On Sunday, #3 Stanford women’s soccer shut out Arizona 3-0 in a home match at Cagan Stadium. Stanford fifth year midfielder Maya Doms (14:18), freshman forward Maryn Wolf (43:15), and sophomore defender Elise Evans (79:25) scored goals for the Cardinal. Ryan Campbell (0 goals allowed & 4 saves) was the winning goalkeeper for the Cardinal en route to Pac-12 goalkeeper of the week honors. Hope Hisey (3 goals allowed & 5 saves) was the losing goalkeeper for the Wildcats. Stanford improves to 10-0-1 overall and 3-0-0 in the Pac-12 while Arizona falls to 4-4-3 overall and 1-2-0 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Arizona at Stanford-Sunday, October 1st
“Great team win,” Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe said after the match. “Happy to get three goals today. Just a very good collective performance by the entire team.”
“Yeah, it was a good shutout, good to get a couple goals up on them in the first half,” Doms added. “It was a good response after like a close game on Thursday against ASU, but I definitely thought we got into a rhythm today more and yeah, got the result we wanted.”
Both teams got off to strong starts early as Stanford had a corner kick at 3:26 while Arizona had a corner kick at 5:37. Arizona also had a shots at 1:21 and 6:31 while Stanford had shots at 9:17, 10:35, and 12:21. Stanford’s aggression paid off shortly as Maya Doms scored at 14:18 thanks to an assist from Nya Harrison. Doms found the top right of the goal off her right foot.
“Got the ball, top of the box, kinda the corner of the box,” Doms said of her goal. “Saw that I could dribble across the box a little bit and then one of their defenders was in my way to do a straight shot, so I had to bend it around her and top right corner.”
Stanford continued to apply the pressure by getting more shots while also getting corner kicks at 23:30 and 28:12. While Arizona was getting shots of their own, Stanford was winning the shot battle. It was clear that Stanford had control.
“I think the mentality was stronger today,” Ratcliffe said. “I thought we went after them early. We got an early goal and we kept pressing and then the second goal before halftime was key as well. And then the second half we continued to press and play well and happy that we got the third goal.”
“I think we were exploiting what they gave us,” Doms added. “So, they gave us both opportunities to get on the byline and then cross in, but also shots on the top of the box. I think we did a good job of choosing which way to exploit them.”
At 37:18, Arizona’s Megan Chelf was given a yellow card while Stanford’s Kennedy Wesley was called for a foul at 38:36, which gave Arizona a free kick. Shortly thereafter, Stanford scored their second goal of the match as Maryn Wolf found the bottom left of the goal off her right foot at 43:15. Maya Doms and Samantha Williams were credited with the assist. Stanford would take that 2-0 lead into halftime.
“Zero-zero mentality at halftime,” Ratcliffe said of what his message as at the break. “We need to keep pushing. Try to get the third goal was basically the message I gave the team.”
“At halftime Thursday, we were only up 1-0 and we let them back in the game,” Doms said. “So we didn’t want to give them a chance at that so we knew we had to score another one in the second half. And then once we got that goal, I think we knew we were gonna get a shutout. So, just not letting our foot off the gas. Just being resilient and persevering.”
In the second half, Stanford got their first shot at 47:15 as Shae Harvey was off target. They were applying pressure on Arizona early. At 57:14, Stanford got their only corner kick of the half. Stanford was not able to score off that kick.
At 69:54, Wolf had a shot blocked while at 70:10, Andrea Kitahata had a shot to the bottom left of the goal that was saved by Hisey. Stanford was eager to get that third goal. Arizona needed to reverse momentum.
At 79:25, Stanford finally got their third goal as the momentum continued in their favor. Elise Evans found the bottom right of the goal off her right foot. Katie Duong and Jasmine Aikey got credited with the assist.
“I think just more aggressive in the final third,” Ratcliffe said. “Players are taking on one v one, we’re making harder runs in the box, getting to better spots, and then our execution was better that we scored three today…I think it’s critical to the future for the team that we have new players stepping in and different faces scoring goals. We’re really proud of Maryn, she came in and scored an important goal and Elise loves scoring, she’s a center back, but she wants to be the top scorer on the team. So really happy for Elise that she was able to get a goal.”
“Yeah, it’s awesome to see more than just our regular scorers get on the table today,” Doms added. “Elise a defender and Maryn a freshman who is scoring her first career goal. So that’s amazing.”
From there, Stanford would win the match 3-0. Arizona was eager to avoid the shutout as Sarah Rice fired a shot at 87:01, but Campbell got the save to preserve the shutout. Her fourth and final save of the match.
“Ryan’s been really solid in goal,” Ratcliffe said. “Her leadership ability back there is very strong, her presence, she’s just been phenomenal for us…This is how we want it to be: We want to be scoring quite a few goals and we want to get shutouts. We want to have convincing performances.”
“Ryan’s just been solid the past few games,” Doms said. “She came up with two big saves, one break away, one in the second half. It’s just good to be, to feel that we are safe and secure in the back line.”
Up next for Stanford is a road trip to the Rockies. Up first will be Colorado on Thursday at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Mountain. On Sunday at 12:00 PM PT will be a date with Utah.
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