Tourney Journey Starts Sunday
LOOKING AHEAD: No. 1/1 Stanford (13-2-3 overall, 6-1-3 Pac-12) begins its journey to the NCAA College Cup when it hosts No. 21/NR UC Irvine (15-5-3, 4-5-1 Big West) in postseason play at Cagan Stadium on Sunday evening. The match against the Anteaters begins at 5 p.m. and will be carried on the Pac-12 Networks with Christian Miles and Cobi Jones on the call.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY: The Cardinal is 15-11-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 9-1-3 at home, advancing on penalty kicks in two out of those three draws. It has advanced past the second round in each of its last five trips to the postseason. Stanford’s No. 6 seed is its highest since it entered the 2001 edition as the No. 3. That year, the Cardinal lost in the national semifinals to North Carolina, 3-2, in quadruple overtime.
PAC-12 CHAMPS: Stanford finished its regular season 13-2-3 overall and 6-1-3 in league action. The Cardinal, which began its Pac-12 schedule with two wins, a loss and three draws finished 4-0 down the stretch to seal the title. Redshirt senior Austin Meyer’s winner in the 103rd minute at Cal Sunday afternoon pulled Stanford to the top of the conference table with 21 points, one point clear of UCLA. It was just the program’s second Pac-12 championship and first since 2001.
PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK, AGAIN: Different player, same story for the Cardinal men’s soccer squad, as redshirt senior Austin Meyer ended freshman Corey Baird’s two-week stranglehold on the Pac-12 Player of the Week award when he took home the honor on Monday. Meyer punched in the game-winning goal to help Stanford knock off California 3-2 in double overtime. After UCLA won its final game over San Diego State, Stanford entered overtime needing a win to clinch as Pac-12 champions. All three of his career goals have been game winners, with two coming this season. The honor is Meyer’s first and is Stanford’s 21st all-time player of the week selection.
HISTORY VS. IRVINE: Stanford is 8-0-0 all-time against UC Irvine dating back to 1993. The teams’ last meeting came at Irvine on Sept. 7, 2012, a 2-0 Cardinal victory. The two also matched up in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2009, a 1-0 Stanford triumph on Nov. 22 of that year. The last match at Cagan between the schools came on Sept. 28, 2003 as part of the Stanford/Nike Invitational, a 4-1 win for the home team.
LEADING THE PAC: On Thursday, head coach Jeremy Gunn was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year and junior captain Brandon Vincent was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in polling of the league’s coaches. Vincent anchored Stanford’s championship defense that went undefeated at home (8-0-2) and posted the conference’s second-best goals-against average (0.84). The Cardinal also tied for the Pac-12 lead in goals allowed, only surrendering 16. It’s the first year a Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year has been awarded. Stanford won its first Pac-12 title since 2001 on Sunday and finished the regular season with a 13-2-3 mark, its highest win total before the tournament since 2002 (14). Under Gunn, Stanford finished ranked first in the nation in every major poll, No. 2 in the NCAA RPI and earned a No. 6 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. He’s the third Cardinal men’s soccer coach to receive recognition from his peers as the conference’s best and first since 2009.
ALL-PAC-12: Those two headlined a group of eight Stanford men’s soccer players that claimed spots on various All-Pac-12 teams on Thursday. Vincent, along with sophomore forward Jordan Morris, were Stanford’s representatives on the All-Pac-12 First Team. A 2013 second teamer, it’s Vincent’s first selection to the first team. Morris earned his second consecutive spot on the league’s first team, the first Cardinal to do that since Bobby Warshaw in 2009 and 2010. Stanford led the way with five selections to the 11-man All-Pac-12 Second Team in Corey Baird, Zach Batteer, Andrew Epstein, Tomas Hilliard-Arce and Austin Meyer. Ty Thompson rounded out the All-Pac-12 honorees, as the junior was an honorable mention selection for the second straight season.
#NERDNATION: For the third consecutive season under Jeremy Gunn and his staff, the Stanford men’s soccer program had more than 10 of its student-athletes receive recognition from the conference for their combined work in the classroom and on the field when the Pac-12 announced its Men’s Soccer All-Academic squads on Friday morning. Twelve Cardinal were on this year’s list, five more than any other institution. Eleven received similar recognition in 2013 and another twelve in 2012. Bobby Edwards, Andrew Epstein, Austin Meyer and Ty Thompson led the way with their selections to the Pac-12 All-Academic First Team. Six Cardinal earned spots on the Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team in Zach Batteer, Jimmy Callinan, Marshall Glover, Slater Meehan, Jordan Morris and Eric Verso. A sophomore, Brian Nana-Sinkam also earned his first academic award with his spot on the honorable mention squad. The defender was alongside his teammate on the back line in Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Brandon Vincent, an economics major who also earned honorable mention status in 2013.
KEEPING AN EYE ON THE POLLS: The Cardinal finds itself a unanimous No. 1 in all the collegiate rankings, sitting at the top of the NSCAA/Continental Tire rankings, the Soccer America and Top Drawer Soccer polls. It is also second in the official NCAA RPI released late Monday.
BEST SINCE...: Stanford’s ranking in the NSCAA poll (No. 1), the official one recognized by the NCAA, is its best in over a decade. The Cardinal hasn’t closed a season in the country’s top 10 since finishing as national runner-up in 2002 (No. 2). After making its first postseason run since 2009 last November, Stanford closed the year ranked 21st in the country.
#USMNT: The Cardinal won its Pac-12 championship on Sunday without the services of forward Jordan Morris, who earned his first cap for the U.S. Men’s National Team in Tuesday’s friendly against Ireland in Dublin, a 4-1 win for the hosts. When Morris came on in the 76th minute, he became the first current collegian to receive a cap for the U.S. since Ante Razov in 1995 against Uruguay before his senior season at UCLA. He is the third Stanford men’s soccer player to appear for the U.S. National Team, joining Chad Marshall and Todd Dunivant. Marshall capped 11 times and scored one goal from 2005-10 and Dunivant appeared twice in 2006. Morris previously missed the match at Omaha (Aug. 31) due to duties with the U.S. Men’s National Team for its Sept. 3 friendly against the Czech Republic in Prague. Morris also missed Stanford’s matches against San Diego State (Oct. 9) and UCLA (Oct. 12), as he was part of the 21-player roster for the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team’s October camp in Brasilia.
NAVIGATING A DANGEROUS SCHEDULE: Stanford’s two losses came to teams currently ranked in the top 12 in the nation, No. 9 Creighton and No. 12 Washington. It wasn’t easy in the Pac-12 either, where five of six conference schools are currently in the NSCAA/Continental Tire top-25. The cumulative record of Stanford’s past and future opponents is 125-79-21 (.602), which is the sixth toughest in the country.
HOW LONG’S IT BEEN?: Stanford’s 13-2-3 (.806) record is its best start to a season since it went 16-1-1 (.917) through 17 games in 2001 en route to the NCAA College Cup. Stanford’s current .806 winning percentage is second in the nation. Its 34 goals through its first 18 games are its most since 2002 (34). Stanford’s 13 wins are its highest regular-season total since 2002 (14). Stanford and Davidson (10-2-6) are tied for the fewest losses in the nation.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?: After tallying just one assist in his first eight games of the season, senior forward Zach Batteer has been on a tear of late. He has registered a point in six of Stanford’s last nine games on four goals and three assists. The earth systems major is the Cardinal’s active career leader in both goals scored (20) and points (48).
VIRTUOSO VINCENT: A captain and one of the nation’s best defenders, Brandon Vincent has proven himself more than capable on the offensive end. Precipitated by a moved to left back before the year, the economics major leads the team with six goals after entering 2014 with just one in his first 38 career matches.
IT’S BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE: Stanford is sixth in the nation in assists per game (2.11) and ninth in total assists (38). Jordan Morris is 20th in the nation in assists per game (0.43). Morris has 13 assists in 35 career games, almost double any other current Cardinal. The team’s 5.89 points per game average is 10th in the NCAA.
YOU CAN’T WIN IF YOU DON’T SCORE: Stanford’s 16 goals surrendered are its lowest total since holding opponents to 15 through 18 games in 2007. The Cardinal is second in the Pac-12 and is 42nd in the nation with a 0.84 team goals against average. Andrew Epstein, in his first full season as a starter, is 49th in the nation with a 085 goals against average. He’s posted five solo shutouts, started in goal in two others and, if the season ended today, would be seventh in Stanford history in single-season goals against average.
THE MORE THE MERRIER: Thirteen different players have scored for the Cardinal thus far, including seven who have tallied their first career goal (Foster Langsdorf, Corey Baird, Slater Meehan, Marshall Glover, Tomas Hilliard-Arce, Jimmy Callinan, Brian Nana-Sinkam), a varied number of goal scorers which leads the Pac-12. It’s the most for Stanford since 2000 (12).
HOME COOKING: The Cardinal is 9-0-4 in its last 13 games at home dating back to last season and 18-7-5 on The Farm under Jeremy Gunn. The Cardinal are 8-0-2 at Cagan in 2014 and one of only five schools in the nation to have at least six wins and be without a loss at home. Denver, Saint Louis, Hartford and Harvard are the others.
OT DOMINANCE: Following the 3-2 win at Cal on Nov. 16, Stanford has not lost an overtime game since Nov. 1, 2012 at UCLA (2-1, 2OT), a streak that is now at 14. The Cardinal is 7-0-7 in such contests over that span.