Stanford Region Women's Soccer 2nd and 3rd Round Tournament Breakdowns
#1 Stanford vs. Santa Clara
The Cardinal cruised past Idaho State in the first round, winning by a score of 3-0. Stanford got goals from Alex Doll, Courtney Verloo and Sydney Payne in the first half and coasted from there. Santa Clara should be a tougher test, but we have seen this game before. These two teams met up on the opening day of the season in what was supposed to be one of the best games of the early season. Instead, Stanford upended SCU 6-1. Revenge may be on the mind, but that may not be enough. Santa Clara got off to an early 2-0 lead against Long Beach State. They held on and won 2-1. This is a better Santa Clara team than it was back in August, but superstar midfielder Julie Johnston will have her hands full.
Maryland beat Stony Brook in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but they failed to find the back of the net until very late in the contest. Denver, meanwhile, tacked on three goals against Colorado College. The Pioneer Women got one goal from Kristin Hamilton and two from Kaitlin Best. Those two have combined for 26 goals on the season. And scoring goals is what Denver does best and Maryland must find a way to stop Hamilton and Bast.
Maryland is a very balanced team. They have a very strong defense and a couple quality goal scorers in Haley Brock and Becky Kaplan. However, the pending matchup with Stanford could spell the end of their season. The Cardinal has lost just one game all season and if they lose again, it will probably be in San Diego.
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