On Sunday, #3 Stanford women’s soccer defeated #12 Santa Clara 1-0 at Cagan Stadium on The Farm. The only goal that was scored the entire match was by redshirt sophomore forward Andrea Kitahata off an assist from sophomore midfielder Jasmine Aikey and fifth year midfielder Maya Doms at the 32:18 mark. Stanford senior goalkeeper Ryan Campbell (5 saves) picked up the win in the net for the Cardinal while also nabbing Pac-12 goalkeeper of the week honors while Santa Clara redshirt senior goalkeeper Marlee Nicolos (8 saves) was handed the loss despite giving up just one goal. Stanford improves to 7-0-1 on the season while Santa Clara falls to 6-1-2.
BOX SCORE: Santa Clara at Stanford-Sunday, September 17th
“Yeah, really good performance by the team,” Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe said after the match. “It was a tough tactical match and we had a few good chances and capitalized on one great chance so, happy to get the win.”
From the beginning of the match, both teams put pressure on the opposing goalkeepers. At the 8:48 mark, Maya Doms had a shot saved by Nicolos while at the 10:45 mark, Aikey had a shot that was off target, resulting in a goal kick. At the 12:21 and 12:50 mark, Campbell had to get back-to-back saves for Stanford as Farrah Walters and Colby Barnett got a couple of early shots for Santa Clara. At the 14:22 mark, Aikey had a shot on goal that was saved by Nicolos. Both goalkeepers were playing stout defense in the net. Despite these early shots, the only corner kick in the first 30 minutes was at the 6:50 mark by Stanford.
“Yeah, Ryan’s been really solid,” Ratcliffe said of Campbell. “I think all of her teammates trust her, we all have a lot of confidence in her, and she’s playing incredible soccer for us.”
Stanford had a throw in at the 30:35 mark and shortly thereafter came the goal by Kitahata as she found the top right of the goal off her right foot thanks to the assist from Aikey and Doms. It was a 1-0 lead for the Cardinal. A lead that would end up being the final score.
“Yeah, Andrea is having an incredible year,” Ratcliffe said of Kitahata. “And she cut side and bent a nice shot into the top corner. So, really good finish and yeah, she’s been scoring a lot of goals this year, so really happy for her.”
“Well the team has been playing amazing and I got a nice little back heel from Jasmine and lucky enough to put it away,” Kitahata said of her goal. “So the team has been working really hard and it’s really a testament to our hard work on and off the ball.”
Down the stretch of the first half, Stanford was called for fouls at the 32:53, 37:20, 40:21, and 43:43 marks while Santa Clara’s Colby Barnett was called for a yellow card at the 34:51 mark. Santa Clara would get a corner kick at 44:43, right before halftime, but that of course yielded nothing for the Broncos. Right before halftime at approximately the 42:00 mark, Stanford junior defender Kellie Pagador went down with an injury and did not return. She was on crutches after the match, but no timetable was given for when she might be back.
“Yeah, I hope she’s gonna be out for just a little bit,” Ratcliffe said of Pagador’s status. “But I haven’t heard too much. But yeah, I don’t like to see people get hurt so that’s unfortunate.”
In the second half, neither team would score as 1-0 was the final. There were a lot of fouls called on both sides, but no yellow cards. Stanford got corner kicks at the 48:09 and 80:04 marks while Santa Clara’s lone corner kick of the second half came at the 77:32 mark. Stanford forced Nicolos to make four saves in the second half while Santa Clara forced Campbell to make three. Both teams did a great job of making the opposing keepers work. Fortunately for Stanford, they were able to find a way to score the one goal that they did.
“My message was play like it’s 0-0,” Ratcliffe said of what he told the team at halftime. “Be smart, wait for the right opportunities, don’t get caught up in too much of transitional play. And we did a good job of managing the ball, managing the game and in trying to create good opportunities and get chances to score. But their goalkeeper played well, their team played well, and that made it difficult on us.”
“Yeah, it was very much a tactical game,” Ratcliffe said of coaching a defensive match. “And we had to be careful because they were gonna try to hit us on the counter. So, you don’t want to lose possession. You have to make intelligent decisions and when you go forward, you have to make sure you have good numbers and create opportunities and we did that, but if the ball did turnover, we had to be ready to counter press and be ready for the counterattack.”
This is obviously a big win for Stanford. Santa Clara is a rival and one of the best programs in the nation. To get a win over them feels really good and is a good measuring stick for Stanford as they are about to begin Pac-12 play.
“I think it’s critical,” Ratcliffe said of winning matches against quality out-of-conference opponents. “We have to test ourselves because we know we’re gonna be tested in the Pac-12. There’s so many strong teams and this was a really good test, a really good challenging match to prepare us for that so we know where our weaknesses are, where our strengths are, and how we can continue to grow.”
As for Santa Clara, this is not how they wanted this match to go, but they played Stanford hard and really made them earn this victory over the course of the full 90 minutes. Should they meet Stanford again, they should feel confident in their abilities to turn the tables.
“Santa Clara is a great team,” Kitahata said. “We come out here to battle every year with them and it’s always great to get a shutout against them. They played really well. But you know, our team has been putting in the work, so a well-deserved win by us.”
Up next for Stanford is a road match on Friday against Washington State to open up Pac-12 play. That will begin at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Insider.
“Yeah, I mean, the win keeps us going,” Kitahata said of the key to starting strong in conference play. “It’s always good to come out here and put on a show and get a win and rolling into conference play, I think we’re really confident and really excited to put on a show for the country.”
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