On Sunday, No. 7 Stanford women’s soccer defeated No. 2 North Carolina at home by a final score of 1-0. Stanford midfielder Shae Harvey scored the lone goal for the Cardinal off an assist from Eleanor Klinger and Joelle Jung. Goalkeeper Haley Craig picked up the win in the net for the Cardinal with three saves and zero goals allowed while Clare Gagne was the losing goalkeeper for the Tarheels with five saves and one goal allowed. Stanford improves to 12-2-1 overall and 4-2-1 in the ACC while North Carolina falls to 13-2-0 overall and 6-1-0 in the ACC.

BOX SCORE: North Carolina at Stanford-Sunday, October 13th

“Proud of the team’s performance,” Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe said after the match. “Great team victory. Especially the reaction from the setback in the last game. I thought they showed tremendous character and couldn’t be more proud of the team and I think it took every player on the team to push forward and get this result.”

Neither team scored in the first half as it was tied 0-0 at halftime. That doesn’t mean the first half was devoid of action. North Carolina out shot Stanford 7-2, though both goalkeepers had two saves each:

North Carolina forward Maddie Dahlien had a shot to the bottom left of the net that was saved by Craig in the first minute while Kate Faasse had a shot to the bottom center of the net at 24:58 that was saved by Craig. Stanford forward Maryn Wolf fired a shot to the bottom right of the net at 28:33 that was saved by Gagne while Kellie Pagador had a shot to the bottom right of the net that was saved by Gagne at 38:15. Regarding corner kicks, only Stanford had a corner kick in the first half at 39:05.

Stanford also was called for three yellow cards at 39:42, 41:36, and 43:56. Some of those appeared to be a bit touchy, but nonetheless those calls added some action to a scoreless half. It was hard to say who had the edge at the break as both teams were playing hard.

“We had a game plan and we literally said the words bend don’t break,” Stanford midfielder Jasmine Aikey said. “We had to do the early work because we know they were fast, but we have a lot of fast people, too. So it was really just about keeping them in front of us and not letting them get any stupid like PKs or anything that that. Diving in and staying low and I think we did that really well.

“It was definitely chippy. I can’t really comment on whether I thought some of them were yellow cards, but I like that we were the ones being more aggressive and I think we’re gonna keep that energy up the rest of the season.”

The second half was scoreless for a while as it looked like this match might be heading for a scoreless draw. North Carolina had a corner kick at 54:25 while Stanford had a corner kick at 68:35. Neither of those led to a goal.

Also prior to the scoring of Stanford’s goal was three saves by Clare Gagne and one save by Haley Craig: At 60:03 Stanford forward Andrea Kitahata had a shot to the top center of the net that was saved, at 71:46 North Carolina forward Olivia Thomas had shot to the bottom left of the net that was saved, at 73:13 Stanford defender Logan Smith had a shot to the top right of the net that was saved, and then at 74:36 Kitahata had another shot to the top right of the net that was saved.

“We just started coming on stronger as we kept possession of the ball,” Ratcliffe said. “And kept playing and built our confidence. I think after the last result, it’s hard. You kind of question yourselves a little bit because it was a tough result last game, but then they built confidence through the first half and like hey, we can really play, let’s go, and then they pushed forward and I think they made it happen, but it wasn’t a bunch of tactical adjustments. It was more just simple stuff that they had to do.”

After putting more pressure on North Carolina down the stretch, Stanford was finally rewarded with a goal at 81:32 as Shae Harvey found the bottom right of the goal off her right foot thanks to an amazing assist from Eleanor Klinger and Joelle Jung. Klinger was the one who actually made the pass to Harvey while Jung helped set it up. It was now a 1-0 lead for Stanford. A lead that they would hold until the buzzer sounded.

“Honestly, it was kind of an out of body experience,” Harvey said of her goal. “I know Eleanor got it on the wing, crossed it in, and honestly it was just a mentality goal for me. Getting in front of my defender and getting any part of my foot on it and I was lucky that it went in the back of the net.”

“Allie Montoya is one of our best players and she was out with an injury today. Eleanor stepped in and she was one of the heroes,” Ratcliffe said of Klinger. “Getting a great assist to Shae for the winning goal. So, I thought Eleanor had an amazing game and she’s been playing well all year and playing a lot of minutes for us. So I think this is just building on what she’s the whole season in my eyes, but I ‘m really proud of her because that’s a high level opponent and she got a great assist.”

For Stanford, this is a huge win. To knock off the number two team in the nation is a big deal. Especially since they fell to No. 1 Duke rather decisively in their previous match. This match was a big test for them in terms of their resolve and they passed with flying colors.

“This is like a college cup atmosphere that we gotta get used to and prepare for,” Ratcliffe said. “So if we do get to the College Cup, we’ll be more prepared and have better results hopefully. Because these kind of games build character within your group and it tests everybody and you see who the top players are and who needs to continue to develop.”

“I mean, if you watch the game, I think you’d see it wasn’t as even as the score line showed for Duke,” Aikey said of bouncing back from the Duke loss. “I mean, we know that we were better than that and we know we had chances that we needed to put away. I think one of the best attributes about the team is just that we love each other and we’re supporting each other and we have each other’s backs and we knew that we could beat UNC and now we know going later in the season that we can compete with Duke and hopefully not give them another couple easy goals.”

“Again, mentality thing, we know now, like, we have a chip on our shoulder,” Harvey added. “We just had an unfortunate loss at home [to Duke] and we want to show that that’s not what Stanford stands for.”

Casting the final score aside, this was also just an all-around fun day of soccer. Both teams played hard and the fans got rewarded with an amazing match. They even added a section of bleachers behind one of the goals to allow more fans to watch than normal. That made for an even more fun atmosphere.

“I’m happy they did that to let in a few more fans because the more people can come watch this, the better for women’s soccer because it was a great showcase for women’s soccer,” Ratcliffe said. “A lot of talented players on the field, exciting game, and I think the fans probably had a blast. So I’m glad they opened it up and let some more people in. It was great. Good for women’s soccer is what we need.”

Up next for Stanford is a match at Louisville on Thursday, October 17th. Opening kick will be at 4:00 PM PT on ACC Network.

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