 minutes and largely contained Heisman contender Christian McCaffrey, but the Bruins couldn’t get the final stop they needed to get their first win over the Cardinal in the David Shaw era.

“They kicked our backsides pretty well, early and often,” Shaw said after the game. “They got us on both sides [of the ball]. We made too many mistakes, and they made too many plays.”

McCaffrey would finish with a respectable 138 rushing yards, but for once, he wasn’t the hero of the Cardinal’s comeback performance. That honor went to sophomore receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside, who out-jumped a defender to pull down Burns’ touchdown pass and give Stanford the lead with seconds to go in the fourth.

“[It was] surreal, I’ll tell you what,” said Arcega-Whiteside. “I’ve been dreaming about [getting] a game-winning touchdown since I was little… At the same time, I’m more happy that everybody contributed on the last drive and that they trusted me to make the final play.”

Arcega-Whiteside hadn’t recorded a catch before Saturday’s game but finished as Stanford’s second-leading receiver on the night with three catches for 29 yards. Sophomore Trenton Irwin enjoyed a breakout game for the Cardinal as well, notching 7 catches for 81 yards as Burns struggled to find his preferred targets, McCaffrey and fifth-year senior Michael Rector.

It was the Cardinal defense that was the main highlight for the team for most of the night, however, as it held UCLA to a stingy 2.3 yards per carry and prevented Rosen from taking over the game with his arm. The Bruins’ sophomore phenom finished 18-27 with 248 yards but proved unable to find the end zone except when his team was set up on a short field by a Burns interception in the first quarter.

Rosen’s efforts nearly proved enough, as senior Eddie Vanderdoes and the UCLA defense put on a highlight reel of their own by shutting the Cardinal down in the red zone. Prior to the final drive, the Bruins held Stanford to just a single completion in the second half as they continually rose to every challenge that the Cardinal presented them with.

“Their front seven is really talented,” Burns said after the game. “That secondary is really talented — they were creating problems for us. I wasn’t making the best throws, and I definitely didn’t make the best decisions. [But this is] the kind of team we are — we’re never going to give up; we’re never going to back down.”

Kicker Conrad Ukropina was called on frequently to keep Stanford in the game, and the fifth-year senior obliged by going a perfect 3-for-3 to keep the Cardinal within a possession of their Southern Californian rivals.

In the end, it took a mistake on special teams by the Bruins to truly jumpstart the Stanford offense. A kick-catch interference was called on UCLA’s Marcus Rios on a Bruins punt with 2:05 left in the fourth quarter, giving Stanford a critical 15 yards of field position at the beginning of the team’s final decisive scoring drive. The penalty provided a crucial shift in momentum for the Cardinal, and Burns followed it up by completing 5 of his next 8 passes, culminating in his 8-yard toss to Arcega-Whiteside.

“We knew we could do what we did,” said Burns. “[It was just a matter of] making sure everyone was in tune with what we were doing and executing well.”

Stanford will need to figure out its offensive problems in a hurry, as the No. 10 Washington Huskies (4-0, 1-0) and the Pac-12’s second-ranked defense awaits the team in Seattle this Friday.

The Cardinal may have to make the trip without some of their key players. Junior cornerback Alijah Holder, junior cornerback Quenton Meeks and senior receiver Francis Owusu all left the Rose Bowl with injuries, and their status is unknown for the trip to Washington this week. Senior fullback Daniel Marx was also injured early in the fourth quarter but returned to finish the game.

For the most part, the players from further down Stanford’s depth chart stepped up to fill these empty spots against UCLA. Junior cornerbacks Terrence Alexander and Alameen Murphy made a number of plays to contain the Bruins’ talented wide receivers, and Arcega-Whiteside proved more than capable while stepping in for Owusu.

The Huskies feature some of the conference’s best cornerbacks and receivers, however, and could provide a stiff test to these comparatively untested alternatives.

The Cardinal will kick off against Washington this Friday at 6 p.m on ESPN.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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No. 1 men’s golf disappoints at NCAA championships https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/31/no-1-mens-golf-disappoints-at-ncaa-championships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/31/no-1-mens-golf-disappoints-at-ncaa-championships/#respond Tue, 31 May 2016 07:54:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115937 For the second straight season, a promising Stanford men’s golf team saw its season come to an early end after it failed to make the first cut at the NCAA championships. The Cardinal finished in 28th place in the 30-team tournament, accruing a team score of +44 over the course of three days after hitting above par […]

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For the second straight season, a promising Stanford men’s golf team saw its season come to an early end after it failed to make the first cut at the NCAA championships.

STANFORD, CA - March 26, 2016: Stanford hosts The Goodwin at Stanford Golf Course. Stanford finished third in the tournament.
Senior David Boote (above) was one of the only bright spots in Stanford’s lineup at the NCAA Championships, shooting a 216 that placed him in a tie for 50th place. (BOB DREBIN/stanfordphoto.com)

The Cardinal finished in 28th place in the 30-team tournament, accruing a team score of +44 over the course of three days after hitting above par on 78 different holes. Though no team managed to make par on the difficult Eugene Country Club course, this finish still landed them 18 strokes back of the mark they needed to qualify for the final day of the stroke championship.

For a team that came into the tournament ranked No. 1 in the country, the results were a bit of a letdown.

“It’s a team game, and we weren’t firing on all cylinders,” head coach Conrad Ray remarked. “We’ll have to go back and see why that was, and hopefully, it will make us better in the future. It’s disappointing, considering that our guys are motivated to win and motivated to have high expectations.”

The tournament marks the end a strong season for the Cardinal, which saw them capture the Pac-12 title and come in first in the NCAA regional tournament in Tucson. Stanford had been on a three-match winning streak going into the championship but seemed to struggle from the beginning in Eugene.

Four of the five Cardinal players finished at +12 or above on the weekend, posting scores that landed them outside the top 100 individual finishers. Junior Maverick McNealy seemed particularly out of rhythm, as the country’s top collegiate golfer counted just one of his rounds toward the team’s score after sandwiching a decent 1-over 71 with two rounds of +6.

McNealy finished one stroke behind sophomore Franklin Huang (+12) and one stroke ahead of freshman Brandon Wu (+14). Sophomore Jeffery Swegle rounded out Stanford’s lineup, ending near the bottom 10 with a score of +19.

Senior David Boote was the closest to a highlight for the team, shooting a 216 that put him in a tie for 50th place. Boote rode a first round of 69 — the only below-par performance for the Cardinal all weekend — to end his Stanford career with a +6.

While the results were not what the team was hoping for, it can take some solace in that most of its lineup will return next season. Boote is the only departing member of the squad who consistently counted his score toward the team’s, and Ray hopes the rest of his players will use this experience to make them better next season.

“I’m proud of our team,” Ray said. “We put in a lot of hard work and preparation throughout the season. Sometimes it’s the way the game goes. Sometimes you do all you can do and it doesn’t go your way. It’s not losing, it’s learning.”

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: What I’ve learned about sports writing https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/30/mather-what-ive-learned-about-sports-writing/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/30/mather-what-ive-learned-about-sports-writing/#respond Tue, 31 May 2016 02:20:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115945 Two years ago, I somewhat tentatively signed up to be a sports writer for The Stanford Daily. I was a Cardinal fan who had been radicalized by two years on this campus, and I figured that The Daily might be a good way to put my interest in Stanford Athletics to good use. Two years […]

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Two years ago, I somewhat tentatively signed up to be a sports writer for The Stanford Daily. I was a Cardinal fan who had been radicalized by two years on this campus, and I figured that The Daily might be a good way to put my interest in Stanford Athletics to good use.

Two years later, I’m amazed at how far this experiment of mine has come. I can hardly count the hours I’ve poured into writing, editing and producing this newspaper. Before I started, I probably pictured myself writing no more than 30 or 40 articles for The Daily. My final count, barring any future amendment, stands at 138.

It wouldn’t have been this way if I hadn’t enjoyed every minute of it. It has been a real privilege to follow around each of the various Cardinal teams, whether in the Levi’s Stadium locker room or out on the Stanford golf course. I’ve appreciated each and every word that all of you have sent me about my work, whether in nicely worded emails or in quickly jotted tweets. I didn’t even mind that much when a bunch of people on a USC fan forum called me a nerd.

These two years have changed my view of sports in a number of different ways. I came into The Daily as a fan, supporting the teams I did without too much additional thought. Now that I’ve seen more behind the scenes, I’ve become a little bit more shaken by the realities of the modern athletic scene. It’s kind of incredible how many ways ethics are bent to bring us the stunning performances we watch on TV.

Stanford is, generally speaking, one of the good guys when it comes to athletic integrity. Though no multi-million dollar program is immune from mistakes, at least with Stanford you get the sense that everybody is trying to do the right thing. In a lot of places, this isn’t nearly as much the case.

The two years I’ve written about athletics have seen an almost immeasurable number of scandals – and a good deal of additional incidents that really should have been. There’s the massive corruption case levied against FIFA. There’s the ever-increasing amount of evidence that playing football skyrockets your risk of a traumatic brain injury. There are the cases of pay discrimination between men’s and women’s sports. Each of these is a massive problem that was largely neglected by a multi-billion dollar industry, yet this list is, in reality, little more than the tip of the iceberg.

The challenge for the sports writing world in the coming years will be finding ways to respond to these challenges. The way that so many publications handle sports writing is kind of analogous to riding a roller coaster over and over again: It’s fun and all, but eventually you start to notice that you’re always running down the same track. You can’t necessarily blame them – the recap/preview cycle is the reader-chosen way of digesting sports journalism – but at the same time I wonder how well-suited it is to making the sporting a more just place. So much energy is invested in getting these articles out that it’s hard to design, write and promote coverage that deals with more serious issues.

I think it’s time for a reader revolution in the world of sports journalism. It’s easy to view sports a pure leisure, but the fact of the matter is that they possess huge financial, ethical and personal ramifications. We don’t necessarily have to dwell on all of these at length, but it is our responsibility to give them the light of day. Without our attention, the incentive structure for athletic leagues and systems can never really change.

The last thought – or suggestion, rather – I leave you with is to take a closer look at the various forms of reporting that focus on these issues in the modern sporting community. Scandals shouldn’t, and can’t, be cyclical, so reporters are usually sticking out their necks a little when they highlight something that isn’t strictly speaking about what happened on the field. It’s easy to ignore these things after games and seasons conclude, but by doing so we miss the opportunity to make the world a little bit better.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu. 

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One with the wind: Marion Lepert goes all in on Olympic dream https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/28/one-with-the-wind-marion-lepert-goes-all-in-on-olympic-dream/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/28/one-with-the-wind-marion-lepert-goes-all-in-on-olympic-dream/#respond Sat, 28 May 2016 09:03:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115767 If there’s such a thing as an average Olympian, it probably isn’t Marion Lepert. America’s premier female windsurfer has dedicated much of her life to a sport which she describes as like “playing chess while running a marathon.” Since she was 11 years old, Lepert has been racing her board under sail number 143, a digit […]

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If there’s such a thing as an average Olympian, it probably isn’t Marion Lepert. America’s premier female windsurfer has dedicated much of her life to a sport which she describes as like “playing chess while running a marathon.”

Since she was 11 years old, Lepert has been racing her board under sail number 143, a digit that was chosen without her knowledge but has come to define her career. With this number, she’s posted top-10 performances at international regattas, frequently contended for the top spot at youth events and, most recently, qualified for the 31st Olympic Games.

Lepert’s path hasn’t been straightforward, and her progress has been anything but incremental. By clearing each obstacle, however, she’s gained an impressive level of mastery in a sport that has not often been known for having strong American competitors.

“This last year has been absolutely incredible for me in terms of improvements I’ve made … Our trials were in January and March of this year, and it worked out.”

A family business

The elite windsurfing community in the United States is a bit of an exclusive unit. Most Americans learn to race on more traditional types of boats, like the Laser and the 420, and, as a result, the competitive landscape within the country generally emphasizes these classes above of the high-performance windsurf board.

For Lepert and many other junior windsurfers, the inspiration to try out their sport actually came from abroad. Lepert spent her early years in France and has considerable family ties to the country, where the sport is quite popular as a form of recreation.

“For most people in the U.S., if you ask them how they got into windsurfing, they say their dad. When I was 8, my dad offered to let me try windsurfing, because it’s something he did when he was in college in France. I [tried it], and I absolutely loved it. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Lepert quickly mastered the basics of this new activity, and eventually decided to try things out on the next level. When she was 11, she joined up with a small racing fleet that windsurfed by the entrance to San Francisco Bay, an area infamous for providing harsh wind conditions to even the most seasoned sailors.

“There a group of 10 to 15 guys ­– middle-aged men ­­– who would race every other Friday right by the Golden Gate … I definitely was way too small to hold down my board in the waves and the wind compared to these guys. But it was so much fun, and I would come back every other Friday to do it.”

The difficult conditions forced Lepert to learn fast, and, by 2009, she was already beginning to outgrow the local windsurfing community. Without a clear next step in domestic competition, Lepert began to travel to Europe to compete against more people her age and fine-tune her racing skills.

“There [would be] 50 or 60 kids on the [start] line. It’s just a whole other kind of adrenaline. Ever since I’ve been doing two or three international events a year.”

Road to the top

Being one of the few Americans with the motivation and skills to compete against international competition, the Olympics were less of a huge jump for her and more like the next step in her progression.

Windsurfing is more of an amalgamation of different disciplines than it is a cohesive sport, with different sails and boards being used in events that each fall somewhere on the spectrum between conventional surfing and conventional sailing. Lepert learned to windsurf in the formula discipline – which most closely mirrors sailing with its long, open courses – and using the Techno 193 board, the junior version of the Olympic RS:X.

From this point, getting onto the Olympic path was as much of a challenge that she’d grow into as it was something she would need to learn in its own right.

“Traditionally, Olympic windsurfers start on the youth board and then graduate to the senior board, and then a couple years later might start an Olympic campaign. I had a positive finish on the youth board ­– I finished in the top three at [the 2011 under-17 world championships] – so I was super pumped to start [in the Olympic class.]”

At the same time as she was making this jump, Lepert’s life was going through another transition – her high school graduation and enrollment in college. When she was admitted to Stanford in 2013, Lepert jumped at the opportunity, even if it meant putting windsurfing on the back burner while she pursued life as a full-time student.

“2013 was when I first stepped foot on [the Olympic board]. But 2013 was also the beginning of my freshman year at Stanford, and I was equally pumped [for that]. I didn’t want my aspirations for windsurfing to prevent me from enjoying Stanford [for] what it is. So I decided that I would try to do both as much as I could.”

After arriving on campus, Lepert joined the sailing team and took the first steps toward a degree in mechanical engineering. For someone as seasoned on the water as Lepert, sailing was actually quite difficult, as she had almost no experience in the slower collegiate racing vessels and wasn’t as familiar with the immense tactical considerations that they required.

Lepert developed considerably on the team, but eventually realized it wasn’t making her as much of a better windsurfer as she hoped. She quit the team after six months, doubling down on her preferred class and absolving to hone her strategic understanding of the sport while practicing directly on her board.

“It’s quite unusual, because a lot of people in Europe originally started in dinghies and Optimists [a small, one-person boat popular widely sailed in Florida and on the East Coast], and then kind of saw windsurfing as this cool other thing to do and then changed to windsurfing. But I consider myself a pure windsurfer.”

From student to athlete

By June of her sophomore year, Lepert had decided to go all-in on a campaign for Rio 2016. She opted to take a year off from school to practice full-time, optimizing her fitness and technique in order to compete with the best opponents from around the world.

Already one of the “five or six” American windsurfers on the international circuit, Lepert mostly had to beat out one other elite competitor in order to become the U.S. representative in the games. Unfortunately, her efforts hit a snag when she didn’t do as well as expected at the Sailing World Cup Miami, falling to 19th and finishing two places behind another American, 35-year-old Farrah Hall.

Lepert had just five weeks to turn around her on-the-water performance and move ahead in the second leg of the U.S. Olympic qualifier, the Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofia Regata in Palma de Mallorca.

“Those five weeks I will remember for the rest of my life. Every hour that I didn’t have on the water, I would have my coach on Skype or be on video trying to figure out what I could do to fix my problems.”

Lepert’s effort paid off, and she ended up qualifying with relative ease after breaking the top-10 in Spain. “Since then I’ve kind of kept the same mentality, that I have a lot of things to work on and not very much time. I do feel kind of stressed sometimes and it doesn’t come so easy, but the excitement of going to the Olympics is definitely carrying me through.”

Even with more than a full year to race and practice full-time, Lepert’s campaign started out later than many of her competitors. To make up for lost time, she’s had to make compromises, often finding creative ways to help accelerate the pace of her improvement.

Lepert spends between three and four hours on the water during her practice sessions, which occur on five or six days of each week. She often speed tests with teams from France and Mexico, comparing her progress with theirs to better contextualize how she’s doing.

When she’s not on the water, Lepert spends a lot of her time watching film and otherwise finding ways to make her training sessions as effective as they can be. Since conditions can be so variable, each moment for Lepert is intense, as she has to plan and execute her sessions almost simultaneously based on how the wind looks on any particular day.

“I’m trying to train as much as possible into what those conditions will be like, so whether I am in Rio or in another place in the world, we spend a lot of time behind our computers trying to look at forecasts and deciding when to go out on the water.”

Flying over hurdles

One of the ways in which Lepert has gained an advantage over her competitors, she thinks, comes from her background in the sciences. While watching video of her form, Lepert frequently uses her knowledge of physics to understand and visualize what she could be doing better.

“Some might say it’s a strength and some might say it’s a weakness, because a lot of the windsurfers on the circuit do it a lot more intuitively via feeling, but I really [like to] break it down [with physics]. I’ve created my own simulations to kind of figure out the numbers behind it and get an idea as to which positions are better. It’s also a reason why I[‘ve enjoyed] my campaign so much; it’s been kind of a scientific project for me.”

Rio’s sailing venue has presented Lepert with its own set of unique set challenges, notably headlined by a bay that is contaminated by sewage and trash. Lepert admits to having been “grossed [out]” by the bay, but doesn’t think she’s been too affected by the less-than-ideal conditions.

“I’ve been lucky enough to never have been sick from it, so realistically, it has not that impossible to deal with. For me, I feel like everybody has to sail on the water, so I’m not at a disadvantage due to it.”

As she approaches the 60-day mark before the beginning of the games, Lepert hasn’t yet considered what lies for her beyond the Olympics. She knows that she’ll return for her junior year of college, but her racing future will largely be determined by her results and the other opportunities she gets when September rolls around.

For now, the one thing that is certain is that, come August, USA-143 will be out on the water yet again attempting to cross the finish line first.

“I definitely know that I will take my education seriously and graduate without putting that in jeopardy because I want to do Tokyo. But I never like to close doors.”

“I’m [just] going to keep windsurfing and see where it takes me.”

 

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather@stanford.edu.

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La Dow, sailing prepare for championships https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/26/la-dow-sailing-prepare-for-championships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/26/la-dow-sailing-prepare-for-championships/#respond Fri, 27 May 2016 05:01:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115791 For Stanford sailing’s coed and team racing squads, the next week will offer them a chance to get a crack at their first ever program national title. For sophomore skipper Will La Dow, the regatta also means a trip back home. La Dow grew up sailing at San Diego Yacht Club — the championship host […]

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For Stanford sailing’s coed and team racing squads, the next week will offer them a chance to get a crack at their first ever program national title.

For sophomore skipper Will La Dow, the regatta also means a trip back home. La Dow grew up sailing at San Diego Yacht Club — the championship host venue — while a junior sailor and as a member of Point Loma High School’s sailing team, and he will launch his boat yet again from the club as an integral part of both Cardinal squads.

“I’m really excited to be back home,” La Dow says. “I feel really comfortable in the area and can’t wait to spend some time in my favorite city. I have only sailed at the specific venue a few times, so local knowledge won’t be an incredible advantage. With that being said, I have sailed well there in the past and have a pretty good idea of what to expect.”

La Dow is far from the only member of the “hometown crew” who will compete for the title at the championship. Just two of the top-10 sailing programs in the country are without a San Diego area native on their roster (none in the top-7), and many of the locals, including La Dow and Georgetown’s Nevin Snow, will play an integral role in determining which team is able to capture each of the titles.

“Every regatta feels like a reunion and that’s one of the coolest things about competitive collegiate sailing,” La Dow says. “A lot of my best friends sail at various schools around the country so events like this are a great opportunity to see everyone. On top of that, it will get to see my friends from home so I get the best of both worlds. However, when it comes down to it I’m there to win, so sailing comes first.”

La Dow has been a major reason why Stanford sailing has remained amongst the best teams in the nation this season. Together with senior skippers Antoine Screve and Axel Sly, La Dow has helped form a formidable team race squad that has easily become the best on the west coast.

La Dow has also been one of the skippers of choice in fleet racing, winning five of eight races in the A division of the conference championship with junior crew Nikki Obel.

While La Dow would love to cap his strong season with a top-rate performance at home, he knows that, in the deep championship field, nothing is a given.

“Doing well feels so much better at home. I’m definitely putting some pressure on myself, but, at the end of the day, there are a ton of talented sailors in the mix so it’s anyone’s game. I can promise we will put up our best fight and I’m excited to see how it ends up.”

Stanford began its championship campaign at the team race finals on Saturday and will continue on to the coed finals on Tuesday.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Women’s golf falls barely short of repeat national title https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/26/womens-golf-falls-barely-short-of-repeat-national-title/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/26/womens-golf-falls-barely-short-of-repeat-national-title/#respond Thu, 26 May 2016 13:11:54 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115727 For every unbelievable comeback story, there are inevitably at least a few that fall short. That was the case for Stanford women’s golf on Wednesday, as the team turned the almost worthless cards they held in the NCAA Championship into a real shot, only to end up leaving empty-handed. A spectacular approach shot from Washington’s Julianne Alvarez […]

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For every unbelievable comeback story, there are inevitably at least a few that fall short. That was the case for Stanford women’s golf on Wednesday, as the team turned the almost worthless cards they held in the NCAA Championship into a real shot, only to end up leaving empty-handed.

A spectacular approach shot from Washington’s Julianne Alvarez in the second hole of a playoff turned out to be the final blow when senior Lauren Kim’s 15-foot putt to halve the hole landed just a hair to the right. This minuscule error handed the Huskies their first national championship and left Stanford’s title defense effort, quite literally, off by an inch.

The near miss concluded a wild saga that saw Stanford shift from being on the brink of elimination to a tentative position in the driver’s seat and then right back again. The Cardinal seemed neck-and-neck with the Huskies for most of the afternoon, until Washington’s Ying Luo chipped in a birdie on the 18th hole from 51 yards out, earning her a crucial win over junior Casey Danielson and putting her team just a single point away from securing the title.

Stanford senior Mariah Stackhouse, who achieved a level of recognition in the golf community for her clutch finals performance in 2015, still appeared in control of her match, but Kim, the team’s top-ranked golfer, faced an improbable climb to even her match and force Alvarez into a playoff.

Though the senior had made a 20-foot putt on 15 to extend the match and, minutes later, another match-saving birdie on 16, she still had to win both of her final holes just to continue her match beyond the 18th.

“I was hitting my approach in [on 15] and I happened to get a glance at the scoreboard, and I think we were down in three matches, so that motivated me to turn on some heat,” Kim said.

Kim made another long birdie on 17, then took advantage of a three-putt by Alvarez on 18 to complete her comeback from three down with three to play. Stackhouse was already in a playoff of her own after losing her lead on 17, meaning that both the Cardinal’s senior leaders found themselves in sudden death situations with the team needing both to come through reclaim their title.

“I had control for the majority of the day, and then on 15 she birdied and I kind of let my emotions get to me a little bit there for a second, just because I was disappointed with the result I got on my second shot,” said Stackhouse.

“I tried to turn it around, but her putter got hot. She just started making everything. But I was able to hold her off once we went into 18, and we halved that hole and continued.”

Stackhouse appeared to regain her composure on the extra holes, forcing a tough par from Washington’s Sarah Rhee on the first playoff hole before finally coming out on top with a well-played par on 18 after Rhee could do no better than a bogey. Kim still seemed in control as well, making a seven-foot par putt to halve the first playoff hole after another spectacular Alvarez approach shot and bringing the match back onto the 18th, where she had just recorded her key victory.

Unfortunately, Kim couldn’t replicate the quality of her fairway play from her first take of the hole, leaving herself with the long par attempt that ended her near-perfect run of form.

The putt will be the last in the college career of Kim, a four-year run that saw her help lead the Cardinal to their first national title in program history and position herself as one of the top collegiate golfers in the country. She and Stackhouse, who also leaves with the Stanford women’s course record, have played a major role in reshaping the program from a mid-tier power to a perennial contender for the NCAA championship.

Both Stackhouse and Kim are likely to move on to the professional circuit, leaving the team in the hands of the likes of Danielson, sophomore Shannon Aubert and freshman Sierra Kersten. Aubert secured the first Cardinal point in the finals on Saturday after leading from the second tee, while Kersten dropped her finals match but still played a major role for the team in the playoffs with a key win against Duke.

The team will have to look for additional contributors during the offseason, either through new recruits or through players reemerging from their current ranks. While it will be impossible to replace Kim and Stackhouse, if the team can find any new stars, it appears prepped to remain at the top of the game for years to come.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather@stanford.edu.

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Women’s golf to face Washington in NCAA Finals https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/25/womens-golf-to-face-washington-in-ncaa-finals/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/25/womens-golf-to-face-washington-in-ncaa-finals/#respond Wed, 25 May 2016 09:34:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115652 For the No. 12 Stanford women’s golf team, the past two days could hardly have gone better. On Monday, the final day of the NCAA individual championship, the team moved up three spots into second after collectively posting a tournament-best round of 9-under 279. Junior Casey Danielson played herself into a tie for the sixth-best individual […]

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For the No. 12 Stanford women’s golf team, the past two days could hardly have gone better.

On Monday, the final day of the NCAA individual championship, the team moved up three spots into second after collectively posting a tournament-best round of 9-under 279. Junior Casey Danielson played herself into a tie for the sixth-best individual in the country, while sophomore Shannon Aubert nearly broke the top-10 herself after her -3 round moved her up 16 spots.

Then, on Tuesday, Stanford progressed through the first two rounds of match play in relatively comfortable fashion. The Cardinal topped No. 18 South Carolina in the morning and No. 5 Duke in the afternoon, paving their way into the NCAA finals for the second time in two seasons.

“We feel very fortunate to have played some wonderful golf,” said head coach Anne Walker. “I couldn’t be more pleased with this group of student-athletes. I really think it will come down to the last hole, and I’m looking forward to being in that position with these guys.”

Danielson has proved crucial to the Cardinal’s title-defense efforts. In addition to being the top-performing Stanford golfer in both the regional tournament and the individual championship, Danielson won both her head-to-head battles in match play, including a crucial clincher against the former top-ranked amateur in the world, Duke’s Leona Maguire.

Danielson’s wins have added to her 5-0 career record in match play, a figure that shows how crucial she’s been to both the Cardinal’s recent playoff campaigns. It’s been a true team effort for the Cardinal thus far, however, as every golfer has stepped up when they were called upon.

Senior Mariah Stackhouse also went 2-0 on Saturday, coming up big on the 18th hole against South Carolina to secure Stanford’s final point. Senior Lauren Kim dominated her morning match as well, winning in just 13 holes after she built a 6-point lead with five to play. Meanwhile, sophomore Shannon Aubert hung with the NCAA individual champion, Duke’s Virginia Elena Carta, to give Stanford a safety valve and take some pressure off Danielson against Duke. And freshman Sierra Kersten, who has only played with the top squad for a fraction of the season, came up with a huge point in the Cardinal’s afternoon match to help send them to the finals.

The last remaining task for the Cardinal is to win their battle against No. 13 Washington. The Huskies appear to be built for match play to a large extent as well, surviving a pitched battle against top-seeded UCLA in the semifinals to make the championship.

Stanford and Washington have each come out on top of the other twice in the four tournaments in which both teams have played, though these results don’t necessarily translate all that well to the head-to-head format employed in the finals. The Cardinal will hope to utilize their experience in high-stakes situations against the Huskies without feeling the pressure to repeat the results of last year.

“I think it’s important for us to realize that it’s not about defending, it’s about winning the 2016 title,” Stackhouse said. “When we step on the tee tomorrow, that’s our goal.”

Stanford will tee off against Washington at 2 p.m. Wednesday, with live coverage available on the Golf Channel.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: What’s fanatical about fandom? https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/25/mather-whats-fanatical-about-fandom/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/25/mather-whats-fanatical-about-fandom/#respond Wed, 25 May 2016 09:33:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115633 When I was 13 years old, my dad took me to a Lakers game which happened to be against the Miami Heat. Though it wasn’t quite as thrilling of a matchup as it sounds – both teams would get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs that year – it still seemed pretty tense […]

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When I was 13 years old, my dad took me to a Lakers game which happened to be against the Miami Heat. Though it wasn’t quite as thrilling of a matchup as it sounds – both teams would get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs that year – it still seemed pretty tense because of who had suited up for each side: Kobe Bryant for Los Angeles and his former teammate, Shaquille O’Neal, for the visitors.

Our tickets were always right on the edge of away-fan territory, and even before the tip-off you could tell that it would be an especially lively place to be this time. Many of the people around us were dressed from head to toe in Heat gear, and that “playoff feel” that the Staples Center was so famous for during those years (sigh) was in full effect as the pregame festivities began to wind down.

It took only until the national anthem for one of the Heat fans sitting next to us to officially earn the label “obnoxious.” As the organ was finishing off the penultimate line of the song, the man in the seat next to me yelled out “Yeah, yeah” in a still-quiet stadium that hadn’t yet begun cheer for “the land of the free.” We eventually learned some complicated justification for this utterance that vaguely explained some tradition that apparently only a few guys and Shaq himself were privy to but, however you dress it up, it was weird.

Still, one line of this guy’s half-apology to us during the first quarter stuck with me much more than anything else about the game that day. In one way it was a quote and in another it was a definition, but mostly it was kind of just some words that sort of seemed make sense: “Sorry about this,” he said, “but after all, fan is short for fanatic.”

I don’t think I’d ever thought about what it meant to be a fan before that point, but something about this random Heat apologist’s phrase stuck. The three or four years that followed were the only ones of my life in which I haven’t loved sports, in part because I think I started to realize just how much fanaticism was involved in blindly supporting a handful of athletes just because they went to my parents’ alma mater or happened to play in the vicinity of my house.

In truth, I didn’t totally become a “fan” again until I went to a college of my own, where I share tons of unique experiences with the players on our teams. Even now, however, my claims to logical support of the Cardinal’s programs seem a bit tenuous. I’ve poured dozens of hours into watching, studying and covering Stanford football, for example, yet I can honestly only say I know a handful of players on the team on anything more than a casual basis.

Considerations like these haven’t ever stopped anyone in history from caring about different athletic events. The Romans didn’t flock to the Colosseum because they had some sort of direct connection with the poor souls clashing beneath them. In a recent article about the politics of Tunisia, George Packer indicated that being a Tunisian soccer fan used to mean subjecting yourself to beatings, insults and all kinds of personal harm for a team that didn’t really even care that you existed. That didn’t stop thousands of people from doing it.

Part of this may have been for the communities that develop around sports, but totally using that as an explanation is really trying to fit a black-and-white solution on an extremely colorful problem. I know plenty of people (myself included) who have gone to various Stanford games when they had no guarantee of companionship in the stands just because they enjoy watching the sport. This explanation also doesn’t really explain some of the nastier aspects of fandom, like why we hate our rivals so much or why we throw around so many insults when game day comes around.

If any part of fandom borders on the fanatical, it’s that last point. I can’t explain why, as a longtime Clippers fan, I hate the Golden State Warriors so much. Everything about the team bugs me, from their stupid on-the-court celebrations to their hard fouling to the intolerable hordes of fair-weather fans that suddenly adore them. Is this just me adopting the personality shared by all Clipper fans? Are we really that invested in seeing our guys avoid failure that everything is distilled to good versus evil? Both explanations sound crazy, but I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

When Stanford reached the Rose Bowl this year, it added yet another twist to my understanding of fandom. Iowa was the alma mater of my dad’s entire side of the family (even I have a one-class transcript from the school), and I’ve watched them play on TV since at least 2002, probably earlier. Of course, I still bled Cardinal, but for once I was cheering for a game in which the enemy was merely defeated and not destroyed. The reactions to the on-the-field massacre, coupled with flak that Stanford media poured on to the state of Iowa for a senate bill that everyone in the world knew was the stupidest attempt to grab votes seen by mankind (aside, maybe, from a post about the same game from one of our alums) made me feel like something in my voting interests was amiss.

I do partially blame the sports media for some of the more extreme cases of ridiculousness. Every saga is written with so much fervor these days that it’s hard for any reader to remain unattached. I realize reporters are largely responding to market trends, but that’s not a justification so much as an unfortunate reality. It’d be great if we didn’t have to write polarizing articles to get page views, but that’s just how the world works.

I’ve tried to be a “better” sports writer since I started to understand these notions, a little less dramatic in victory and a little more reasoned in defeat. I think it’s a balance that comes with time. It crosses my mind that the real objective for anyone at any athletic event I attend is just to have fun, which probably works better if I don’t write a Greek tragedy for every single storyline. By the same token, however, “better fanatic” sounds sort of like an oxymoron, and being one or writing for one sounds a little dull.

For now, my personal sports loyalties remain as strong as ever. I’m not sure I can totally justify why they haven’t changed, but I’ve thought up an explanation that works for me: I buy in because of how much everyone else is invested. There’s something special about being able to feel sympathy for our friends who see their teams fall, or share in the triumphs of those who win.

This system has led me into plenty of weird situations, but I’m not sure it’s more illogical than anything I’ve tried before. I was generally happy when the Thunder beat the Warriors in Game 4 last night, but part of me held back because of the few long-time Warriors fans I know who I genuinely felt for. The biggest realization of my exploration process is that it’s hard to really care about something, even if it’s something silly like a sports team, but people who do deserve our respect. On the flipside, it’s easy to punish someone for getting too invested in something, but at the end of the day, it is what it feels like: a cheap shot.

I think this is something that I – and almost every sports fan, really – could afford to take a little more to heart.

 

If you’ve read any of Andrew Mather’s stories you might remember how they are often packed with dramatic lines and exaggerated metaphors. If you think Andrew should take some of his own advice, send him an email at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Women’s sailing looks towards victory at Sperry ICSA Women’s Nationals https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/20/womens-sailing-looks-towards-victory-at-sperry-icsa-womens-nationals/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/20/womens-sailing-looks-towards-victory-at-sperry-icsa-womens-nationals/#respond Fri, 20 May 2016 08:25:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115455 Stanford sailing will begin nearly two weeks of championship events next Tuesday at the Sperry ICSA Women’s Nationals at San Diego Yacht Club. The Cardinal qualified for this event after dominating the conference championship regatta in Long Beach, California on April 16-17. Now, with the championship taking place in their home region for the first […]

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Stanford sailing will begin nearly two weeks of championship events next Tuesday at the Sperry ICSA Women’s Nationals at San Diego Yacht Club.

The Cardinal qualified for this event after dominating the conference championship regatta in Long Beach, California on April 16-17. Now, with the championship taking place in their home region for the first time since 2009, the team will hope to finally secure their first national title, which they’ve often come close to but never quite grasped.

Stanford’s women’s team is nominally the lowest-ranking Cardinal squad, coming in at No. 7 in the Sailing World rankings and briefly falling outside the top-10 for the first time in recent memory earlier this season. Still, this young team has proved to possess considerable talent. Freshman skipper Mimi El-Khazindar and sophomore crew Elena VandenBerg particularly impressed by winning nine of their 10 races together in the conference championship, while junior skipper Lily Katz and freshman crew Kathryn Booker did only marginally worse by capturing seven first place finishes.

The championship promises to pit the Cardinal against a different caliber of competition, however, with most of the top squads from around the country managing to successfully qualify for the event. Stanford will hope that the reduced distance it must travel to the venue and its success in events in California this season will help give it the advantage it needs to compete for the title.

The women’s team will begin their postseason campaign in the Eastern Semifinal on Tuesday, May 24, with the top nine teams moving on to the finals starting on Thursday, May 26.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Women’s golf hopes to repeat in NCAA Championships https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/19/womens-golf-hopes-to-repeat-in-ncaa-championships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/19/womens-golf-hopes-to-repeat-in-ncaa-championships/#respond Thu, 19 May 2016 08:54:13 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1115347 On paper, a lot has changed in a year for Stanford women’s golf as they prepare to enter the 2016 NCAA Championship this Friday. Just 12 months ago, the team had never finished as the best team in the nation and seemed to have, at best, an outside shot at grabbing a victory in their final event of the […]

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On paper, a lot has changed in a year for Stanford women’s golf as they prepare to enter the 2016 NCAA Championship this Friday. Just 12 months ago, the team had never finished as the best team in the nation and seemed to have, at best, an outside shot at grabbing a victory in their final event of the season.

Now, the Cardinal head to Eugene both as co-champions of one of the NCAA’s four regions and as the defenders of the national title which they ultimately secured last season. That off-chance of victory has been exchanged for the opportunity to be one of the favorites – it’s hard to imagine anyone will want to face off against the team if it successfully reaches the playoff rounds.

For a team that’s seen its fortunes altered so much in a short time, however, it’s remarkable how much has remained the same as well. The entire lineup that captured the championship is back, and the Cardinal are entering the event with largely the same mentality.

“I don’t think it feels [that] different,” said senior Mariah Stackhouse after helping the team secure the title in the NCAA regional. “I’ve been with [head coach Anne Walker] for the last four years, and she had a vision for us becoming a very, very strong and consistent team. Last year, when we won the championship, it was like ‘wow, did that really just happen?’ but it was believable just because of the leadership we have in Coach.”

The team has even added a bit of depth with the recent emergence of freshman Sierra Kersten. Though she has yet to record a marquee performance, Kersten’s consistency has helped the Cardinal greatly, and all six of her rounds have come in at +4 or better.

For now, Stackhouse and senior Lauren Kim remain the team’s leaders, bringing a huge amount of experience and consistency to help ground the team as it explores unfamiliar territory. Both Stackhouse and Kim rank amongst the top 25 golfers in the nation and will hope to add to the long list of accolades they’ve garnered throughout their careers with a second championship win.

Junior Casey Danielson and sophomore Shannon Aubert will also be crucial if the team hopes to make a run. Danielson led the team in their regionals victory with a two-under 211, while Aubert has flirted with a top ranking of her own through her consistently strong performances.

In the end, the Cardinal clearly have the talent necessary to once again be competitive for the title if they can remain at the top of their game through the duration of the tournament. According to Stackhouse, it’s this area where the team truly shines.

“I think we’re fortunate to have a team that really loves golf,” she said. “When you put that kind of attitude together it just makes for a great group who are always pushing each other. Tournament-in and tournament-out you’ll have different people stepping up and being the number one player for that event. And when you have that kind of competition within the team it sets you up nicely.”

Stanford will tee off in the NCAA Championships on Friday, May 20, with live scoring available on Golfstat.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather@stanford.edu.

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Softball seeks a win in season finale against Washington https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/12/softball-seeks-a-win-in-season-finale-against-washington/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/12/softball-seeks-a-win-in-season-finale-against-washington/#respond Thu, 12 May 2016 07:05:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114957 Stanford softball (13-32, 0-21 Pac-12) is set to close a tumultuous 2016 season this Thursday through Saturday with a three-game home stand against No. 13/14 Washington (33-13, 13-8). Not much is left to be said about the Cardinal season that hasn’t been said before: Stanford has seen stretches of good hitting and pitching but has […]

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Stanford softball (13-32, 0-21 Pac-12) is set to close a tumultuous 2016 season this Thursday through Saturday with a three-game home stand against No. 13/14 Washington (33-13, 13-8).

Not much is left to be said about the Cardinal season that hasn’t been said before: Stanford has seen stretches of good hitting and pitching but has yet to put the two together into a complete game.

The Cardinal’s bats appeared to be relatively hot in the team’s recent series against Arizona State, with seniors Kayla Bonstrom and Kaitlin Schaberg each hitting .500 on the weekend. It’s unclear whether Stanford will be able to keep this up against the Huskies’ pitching, however. Washington has held its opponents to 6 runs or fewer in 12 consecutive games, while Stanford has only done so twice in its last 10.

The team will likely have to rely on its pitchers, freshman Carolyn Lee and sophomore Haley Snyder, if it wishes to give its offense a chance to to steal a victory. Washington ranks second in the Pac-12 in most batting efficiency stats and sixth in the country in team slugging percentage (.555), so any errors on the mound may quickly cause things to get out of hand.

The series should hit a more emotional note on Saturday, as the Cardinal say goodbye to three of their players during the team’s Senior Day. Bonstrom, Schaberg and Jessica Plaza will be honored at the event, and the team will hope to send them out on a high note by turning in a strong performance.

The Cardinal start their final series against the Huskies on Thursday at 5 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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The Fellowship of Iron https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/11/the-fellowship-of-iron/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/11/the-fellowship-of-iron/#respond Wed, 11 May 2016 09:30:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114878 It’s a few minutes past 7:20 p.m. at the Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation. “Ex’s and Oh’s” plays faintly over the loudspeaker as two Stanford powerlifters line up to attempt a feat that they never have before: a 1,015-pound tandem deadlift. It isn’t the most serious of challenges, and both later admit they probably wouldn’t […]

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It’s a few minutes past 7:20 p.m. at the Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation. “Ex’s and Oh’s” plays faintly over the loudspeaker as two Stanford powerlifters line up to attempt a feat that they never have before: a 1,015-pound tandem deadlift.

It isn’t the most serious of challenges, and both later admit they probably wouldn’t have tried it had they not been in front of a camera. Still, the excitement around the gym is palpable as sophomore Alex Sowell and postdoctoral fellow David Jurgens prepare to jointly raise a barbell that weighs more than a grand piano. A group of different members of their lifting squad, a gym employee and a number of others who have briefly put their post-dinner workouts on hold begins to gather as the duo searches for ways to jury rig more plates onto the already overburdened bar.

Finally, it’s time. After a brief countdown and some scattered applause, the two begin to elevate the weight, slowly at first, but with increasing confidence as it proceeds up towards their waist. Jurgens lets out a bit of a celebratory chuckle at the top before a spotter yells “down” and the barbell thumps back to the ground.

Today may not be just any day for the Stanford’s “unofficial” powerlifting squad, but it seems as if everyone wishes it could be. A Ph.D. student who is with the group, Alexander Papageorge, quips that meaningless routines like the tandem deadlift are what the sport is really about. The bystanders laugh in agreement before moving towards their next exercises so they can finish their routines before they get “cold.”

 

Filling the void

For a school with the athletic pedigree of Stanford, weightlifting has been notably absent as a mode of accomplishment. A few sports programs, most notably David Shaw’s football regime, have often spoken of the comparative advantage that they build through their workout regimens, but generally these units have treated it as a means to an end rather than an end itself. Neither the Cardinal’s 36-sport varsity athletics systems nor its supplemental 32-sport club program directly offer powerlifting to the Stanford community, and the only listed class that references building strength seems to actively dissuade expert participation with its title, “Weight Training: Beginning.”

Little by little, this motley crew of Ph.D. students, researchers and a couple daring undergraduates is, half by accident and half out of necessity, causing this to change. The group now meets each Monday, Thursday and Friday in the “old gym” to work on their own routines and give each other advice about how to take their routines to the next level.

Nobody seems to know exactly when the squad got together for the first time, probably because it resulted more from a confluence of subgroups than from a single formative event. The earliest origins trace back to when Alex Antaris, Ben Snyder and a few other buddies who studied chemistry together decided to unify their lifting schedules.

“We all just saw each other in classes and lab and in the gym and started hanging out,” says Antaris. “Then, basically everybody that lifts a certain amount just kind of gravitated together. Everybody was just like ‘Sick, nice numbers,’ and then we kind of formed a group that way.”

Gradually, the group expanded to include Jurgens, Sowell, Papageorge and a handful of other from different schools and departments but with a common goal of getting strong. The arrival of Jurgens in particular brought a huge amount of expertise and experience to the growing program. The Decatur, Illinois native cofounded and coached UCLA’s power lifting team for seven years while earning his Ph.D., and his number of completed meets numbers “somewhere in the 20’s or low 30’s.”

“I was coaching [at UCLA] for a long time and was doing like three, four or five meets a year,” he said.

A memorable moment for Jurgens came at the 2011 USA Powerlifting Raw Nationals, when he finished second to Anthony Parrella in the 90-kilogram weight class. “I had to pull a huge personal record [to win] and I almost got it,” Jurgens said. “I was like an inch away. But the thing is in powerlifting you’re still a community. You still recognize the other dude is in the gym grinding just has hard as you. And so [Anthony’s] on the side cheering for me, and his coach is cheering for me, and everyone’s like ‘Come on, you’ve got to do it.’”

Though Jurgens is the clear leader in terms of mastery, everybody in the group plays a role in contributing advice and encouragement to its other members. “There’s a lot of bro-science. Like ‘Yo bro, this works,'” says Antaris. “I think with [lifting] there’s not really one right answer. There’s a lot of ways of thinking, there’s a lot of different types of programming.”

Part of this is because there are so many routines and programs that everyone can be interested in pursuing. Jurgens describes the weightlifting world as a square, with one axis separating slow versus fast events and the other separating the more technical events from the “strongman,” or functional challenges. Powerlifting, which consists of the squat, the deadlift and the bench press, sits in the top corner at slow and technical. Olympic lifting, or rapidly moving plate-loaded barbells, sits below it as faster activity that emphasizes the same precision. Pure strongman, meanwhile, is in the top right, while highland games, an event that traces is origins to the culture of traditional Scottish Highlanders, occupies the final corner with its emphasis on functional strength at speed with events like the tree-flipping caber toss.

Most members of the lifting squad have thus far focused on powerlifting, which has the most formalized competitive landscape in the United States. There’s plenty of exploration into other areas, however, and Jurgens has tried a bit of everything in the past. A personal favorite of his: pushing cars around the track while at UCLA.

“You need a few guys, but you’re pushing yourself to the limit,” Jurgens says. “It’s like what’s your 100-meter time when you’re pushing a Toyota Corolla. You can get into it.”

 

A mental game

All these activities require intense physical strength, but developing the right mentality to accomplish them is equally if not more important. Much of the reason for the squad’s existence comes through pushing each other through these mental hurdles, which can range from questions of technique to the sheer difficulty of adapting your life around lifting.

“It’s really hard to be motivated by yourself,” Sowell admits. “That’s something I found when I got here and was just trying to lift for general purposes…Having people pushing you or jawing at you or kind of making fun of you while you’re lifting…gives you a little more motivation to go and lift some heavier weight.”

While it is in some ways their greatest obstacle, this mental challenge is also one of the biggest reasons why many of the team members enjoy lifting. Papageorge, who researches cold atom physics in his graduate program, likes to examine his motions in terms of classical mechanics in order to identify the parts of his body that are impeding him and improve his ability to execute more technical routines.

“All your muscles are generating torque with your joints as fulcrums…It’s not always just as simple as saying you’re not strong enough. You have to determine which part of your kinetic chain bears the weakness.”

Many of the others approach lifting from a problem-solving perspective, rigorously defining and testing different parameters to get them to their next level. Sowell views lifting as a bit of an engineering challenge which only optimization and sustained effort can solve.

“I love the mental toughness that [lifting] requires. That and the commitment you have to put to it. It’s something that you can’t just do once a month or once a week even – you have to be in consistently three to four days a week, have a plan, watch what you eat. It’s very methodical, very scientific. As an [electrical engineering] major, I love numbers and math and statistics and all this stuff, so it’s a good way to fulfill my hunger for both mental and physical improvement.”

Snyder, a chemistry Ph.D., has a similar view: “I think there definitely is something to being analytically minded, both in terms of writing a program that you stick to…a lot of things like ‘Oh what happens if I place my hands here versus here on a bench press.’ And in some sense, I guess, maybe thinking about it scientifically is a little bit of a stretch, but we’re all kind of trying new things out and seeing what happens.”

Naturally, these processes can’t happen overnight, and finding the time in a busy Stanford schedule is particularly difficult for many of the unofficial athletes. To some extent, the squad has even engineered a solution to this aspect of the sport. Senior Chris Billovits, the team’s only undergraduate besides Sowell, claims to have seen reasonable success by optimizing his routine in the busier times of the quarter.

“It becomes hard to come more than three days a week… toward the end of the quarter and sometimes I end up coming in two. I just adjust my work schedule to do the same amount of work I’d do in three days in two. It ends up being ok, and then I come back with more fervor at the beginning of the next quarter.”

 

Bringing it all together

The carrot at the end of the stick for most of these lifters is the prospect of proving themselves in a competition. Everyone has a slightly different view of the importance of these formal events, though almost every member of the squad has competed in an individual meet or plans to in the future.

Sowell is one of the more recent additions to the competitive lineup, participating in a meet at San Jose State on February 29. Despite it being his first time in competition, the Texas native captured the California state records for 19-year-olds in the squat and all-around categories and qualified for nationals next October.

“I’ll have to compete within the 20- to 23-year-old age class [at nationals], so the competition’s going to be a bit stronger,” Sowell said. “I don’t expect to go in winning, but when I get to 22, 23 maybe I’ll have a shot of winning and competing at the world stage.”

Antaris and Snyder have each done a couple competitions in the past, though both have been unable to in recent months because of injury. Both are getting back to strength now, however, and hope to compete in a meet this summer.

“I don’t know if the competition aspect of it drives me so much to be honest,” says Snyder. “I mean it’s cool since numbers you put up at the gym just don’t really count for much. When you’re doing it under the strict requirements that are put forth in competition, those are the numbers you take seriously. For me, at least, I think I enjoy the process much more than the competition itself.”

Billovits is also building for a competition, which he’ll begin considering once he hits his current weight goals. There’s also the prospect of competing more directly for the school, as USAPL operates a collegiate nationals in addition to its various individual events.

The group doesn’t have any immediate plans to enter this highly competitive event, though with younger members like Sowell showing promise it certainly seems a possibility in the future.

Not everyone is motivated by the prospect of entering these formal events, however. Papageorge doesn’t consider himself a competitive person, and lifts with the squad purely for the relaxation and personal satisfaction it can provide.

“I think it’s just exciting trying to hit the next goal…There’s something extremely pleasing about watching yourself progress, which I think applies to any sport, of course, or any training system, but it’s very transparent here. There’s just literally more weight on the bar. Lifting it is fun.”

For Jurgens, meanwhile, his days of competition have still just begun. Though he’s already been lifting for most of the lifetimes of some of the other group members, his numbers are running strong and he sees himself continuing to train for many years in the future.

“The oldest competitive guy in my weight class is like 57…I ran into this one dude at worlds, he was like 62 and he [told me] ‘I have to deadlift 600 pounds this year before I get old.’ I’m like dude, what on earth. You are pulling more than most humans will ever pull.

“It’s not a sprint, it’s like a sport for life.”

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: Don’t be shocked if Nyquist contends for crown https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/11/mather-dont-be-shocked-if-nyquist-contends-for-crown/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/11/mather-dont-be-shocked-if-nyquist-contends-for-crown/#respond Wed, 11 May 2016 09:25:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114867 When American Pharoah was preparing to race in the Belmont Stakes last season, most analysts were not too rosy on his odds of securing the first triple crown since Affirmed in 1978. Sure, Pharoah was an overwhelming favorite at sportsbooks and betting sites, but arguments abounded for why the window to win horse racing’s greatest […]

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When American Pharoah was preparing to race in the Belmont Stakes last season, most analysts were not too rosy on his odds of securing the first triple crown since Affirmed in 1978.

Sure, Pharoah was an overwhelming favorite at sportsbooks and betting sites, but arguments abounded for why the window to win horse racing’s greatest honor had closed. The data journalism magnates at FiveThirtyEight wrote a story about how specialization toward the shorter Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes seemed to be ruining contestants’ chances at the Belmont. Meanwhile, Wired Magazine wrote a feature that argued, literally, that “Science says American Pharoah won’t win the triple crown.”  Science!

Of course, we all know what happened next, as Pharoah ended the 37-year crown drought and went on to become the first ever horse to win a horse racing “grand slam” (the fourth event of which, it should be noted, has only been around since the ’80s). So, now that another year’s Derby is in the books, it’s time to ask an important question: was Pharoah just a universe-defying superhorse, or is the triple crown a little bit easier to win than people think?

The problem with the grand arguments about the jump in difficulty in completing a triple crown is that they’re absurdly difficult to prove with any sort of concrete evidence. There are a lot of things that have changed since the crown drought started – stud fees started soaring, horses started slowing down, Kobe Bryant was born – but it’s tough to determine which (if any) were actually relevant to bringing about the drought itself. Unlike most sports, you can’t actually ask the athletes themselves, and with many epic campaigns coming down to a single 1 1/2-mile race, it’s hard to know exactly how significantly randomness plays a factor.

Admittedly, some theories do make more sense than others, and it’s likely that more than one of them contributed to the years of silence. It seems legitimately possible, for instance, that at least some of the Derby and Preakness winners have trained more for shorter distances, which may partially explain why a horse has won the first two legs of the crown almost every other year since 1997 versus more like once in every three years before that. Another variable that may have played a role (which I referenced in my column about the triple crown last year) is the injury record of recent contenders. Of the 12 horses that tried and failed for the crown, at least four had some claims to not being in top form for the Belmont – even one win out of this group could have dramatically altered the nature of the drought.

The task of predicting whether this year’s Derby winner, Nyquist, has a shot at the next two legs thus comes down to predicting how he ranks in some of these factors and which particular factors will become relevant to his case. In all honesty, neither of these can be done with certainty. Nyquist’s propensity for injury is unknowable and his ability to go the distance is unproven. He had never run an event as long as he did at Churchill Downs, and while skepticism of his ability to run 10 furlongs clearly proved unfounded when he recorded the fastest Derby time since 2003 it still does not prove he’ll be the most talented three-year-old at running 12.

This uncertainty is why even some of the most intelligent sources have no real idea what will happen – or even what should happen – and most of the narratives about what did happen only can be written after the fact. These explanations can be more or less compelling, but they are often highly specific and not necessarily all that testable and, as a result, they don’t give us all that much insight. To put it another way, it would be one thing if someone had predicted the crown drought in 1978 with a sensical and universal theory. When most options are just trends extrapolated from a few data points, however, it’s not all that predictive or impressive.

Ultimately, then, the answer to the question I pose at the end of my third paragraph is that nobody really knows. There are credible cases to be made that what Pharoah accomplished will almost never happen again and equally credible cases that lead to Nyquist doing it within the next four weeks. Until the next revolution in horse racing analytics, however, choosing between these paths will remain absurdly difficult in advance, and virtually no legitimate outcome should lead to great surprise.

It’s clear that the stars must still align for Nyquist to capture a crown. But it’s possible that this might not happen as infrequently as you’d think.

 

Do you think Nyquist will win a triple crown? Tell Andrew Mather yea or nay (rather, neigh) at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Women’s golf clinches share of NCAA Regional title, advances to finals https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/08/womens-golf-clinches-share-of-ncaa-regional-title-advances-to-finals/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/08/womens-golf-clinches-share-of-ncaa-regional-title-advances-to-finals/#respond Mon, 09 May 2016 06:12:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114764 A back-and-forth final hole between senior Mariah Stackhouse and USC's Tiffany Chan ultimately caused No. 12 Stanford women's golf to tie with the No. 2 Trojans for first in the NCAA Stanford Regional Championship at the Stanford Golf Course on Saturday.

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A back-and-forth final hole between senior Mariah Stackhouse and USC’s Tiffany Chan ultimately caused No. 12 Stanford women’s golf to tie with the No. 2 Trojans for first in the NCAA Stanford Regional Championship at the Stanford Golf Course on Saturday.

Stackhouse and Chan both missed potential match-winning putts to put the teams level at 4-over at the end of the three-day, 18-school event. These results were good enough to qualify both squads for the NCAA Championships, which features the top six finishers from four different regional tournaments.

In a week that had seen the Trojans and the Cardinal locked in a two-way battle for the top spot almost from the beginning, both teams seemed satisfied to have earned a share of the title. USC managed to maintain its streak of perfection in its recent qualifiers, while Stanford proved yet again that it is a talented team that can threaten opponents above its rank.

“We’re really excited to have played well this week,” said Stackhouse after the event. “I think USC was gunning for their seventh straight regional championship, and so for us to have tied them and be sharing the title [with them] is a pretty big deal. They’re always a great team but we played toe-to-toe with them.”

Stackhouse finished the event in a tie for sixth place overall, at 1-under. She and junior Casey Danielson (-2) set the pace for the Cardinal for the duration of the tournament, ensuring the team would have a chance to defend its national title at the Eugene Country Club later this month.

Senior Lauren Kim, the seventh-ranked individual in the country, also provided a much-needed boost for Stanford, particularly on the final day of play. Kim struggled a bit in the opening rounds by going 5-over on the first day and 1-over on the second, but she finally caught fire on Saturday’s front nine to surge up into 14th place and provide some insurance for the remainder of the lineup.

“You always hope that it’s your week [at regionals], but golf’s a funny sport and sometimes things just don’t go your way,” said head coach Anne Walker after the event. “To be at home and also play great was really thrilling.”

USC opened the event in a narrow lead, posting a 287 on Thursday to put the Trojans two strokes ahead of the Cardinal. Stanford responded on Friday with a tournament-low 4-under 280 to take a two-stroke lead of their own, which it managed to maintain through the midway point on Saturday.

The Cardinal couldn’t completely hold on against the consistency of the Trojans, however, and bogeys by Kim on 10 and 12 and by freshman Sierra Kersten on 10 and 18 briefly swung USC back in front. Birdies from Danielson on 16 and 17 kept Stanford in the running until Stackhouse’s one-stroke victory over Chan on 18 brought the teams back to level terms.

For the team’s seniors, Stackhouse and Kim, the event provided one final chance to play in front of a friendly home crowd. The two former All-Americans were instrumental in Stanford’s championship run last season, and both got the chance to take a bit of a victory bow by navigating the team back to the championship in front of their families and fans.

“I definitely treated this day as an opportunity to embrace the career that I’ve had here at Stanford,” Stackhouse reflected. “It’s been a pretty good one — it has had its ups and downs, but I’ve had a blast the whole time. It was fun to come out, have a good tournament this week and give it one last go on my home turf.”

The Cardinal will tee off in the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon on Friday, May 20.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Softball travels to ASU for final road series of season https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/06/softball-travels-to-asu-for-final-road-series-of-season/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/06/softball-travels-to-asu-for-final-road-series-of-season/#comments Fri, 06 May 2016 09:08:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114708 On its final trip away from Boyd & Jill Smith Family Stadium, Stanford softball (13-29, 0-18 Pac-12) will be looking for its first conference win as it heads to Arizona State (27-22, 3-15) this Friday through Sunday. The Cardinal are coming off a tough series against their rival, California, in which the team was swept by […]

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On its final trip away from Boyd & Jill Smith Family Stadium, Stanford softball (13-29, 0-18 Pac-12) will be looking for its first conference win as it heads to Arizona State (27-22, 3-15) this Friday through Sunday.

(COLE GRANDEL/The Stanford Daily)
Kayla Bonstrom (above) got back on track during the Cardinal’s latest series against Cal after struggling through conference play. In the final game of the series, she recorded 1 run, 2 hits and 3 RBI’s at her 3 at bats. (COLE GRANDEL/The Stanford Daily)

The Cardinal are coming off a tough series against their rival, California, in which the team was swept by the Bears and extended its losing streak. Despite the final results, however, Stanford did have a few golden opportunities to push its Pac-12 wins count into positive territory. The Cardinal held Cal to just one run in the middle game of their series and were tied going into the last inning in their final outing, but, in both cases, the team couldn’t quite find the inspiration it needed to complete the upset.

Still, Stanford will hope to focus on these stretches of strong play as it prepares to face off against another one of the conference’s weaker teams. The Sun Devils are on a 12-game losing streak and have not won a home game since they faced Texas Tech on March 26. Arizona State has struggled to find consistent pitching in its recent games, and the Cardinal will hope to exploit this weakness to help get their bats back on track.

Stanford’s own pitching has seen its ups and downs as well, with the team’s two starters seemingly alternating between in-form stretches and difficult runs of play. Sophomore Hayley Snyder appears to have the hottest hand right now after allowing just five hits in the team’s one-run game against Cal, although she failed to build on this result in the series finale. Freshman Carolyn Lee has also seen stretches of excellence, though recently more of her efforts have fallen short.

The team’s pitching staff has generally received little help from its bats, part of the reason for the Cardinal’s slide. Stanford did receive some good news against Cal in the reemergence of senior utility Kayla Bonstrom, who was one of the team’s best hitters before she went silent in Pac-12 play, but it will need a more consistent effort across the board if it wishes to steal one against Arizona State.

Ultimately, the weekend’s results will likely come down to which team wants it more. Stanford has never had a winless season in conference since joining the Pac-12 and will hope to end its losing streak to avoid going down that road.

The Cardinal will open their series against the Sun Devils at 7 p.m. Friday on Pac-12 Networks.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather@stanford.edu.

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Women’s golf prepares for tough competition at NCAA Regionals https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/05/womens-golf-prepares-for-tough-competition-at-ncaa-regionals/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/05/womens-golf-prepares-for-tough-competition-at-ncaa-regionals/#respond Thu, 05 May 2016 07:35:42 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114665 The title defense for the 2015 national champion No. 9 Stanford women’s golf team will begin in earnest on Thursday as the team prepares to take part in the NCAA Regionals at the Stanford Golf Course. It hasn’t been a perfect season for the Cardinal, despite the fact that they returned every player from a team that toppled Baylor […]

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The title defense for the 2015 national champion No. 9 Stanford women’s golf team will begin in earnest on Thursday as the team prepares to take part in the NCAA Regionals at the Stanford Golf Course.

It hasn’t been a perfect season for the Cardinal, despite the fact that they returned every player from a team that toppled Baylor in dramatic fashion in the NCAA Championships last year. After winning two of its first three events, Stanford has finished on top in just one of its last seven, as the team has struggled to find consistency week in and week out. That title-winning squad has even been broken up, with freshman Sierra Kersten replacing struggling junior Quirine Eijkenboom at the Pac-12 Championships and scheduled to start for the team this week.

Right now, however, all of that will be in the rearview mirror as the group focuses on ensuring it gets its chance at topping the nation for the second time in program history.

The Cardinal must finish in the top six at regionals in order to qualify for the NCAA Championships in Eugene at the end of May, an achievement that may prove difficult in the reasonably deep field scheduled to head to Palo Alto this week. Stanford will be pitted against No. 2 USC, No. 12 Arkansas and four other top-25 programs during the tournament in addition to 11 other unranked competitors that will also be eyeing their shots at reaching the championships.

The Cardinal should take comfort in the fact that they have almost always proved a force to reckon with on their home course, as the team did not finish worse than second at the two events it hosted this year. Senior Mariah Stackhouse holds the women’s course record after she posted a 10-under 61 during her freshman season, and the Cardinal already proved themselves against top competition at home when they crushed the Trojans and No. 1 UCLA at home earlier this season.

Stackhouse figures to be Stanford’s x-factor during the team’s end-of-season events. Though she lacks the consistency of nationally ninth-ranked teammate and senior Lauren Kim, Stackhouse can play as well as anyone in collegiate golf and frequently has on big stages. Should the 2014 All-American find her swing over the course of the next few days, it’s hard to imagine how anyone else will be able to keep up.

Stanford has increasingly counted on Shannon Aubert to move the team up the leaderboard this season as well, and the sophomore has obliged by posting a number of top-15 scores and earning a top-60 national ranking of her own. Aubert and junior Casey Danielson, who posted one of the team’s best scores of the year at the Stanford Golf Course with a 2-under 69, will likely round out Stanford’s counted scores, with Kersten’s figure also available for insurance purposes.

The event could be the last for the team’s seniors, Stackhouse and Kim, who will need to qualify as part of the team or as individuals to continue their Stanford careers. Both are likely to be remembered as having some of the top careers in Cardinal history, and each will hope to say goodbye to her home course with one more spectacular round.

The first Cardinal players will tee off at 9:20 a.m. on Thursday at the Stanford Golf Course, with live scoring available on Golfstat.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: The path ahead for Leicester City https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/04/mather-the-path-ahead-for-leicester-city/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/05/04/mather-the-path-ahead-for-leicester-city/#respond Wed, 04 May 2016 08:07:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114615 In the past couple of decades, the top of the English Premier League has, in many ways, been a bit of a snooze fest. Entertaining finishes occurred, to be sure, but even the most surprising title campaigns were still fairly “predictable” in the scheme of things. Just three clubs – Manchester United, Manchester City and […]

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In the past couple of decades, the top of the English Premier League has, in many ways, been a bit of a snooze fest.

Entertaining finishes occurred, to be sure, but even the most surprising title campaigns were still fairly “predictable” in the scheme of things. Just three clubs – Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea – had finished atop the table in England’s top football division within the last 10 years. Extend that window further and you get one more repeat champion, Arsenal, for a grand total of four teams that have consistently challenged for title during the majority of the league’s 24-year existence (due apologies to Liverpool).

That all changed when Leicester City clinched the title on Monday. The Foxes are the first opponent outside these four to win the league since the Blackburn Rovers narrowly edged United in 1995, completing an underdog campaign that was forseen by exactly no one who knew what they were talking about. You’ve heard the numbers at this point: Sports books gave the team 5000-1 odds of capturing the title at the beginning of the season, roughly equivalent to the chances that Cal State Bakersfield had to win the NCAA tournament. In short, Leicester pulled off the greatest upset ever.

As impressive of an accomplishment as it was, it was also, almost by definition, kind of a fluke. Leicester caught Manchester United and Chelsea in transition years, Manchester City in the midst of an injury crisis and Arsenal, well, being Arsenal. That doesn’t necessarily diminish from Leicester’s accomplishment – at most, it lowers the odds against it from astronomical to merely monumental – but it does beg the question about how repeatable this feat will be in the future.

Leicester fans thus far aren’t taking anything for granted. They realize that there’s a solid chance the team won’t be able to keep its now-coveted stars, even with the additional Champions League revenue due to roll in. Some of the other top teams will bring in new players and coaches, and luck will favor different sides in different matches. Leicester arguably shouldn’t even be the top league contender out of all the typical title outsiders, as Tottenham rolled out its own share of surprises this season and has a better chance of keeping its roster intact.

An interesting feature of Premier League play will be put to the test over the course of the next few months. In the past, seeing a player perform well for a lesser team in the league merely meant that one of the “big guys” would snap them up the next summer. Already the rumors are swirling that Leicester’s standouts will fall victim to this perennial fate. An arms race is likely to develop around Riyad Mahrez. N’Golo Kanté was checked out by Paris Saint-Germain. Heck, even goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has been linked with Barcelona.

Leicester has more resources to retain these players than anyone ever has before, but it’s far from certain exactly how much this will mean. The club’s executives may be influenced by the incredible numbers they see on transfer proposals, or the players themselves may take the chance to flee toward more established programs. The loss of even a few key playmakers could significantly alter Leicester’s fates; it’s hard to see how they would make up for the goalscoring production that might leave with Jamie Vardy, for instance.

These are all reasonably individual decisions that are difficult to predict before they happen. Yet, depending on how they do turn out, the narrative of the Premier League may be significantly altered. It was effectively an assumption before this season that all but five or six British teams would always be locked in a race out of last. Now that the pathway to the top of the podium has been trail-blazed, it’s totally possible that future players, owners and fans will attempt to open it again.

All this could end if these five or six clubs reassert their control next season. In some respects, the toughest challenge for the Foxes lies ahead of them. Leicester has proved this year that it’s possible to move from the bottom to the top with good coaching and an incredible ability to recognize undervalued talent. Now it’s up to them to prove whether it’s possible to stay there.

 

Andrew Mather shocked oddsmakers by reaching the top of the Stanford Daily Combine leaderboard with 3 reps on the 225-pound bench press. To see highlights, email him at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Sailing completes sweep of PCCSC Championships https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/28/sailing-completes-sweep-of-pccsc-championships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/28/sailing-completes-sweep-of-pccsc-championships/#respond Thu, 28 Apr 2016 08:36:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114290 For the seventh year in a row, the Stanford sailing team completed its sweep of the three PCCSC conference titles after recording victories in the coed and team racing championship regattas last weekend. The Cardinal fought off reasonably strong challenges from UC Santa Barbara in both events to maintain their status as the dominant collegiate sailing […]

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For the seventh year in a row, the Stanford sailing team completed its sweep of the three PCCSC conference titles after recording victories in the coed and team racing championship regattas last weekend.

The Cardinal fought off reasonably strong challenges from UC Santa Barbara in both events to maintain their status as the dominant collegiate sailing program on the West Coast. Stanford led from the sixth race onward in the fleet racing championship and went undefeated in the team racing championship, adding two additional event wins to its convincing victory in the conference women’s championship last weekend.

The team began its defense of the fleet racing title on Friday, trading shots with the Gauchos early before a streak of eight consecutive race wins by sophomore and senior skippers Will La Dow and Antoine Screve and their crews, junior Nikki Obel and senior Samantha Steele, gave the Cardinal a 16-point lead.

Consistent results from UCSB’s boats kept them within reach of the title for much of the regatta, but the Cardinal maintained their double-digit lead throughout after continuing to receive consistent results from their replacement skippers, senior Axel Sly and junior Reinier Eenkema van Dijk, and crews sophomore Kennedy Placek and freshman Cassie Obel.

The team racing championship on Sunday saw slightly more drama than the fleet racing championship, if only because of the order of races. Both the Cardinal and the Gauchos won their first four contests in the five-race round robin before facing off for the title in a decisive head-to-head finale.

Any uncertainty was quickly voided, however, when Stanford’s three boats secured a perfect 1-2-3 result against the underdog Gauchos. The combination of Screve, La Dow and Sly and crews Steele, Obel and Placek managed to grab the top two spots in all five races in which they participated, allowing little room for the conference’s other teams to maneuver.

Stanford’s victories in each event have qualified it for the national coed and team racing championships, which will take place in San Diego from May 29 to June 3. The Cardinal haven’t faired better than third in either of these events since at least 2006, but, with a sixth-place national ranking in the coed format and a third-place ranking in the team racing format, they figure to contend for the titles when their East Coast-based foes head to California next month.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: The Lakers have fired Byron Scott. Now what? https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/27/mather-the-lakers-have-fired-byron-scott-now-what/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/27/mather-the-lakers-have-fired-byron-scott-now-what/#comments Wed, 27 Apr 2016 08:18:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114214 On Sunday, the Lakers formally announced the dismissal of head coach Byron Scott, ending their former player’s brief and largely unsuccessful tenure as the director of one of basketball’s most storied franchises. Scott had been hired to begin a rebuild of the team, but it turned out he had few ideas about what to do with […]

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On Sunday, the Lakers formally announced the dismissal of head coach Byron Scott, ending their former player’s brief and largely unsuccessful tenure as the director of one of basketball’s most storied franchises.

Scott had been hired to begin a rebuild of the team, but it turned out he had few ideas about what to do with the program’s diminished assets and a star personality who was still unwilling to yield the spotlight. Now, the Lakers will need to search for a new steward to rebuild Scott’s rebuild, a process that they hope will culminate in the team regaining the competitiveness that it has been almost entirely without since the 2011-12 season.

Of course, it’s still tremendously unclear how the Lakers will accomplish this goal. With long-time star Kobe Bryant now beginning his retirement, few tradable assets on their roster and most of their short-term draft picks bound to be sent away at some point, about the best thing the team can hope for is that its abundant cap space and historic pedigree will be enough for them to sign a star free agent. If this hypothetical player is willing to take a leap of faith and wait for the Lakers to build a team around him, the Lakers will theoretically repay him by helping him to a long, high-grossing career.

The desire to preserve this sales pitch to potential franchise players is much of the reason why the Lakers have fallen so low in the first place. While almost everyone figured that the team would force Bryant to take a pay cut so that he could remain with the organization while it began preparing for the next generation, the Lakers instead handed him a contract that kept him as the highest-paid player in the league. The message was clear: Whether Bryant could play as well as anyone or couldn’t play at all, he had earned the right to be the team’s superstar and would remain as such for as long as he wanted.

On the surface, this was a classy move that should have raised some eyebrows around a league that often expects players to make concessions so their teams can sign as much talent as possible. Yet, after making this move, the Lakers have been unable to land anyone of consequence and have come up almost laughably short in most of their attempts at marquee deals. Someone may eventually become impressed by the mountains that the team moved to keep Kobe satisfied, but so far it appears their efforts have been in vain.

The reality for Lakers players who aren’t all-time greats like Kobe has been a good deal more bleak. Take Scott, for instance. The team’s now-former head coach played with the Lakers for 11 of his 14 NBA seasons, winning three NBA Championships in the process.

Scott wasn’t a legend as either a player or a coach, but he had given a lot to the team’s legacy and to the fans in Los Angeles. The franchise repaid him with two poor seasons in an impossible situation and a highly public termination.

Admittedly, coaches are usually held more accountable for the poor play of their team as a whole than individual players are, and the team’s management may not have felt they had much choice but to let him go. Still, it’s become painfully clear that being a star with the Lakers is not the same thing as receiving star treatment from the Lakers. The team practically ran highly-rated Dwight Howard out of town after he spent one season drawing the derision of Kobe and failing to captivate the team’s followers. Pau Gasol took a pay cut to leave the Lakers because he had lost the good opinion of the team’s coaches and fans.

It’s more than a little strange how the team has largely ignored these secondary stars, especially considering how important they could be to landing the next great Laker. Offering a strong supporting cast is one of the most important things a team can do to land a primary celebrity, yet the Lakers have seemed almost totally uninterested in enhancing themselves in this manner. Rather than following on the lessons of Cleveland, San Antonio and even the Clippers, the Lakers seem to want to attract their next star before they start considering who he might pair with. For a franchise that likes to project the stability that the Lakers do, it seems like quite a gamble.

The Lakers haven’t hit rock bottom yet, and they still have some options at their disposal. Maybe they’ll win the lottery and snag Ben Simmons, or maybe their cap space will be enough to attract Russell Westbrook or James Harden back to his hometown. But these inconsistent management decisions and level of cognitive dissonance in their messages to players have left them in rebuild mode with a value proposition that only appeals to a very small subset of NBA talent.

It’s a status quo that’s only likely to change through luck. Unless, of course, they can find their next Kobe.

 

Send Andrew Mather a virtual medal for actually turning in his column on time at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Softball continues slide as team proves unable to break conference losing streak https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/26/softball-continues-slide-as-team-proves-unable-to-break-conference-losing-streak/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/26/softball-continues-slide-as-team-proves-unable-to-break-conference-losing-streak/#respond Tue, 26 Apr 2016 08:27:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1114137 Stanford softball (13-26, 0-14 Pac-12) proved unable to break its recent losing streak last weekend, as the team was swept by No. 24 Utah (30-13, 11-4) in Salt Lake City. The Cardinal’s pitching struggled in the notoriously difficult Dumke Family Softball Stadium, and Stanford’s batters couldn’t make up the difference as the team lost two of […]

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Stanford softball (13-26, 0-14 Pac-12) proved unable to break its recent losing streak last weekend, as the team was swept by No. 24 Utah (30-13, 11-4) in Salt Lake City.

#22 Jessica Plaza. Photo by Rahim Ullah
Senior catcher Jessica Plaza (above) was one of the sole bright sports for the Cardinal, recording a double in each of Friday’s two losses to No. 24 Utah. (RAHIM ULLAH/The Stanford Daily)

The Cardinal’s pitching struggled in the notoriously difficult Dumke Family Softball Stadium, and Stanford’s batters couldn’t make up the difference as the team lost two of their games by run rule and gave up 8 in the third. The losses make nine in a row for the Cardinal, who are still searching for their first win in conference play.

In the opener early on Friday afternoon, Stanford failed to establish any momentum as the team was defeated 13-0 in five innings. The Cardinal offense managed just two hits over the course of the game, a double from senior catcher Jessica Plaza and a single from sophomore infielder Lauren Wegner. Meanwhile, the home side combined for 14 hits of its own as it got the better of starting pitcher freshman Carolyn Lee and sophomore reliever Haley Snyder.

The Cardinal did show considerable improvement later that day, however, as they began the second game of the Friday doubleheader. Lee still struggled in the circle, giving up 7 runs in the third inning, but the team’s bats finally managed to break their silence in the top of the fourth. Plaza led off this resurgence with her second double of the day and was soon brought in by another double by Snyder, who had come in for the inconsistent Lee. A single from sophomore utility Arden Pettit then scored Snyder, narrowing the gap to five.

Utah extended their lead by one in the sixth before a two-out rally in the seventh nearly brought the Cardinal level. An RBI single by Plaza was followed by a 3-run home run from Wegner that succeded in narrowing the team’s deficit to 2.

Unfortunately, Snyder struck out on the next at-bat, handing the Utes a nervous 8-6 victory.

The final game of the series proceeded much more like the first than the second, with Utah riding a 9-run first inning to fell the Cardinal in 5. Utah’s pitchers once again all but completely shut down the Stanford bats as the Cardinal managed just two singles in their Sunday outing as they failed to seriously threaten their opponent.

Stanford will continue to search for ways to break its recent slide when the team returns home this weekend to face rival California, with the first game taking place on Friday at 7 p.m.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Sailing looks to build on impressive season as it heads into team qualifiers https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/21/sailing-looks-to-build-on-impressive-season-as-it-heads-into-team-qualifiers/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/21/sailing-looks-to-build-on-impressive-season-as-it-heads-into-team-qualifiers/#respond Thu, 21 Apr 2016 07:14:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113941 The No. 6 Stanford sailing team saw its championship season get off to a strong start last weekend as the team dominated the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference Women’s Championship in Long Beach, successfully qualifying for women’s nationals on May 24-27 for the 13th consecutive season in the process. Near perfect performances from skippers junior […]

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The No. 6 Stanford sailing team saw its championship season get off to a strong start last weekend as the team dominated the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference Women’s Championship in Long Beach, successfully qualifying for women’s nationals on May 24-27 for the 13th consecutive season in the process.

Near perfect performances from skippers junior Lily Katz and freshman Maria El-Khazindar and their crews freshman Kathryn Booker and sophomore Elena VandenBerg saw the Cardinal take the Pacific Coast women’s title by a full 52 points. Katz and Booker won seven of their 10 races in division A, accruing a total of just 14 points, while El-Khazindar and VandenBerg were only edged out of the top spot once as the team quickly established an insurmountable margin between themselves and their closest competitors, UC Santa Clara and UC Santa Barbara.

Elsewhere, the team also sent three boats to participate in the Thompson Trophy, an inter-conference regatta at the Coast Guard Academy. Freshman Russell Clarida and crew junior John Cannistraro proved a highlight at this event, dominating division C by 30 points, but the boats in divisions A and B couldn’t match their success as Stanford fell to 6th place overall in the 17-boat field.

This weekend, it will be the coed and team racing teams’ turns to attempt to qualify for nationals. The Cardinal have won both of these qualifiers each of the last six years and will hope to continue this consistency when they head down to San Diego this Friday.

The team is in an excellent position to dominate these events, and it figures to be a bit disappointed if it can’t add to this streak. Stanford is the only team in the PCCSC to be ranked in the latest Sailing World poll, and its members have frequently shown themselves to be a league above local competitors in the events this year.

UC Santa Barbara is perhaps the Cardinal’s greatest threat in the race for these conference titles. The Gauchos received votes in the same Sailing World poll (albeit not the 39 required to be ranked) and showed some ability to top the defending champions in the St. Francis Interconference at the beginning of April, when Gaucho freshman Harrison Vandervort put on a clinic in the regatta’s division B. Stanford will hope to rely on consistency from veteran senior Antoine Screve in division A this weekend to hold off the Gauchos in the team’s last competitive fleet racing event before nationals begin at the end of May.

The Cardinal will begin their fleet racing qualification this Friday, while team racing qualification will occur on Sunday.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather@stanford.edu.

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Mather: The Olympics are failing as a force for change https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/20/mather-the-olympics-are-failing-as-a-force-for-change/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/20/mather-the-olympics-are-failing-as-a-force-for-change/#respond Wed, 20 Apr 2016 07:54:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113863 Last Sunday, the lower house of Brazil’s Congress voted to impeach the nation’s president, Dilma Rousseff, on charges of corruption. The senate has yet to confirm this impeachment, but just over four months before the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games it appears that the nation’s government is headed for turmoil. Over […]

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Last Sunday, the lower house of Brazil’s Congress voted to impeach the nation’s president, Dilma Rousseff, on charges of corruption. The senate has yet to confirm this impeachment, but just over four months before the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games it appears that the nation’s government is headed for turmoil.

Over the past few days, details have emerged that paint this scandal as deeply embedded within the fabric of the Brazilian political system. Though ostensibly related to price-fixing with the nation’s oil company, it has become increasingly clear that contracts related to the Olympic Games, from Rio’s harbor redevelopment area to its expanded metro system, have been handled in improperly. Many are now under investigation themselves.

This news is just the latest story in a long line of negative press surrounding recent Olympic events that have been placed in newly industrialized countries. The 2008 Beijing Games were nearly overshadowed by human-rights related protests that saw numerous attempts to extinguish the Olympic torch and plenty of media outcry. The 2014 Winter Games in Sochi were summed up by Gary Kasparov in a speech at Stanford as good for little more than “money laundering.” Between the Olympics and the World Cup, costs overruns and government scandals have seemingly rocked a global sporting event every couple years, and with the 2022 Olympics scheduled to return to Beijing and the next two World Cups already mired in scandal, it doesn’t appear that there is an end in sight.

It’s easy to see the International Olympic Committee’s rationale behind awarding the games to these potentially controversial cities. The organization has always stressed that the influx of development and tourism can leave a lasting legacy in a country, and in some cases, it has. The 1992 Olympics is often credited with igniting tourism in Barcelona, while the 2012 Olympics helped spread redevelopment dollars to a largely ignored area of London.

But even a Government 101 student should feel alarmed by the assumption that these gains achieved in relatively established democracies will apply across all nations. While an Olympics can bring cash and energy to projects that may have been difficult to take on otherwise, it cannot bring the strong national institutions necessary to execute them in an efficient manner. In China, these institutional deficiencies led to an endowment of stadiums that mostly sit empty and a lack of progress on even comparatively solvable issues like air pollution. In Rio, they have led to a theft from the Brazilian people.

Even in the best case scenario for the South American nation, it’s safe to say that the “legacy” aspects of the 2016 Games will be considerably smaller than originally anticipated. A core feature of Rio’s Olympic plan was that the city would boost its water treatment to help turn its unsanitary harbors into a world-class sailing venue; now, it’s uncertain whether the city will even be able to divert this sewage in time. The supposedly lasting improvements to security and policing in the city that were supposed to accompany the Games have reportedly been scaled back in favor of a scheme that effectively consists of the army occupying parts of the town for the duration of the games.

The best argument in defense of the IOC throughout these competitions may be that the costs, as headline-grabbing as they may have been, have not actually been that large in real terms. While few recent hosts have reaped immense benefits from the Games, most have limped along after them at more or less the pace they did before. Even the 2004 Athens Games, probably the closest thing to an exception to this rule, realistically only accelerated an economic disaster that was almost certain to happen at some point anyway; the billions of dollars invested in the Olympics were outpaced by a broken pension system and an irresponsible economic culture.

In Brazil, however, this track record of “acceptable” damage looks perilously close to turning even farther south. The economic improvements are already looking like a lost cause; more and more, it looks like Brazil’s semblance of democracy might follow suit. Brazil is going through a formative national test at a time when its international commitments dictate that it absolutely cannot. It’s hard to predict the long-term implications of this, but they might not be pretty.

Whatever ends up happening in the coming months, the Games themselves probably won’t end in total disaster. There’s something very powerful about the imagery of every nation coming together to compete, and the continuous TV broadcast of this tranquil setting is likely to ease our concerns about the impact of the Games on the host nation.

Still, it’s important to see the big picture of the Olympics and, for once, make enough noise to ensure the lessons we learn are heeded the next time the Games’ location is decided. The Olympics are still one of the world’s finest sporting events. But let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that they can be anything more.

 

Console resident sailing expert Andrew Mather about the state of Rio’s harbors at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Men’s gymnastics finishes second at NCAA Championships https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/17/mens-gymnastics-finishes-second-at-ncaa-championships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/17/mens-gymnastics-finishes-second-at-ncaa-championships/#respond Mon, 18 Apr 2016 05:50:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113705 It's been a fairly predictable season for No. 2 Stanford men's gymnastics, with the team sweeping almost every competitor but failing to challenge No. 1 Oklahoma. On Saturday, the Cardinal's season ended in exactly that fashion, as they put in a second-place performance but finished well behind the Sooners in the NCAA Championships at Ohio State.

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It’s been a fairly predictable season for No. 2 Stanford men’s gymnastics, with the team sweeping almost every competitor but failing to challenge No. 1 Oklahoma. On Saturday, the Cardinal’s season ended in exactly that fashion, as they put in a second-place performance but finished well behind the Sooners in the NCAA Championships at Ohio State.

 (MIKE KHEIR/The Stanford Daily)
Junior Akash Modi (above) took the individual title on the parallel bars with a 15.300 and the title in rings with a 15.200 and finished second in the all-around as the Cardinal took second as a team at the NCAA Championships to No. 1 Oklahoma. (MIKE KHEIR/The Stanford Daily)

The Cardinal experienced a number of stunning individual performances, but it didn’t prove sufficient to best the defending national champions. Oklahoma’s historically talented roster did not drop a meet all season and became the first collegiate team in history to post a score above 450 when they hosted the Cardinal at the beginning of March.

Stanford did have some hope of pulling a dramatic upset early, starting the event off with strong scores on the vault (74.050) and the parallel bars (74.000), as the Sooners struggled to keep up on the stingily-scored floor and pommel horse. Junior Akash Modi took the individual title on the parallel bars with a 15.300, while senior Dennis Zaremski tied for fourth to boost the team 1.3 points clear of Oklahoma after the first two rotations.

The Cardinal lost a bit of momentum in the third rotation as they attempted the high bar while Oklahoma participated on the still rings, but the team still seemed to control its destiny as it remained just six-tenths of a point off the leaders. Modi jointly received his second individual title of the evening with a 15.200, but the team could only manage a 72.600 overall while the Sooners notched a 74.500 on the more generous rings.

In the fourth rotation, however, a gap began to open between the two rivals. Oklahoma posted a dominating 75.250 on the vault, the only score that broke 75.000 in the entire meet, while the Cardinal slipped up a little by posting an uncharacteristically low 71.700 on the floor. The team’s struggles were compounded on the pommel horse in the fifth rotation, where only fifth-year senior Brian Knott was able to break the top 20 as the team posted its lowest score in any event on the year (67.650).

The team briefly fell to fourth place overall going into the final rotation, but an impressive effort on the still rings (74.050) helped it recover its previous position and end the season as the national runner-up. Though the Cardinal’s first four competitors on the event didn’t guarantee the team the result it needed, a clutch final performance from Zaremski (15.450) put the outcome out of question and earned the senior his second consecutive individual title in the event.

Modi finished second in the all-around, a fitting end to an exceptional season for the junior. As a team, Stanford failed to win any of the individual events but ended with three second-place finishes to help bolster it to its final position.

The team qualified for the championship meet after narrowly winning its preliminary pool on Friday. In this meet, the Cardinal won four of the six events but nearly left the door open to an upset after posting a weak score on the vault and building only narrow advantages in many of their other activities.

“The team takes away that they need to step it up and knock out routines that they’re capable of doing if they’re going to win,” head coach Thom Glielmi said on the morning after the qualifier. “I don’t think we can have a performance like tonight and expect to win a championship. We had six falls, which is 6 points higher and right around a 440. They need to do their job. They need to enjoy the competition, and that’s when they do their best gymnastics.”

The Cardinal did manage to improve its scores in many of their better events in the finals but were never able to totally find the consistency they needed to win. With just three seniors on the roster, however, most of the team will likely have another chance in the coming seasons to make some history of its own.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Mather: Beach volleyball should be your new favorite sport https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/13/mather-beach-volleyball-should-be-your-new-favorite-sport/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/13/mather-beach-volleyball-should-be-your-new-favorite-sport/#comments Wed, 13 Apr 2016 07:17:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113507 I’m going to come right out and admit it: When I first made a trip down to the Stanford Sand Volleyball Stadium last year, it was only because I had been assigned an article that I didn’t particularly ask for and had to go report on it. I didn’t really know the details of how normal […]

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I’m going to come right out and admit it: When I first made a trip down to the Stanford Sand Volleyball Stadium last year, it was only because I had been assigned an article that I didn’t particularly ask for and had to go report on it. I didn’t really know the details of how normal volleyball was played, let alone its beach-based counterpart and wasn’t really expecting to be wowed.

As I went through the motions of being a sports reporter, however, it started to dawn on me just how impressive the events unfolding around me were. Here I was, surrounded by sand and palm trees in the middle of Stanford’s campus watching points get scored and spikes get landed on as many as five different courts at once.

In terms of spectator sports, it’s hard to ask for much more than beach volleyball provides. The event, which is about as faithful to the idyllic vision of California as you can get, combines exciting action with a fun culture – and, at least at Stanford, a truly awesome viewing experience. It also somehow feels more relatable than indoor volleyball: While it can be hard to understand the positioning and tactics of the variant that is played in gymnasiums, almost anybody can understand running around on the sand and trying to hit a ball over a net.

More excitement has come to beach volleyball this year through the evolution of the sport itself at the collegiate level. Starting this season, beach volleyball features championship events for both the NCAA and the Pac-12, adding a bit more of a competitive feel to the Stanford team’s event. The Cardinal are shifting their composition along with this change, adding more dedicated beach recruits to their set of indoor adaptees in order to contend for these events and potentially add to the school’s national title count.

Not that results should be all that important to anyone but the most devoted spectators. Entertainment in the sport comes on almost every point as each pair dives after mishit balls and attempts to use its three touches to set itself up to win a point.

The pace is less like football and more like basketball, albeit without the same number of play stoppages and often with even more parity. Even in the event that one match reaches a break, at least a couple more are happening just feet away, each at different stages in the game. In some ways, a beach volleyball tournament is kind of like the first days of March Madness, with the main difference being that, instead of requiring incessant channel-flipping to see different events, a mere turn of the head will suffice.

Weather hasn’t been all that kind to the team’s events this year, but good conditions can bring a remarkable feeling to Stanford’s home courts. There truly aren’t that many places on this campus that are prettier than the Stanford Sand Volleyball Stadium on a sunny day, with its grassy berms and secluded environment. Even when the weather turns south, the matches can still be quite interesting – a core aspect of this sport, after all, is its outdoor DNA. Wind and rain can add a bit of a challenge to the game that alter its play in different ways.

Sadly, most of the team’s home events have ended for this year. However, the Cardinal’s beach program is really still in its opening chapters, and it seems almost certain that what’s now just a hidden stadium will gradually become an important redoubt in the world of collegiate beach volleyball. The squad will play one last matchup at home against San Jose State and Santa Clara this Thursday before hitting the road for the Pac-12 tournament, where it may face some highly-competitive conference competition like No. 4 UCLA and No. 1 USC.

So, if you find yourself with nothing to do later this week or are looking to try something new, it might be worth it to stop by. The season may be almost over, but the fun is just getting started.

 

Andrew Mather is currently looking for a competent beach partner to carry him through his West Coast summer tour. If interested, contact him at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu. 

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Beach volleyball fails to execute at Stanford tournament https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/11/beach-volleyball-fails-to-execute-at-stanford-tournament/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/04/11/beach-volleyball-fails-to-execute-at-stanford-tournament/#respond Mon, 11 Apr 2016 08:48:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1113411 Stanford beach volleyball (5-8) failed to build momentum at home this weekend, as the team dropped three of its four matches at the Stanford Sand Volleyball Stadium. The Cardinal rallied in the third set of their No. 2 match against Arizona State to topple the Sun Devils, but fell against Oregon and conceded games to St. […]

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Stanford beach volleyball (5-8) failed to build momentum at home this weekend, as the team dropped three of its four matches at the Stanford Sand Volleyball Stadium.

Freshman Halland McKenna (14)
Freshman Halland McKenna (above) proved to be one of the only steady components of the Cardinal squad at the No.3 spot with partner junior Merete Lutz, winning 3 of 4 matches at the Stanford tournament. (SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)

The Cardinal rallied in the third set of their No. 2 match against Arizona State to topple the Sun Devils, but fell against Oregon and conceded games to St. Mary’s and Boise State for the second time this season.

In its opening event against the Broncos, Stanford found itself in a deep hole early after conceding points at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots. The team did manage to rebound a little at the No. 3 spot as junior Merete Lutz and freshman Halland McKenna held firm against their opponent, but a three-set Boise State win at the No. 1 spot over freshmen Hayley Hodson and Payton Chang secured a victory for the visitors.

Junior Ivana Vanjak and sophomore Catherine Raquel earned a consolation victory to narrow the final tally to 3-2.

The afternoon dual against Arizona State proceeded quite similarly, but a third set push by freshmen Courtney Bowen and Jennifer DiSanto flipped the result of the No. 4 match to keep the Cardinal even early. Lutz and McKenna added another victory and Vanjak and Raquel came back from being narrowly edged in the second set to hand Stanford a victory over its Pac-12 rival.

“We really needed that final point from [Vanjak] and [Raquel] to beat Arizona State. After losing our first dual of the day it was imperative that we build some momentum for tomorrow,” head coach Denise Corlett said after the end of the first day of play. “The continued strong play of [Lutz] and [McKenna] has been particularly impressive as well.”

Stanford proved unable to capitalize on its victory over the Sun Devils, however, as the team fell to Oregon in a back and forth match early on Sunday afternoon.

Despite winning the first sets at both the No. 4 and No. 5 spots, the Cardinal found themselves down 2-0 to the Ducks after both opposing pairs recorded two-point second set victories and then closed in the third set. Stanford quickly recaptured the momentum, however, with Lutz and McKenna adding another victory and Vanjak and Raquel holding firm to tie the scoreline.

With the game level at 2-2, all things fell to Hodson and Chang at the No. 1 spot. In an extremely contentious match, the pair took its first set but couldn’t keep its opponents at bay as it fell 22-20 in the second set and 15-12 in the third, conceding the dual in the process.

Things went from bad to worse in Stanford’s final match, in which the Gaels took advantage of the Cardinal’s fatigue to land a 4-1 overall victory. The team briefly looked in good shape after freshman Tami Alade and sophomore Karina Robinson rallied from down 1-0 to take their match at the No. 5 spot, but strong performances across the board for St. Mary’s sunk every other Cardinal pair in two sets, ending a seven-match win streak for Lutz and McKenna and a three-match streak for Vanjak and Raquel in the process.

“I felt we let an opportunity get away from us in the first match, but give Oregon credit for fighting back at the end,” Corlett said of the final day. “Saint Mary’s is also a very good team. The positive thing for our team is that we keep fighting to the end and will continue to find a way to win the right matches.”

Stanford will close its home schedule with a double-header against San Jose State and Santa Clara this Thursday.

 

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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