As has been its way this season, the No. 1 Stanford women’s soccer team didn’t let an early deficit keep them down, scoring twice in the second half to take down No. 6 UCLA and advance to their fourth-straight College Cup on Friday night.
The Cardinal (20-1-1) rode two goals from redshirt junior Courtney Verloo to defeat No. 17 Santa Clara 2-1 in Friday’s second round match and then kept up its dominance with a 3-0 win over upstart Denver on Sunday. Stanford will face No. 6 UCLA in the quarterfinals.
The Pac-12 women’s soccer awards were announced on Wednesday, and as expected, the top-ranked Cardinal were well represented. Five players were named to the all-Pac-12 first team, and two each were named to the all-Pac-12 honorable mention and the Pac-12 All-Freshman team.
For four years, holding midfielder Mariah Nogueria has patrolled the center of Cagan Stadium, proving to be a dominating presence for the women’s soccer team.
The No. 1 Cardinal (14-1-1, 8-0) faces a season-defining weekend as it heads to Los Angeles to play the University of Southern California (5-8-3, 2-4-2) Friday and No. 2 University of California Los Angeles (14-0-2, 7-0-1) Sunday. The matchup with the Bruins will be the pivotal match in Stanford’s season up to this point: losing will guarantee that it falls in the rankings, but winning will more or less assure a fourth-consecutive Pac-12 victory.
The Stanford women’s soccer class of 2013 has never lost a game at home. It was only fitting that the seniors ended their regular-season home… Continue Reading »
But trailing on the road against a hungry Colorado team searching for its first-ever Pac-12 victory, the No. 2 Cardinal (11-1-1, 5-0 Pac-12) was in trouble. Seniors Mariah Nogueria and Alina Garciamendez didn’t blink, scoring two goals within 37 seconds of each other with 10 minutes remaining to keep the streak alive.