Stanford Athletics

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LOOKING AHEAD » Stanford (3-1-3) begins its conference slate at home when it hosts San Diego State (4-2-1) on Thursday and UCLA (4-3-0) on Sunday. Both matches begin at 5 p.m. and will be carried on Pac-12 Network. Kate Scott and Kelly Gray have the call against the Aztecs and Troy Clardy and Christopher Sullivan will hop in the booth for the game with the Bruins.
 
LAST TIME OUT » Stanford suffered its first loss in 363 days last Thursday night against Pacific, 1-0. The result ended the Cardinal's program-record unbeaten streak at 21 consecutive matches and also snapped its 12-match home unbeaten run. The loss was Stanford's first since Sept. 23, 2017 at Saint Louis (2-0) and its first home loss since Sept. 9, 2017 against Tulsa (2-0).
 
TWO IN A ROW IS RARE » The Cardinal hasn't been beaten in two consecutive matches in the same season since 2012, Jeremy Gunn's first year as head coach.
 
STANFORD-SAN DIEGO STATE SERIES » Stanford is 17-11-8 all-time against the Aztecs in a series dating back to 1976, 10-0-3 in the past 13 and unbeaten under Jeremy Gunn. The Cardinal hasn't dropped a result to SDSU since a 1-0 loss in San Diego on Sept. 30, 2011. Last season, Stanford beat the Aztecs twice by a combined score of 9-0 with three goals coming from Amir Bashti. The Cardinal won its Pac-12 opener in San Diego on Sept. 28, 5-0, and knocked off SDSU at home, 4-0, on Senior Day (Nov. 5). The first of the two victories was Stanford's largest margin of victory in conference since beating Cal 6-1 on Nov. 9, 2012 and was also its largest margin of victory in a shutout since it beat Richmond 6-0 on Sept. 21, 2002. Three of Amir Bashti's six goals last season came against San Diego State, two on Sept. 28 and another on Nov. 5.
 
STANFORD-UCLA SERIES » Stanford is 11-39-9 in 59 all-time meetings with the Bruins dating back to 1973. After going 6-39-6 against UCLA from 1973-2013, Stanford is 5-0-3 in its last eight meetings with the Bruins and has won four straight. In 2017, the Cardinal won 1-0 at UCLA on a Drew Skundrich header in the 35th minute on Oct. 1 and clinched its fourth consecutive Pac-12 title with a 5-1 victory at home on Nov. 2.
 
FIVE GOAL OUTBURSTS » In the 16 seasons of Pac-12 men's soccer prior to last year, Stanford had only once scored five goals in a league game (at Cal; Nov. 9, 2012; W, 6-1). The Cardinal did it twice last year against its Southern California foes in San Diego State and UCLA.
 
UNRANKED IS AN ODDITY » Stanford moved to 29-14-7 all-time against ranked opponents under Jeremy Gunn with its victory on Sept. 14 against No. 15 UMass Lowell, including 22-2-5 in its last 29. The Cardinal themselves dropped out of the United Soccer Coaches poll on Sept. 11 and have been unable to work its way back in following that win over the River Hawks and an earlier road triumph at No. 16 San Francisco (currently 26th with 36 points, 14 points shy of No. 25 Fordham). That Sept. 14 match against UMass Lowell was the Cardinal's first as an unranked team since Oct. 9, 2016 against Oregon State, a span of 706 days. Stanford entered conference play that season out of the top 25, but jumped back up to No. 16 following three 1-0 wins over Cal, No. 16 Washington and the Beavers.  In fact, after falling out of the poll following a 2-1 loss at San Francisco on Sept. 23, 2016, the Cardinal went 12-1-2 over its final 15 matches and won its second consecutive national championship.
 
CARDINAL QUICK HITTERS »

• Stanford cemented its dynasty with yet another clinical postseason performance in 2017. On a sequence that began with a throw-in deep in opponent territory, Sam Werner stripped an Indiana player with one touch and stabbed a right-footed shot under the crossbar on his next, at 102:03, to beat the Hoosiers 1-0 and give Stanford just the second three-year championship run in NCAA history.
• Stanford is just the second program to win three straight NCAA titles. Virginia won four in a row from 1991-94. It is also the seventh program to win at least three national championships along with Saint Louis (10), Indiana (8), Virginia (7), San Francisco (4), UCLA (4) and Maryland (3).
• Stanford went 52-7-10 (.826) during its three-year championship run.
• The Cardinal did not allow a goal throughout the entire 2017 tournament for the second straight year and upped its NCAA-record postseason shutout streak to 12 - a stretch of 1,214 minutes and 20 seconds. The only other programs to go through a postseason without allowing a goal are Wisconsin (1995) and San Francisco (1976).
• The Cardinal has 39-4-9 (.837) record at home since 2014 with a goals against average of 0.48.

SHUTOUT STREAK SNAPPED » Stanford had an active shutout streak of 974:15 before Georgetown scored on Sept. 3, the longest stretch in program history. Ethan Lochner's 65th-minute tally was the first goal the Cardinal had surrendered since a Brian Iloski penalty kick for UCLA on November 2, 2017, a span of nine matches. It was also Stanford's first goal allowed from open play since October 19, 2017 at Washington when Kyle Coffee headed in a cross (1,208:02). The Cardinal's nine-match streak of not allowing a goal from November 5, 2017 to August 31, 2018 is tied for the eighth-longest in NCAA history.
 
NCAA RANKS » With shutouts in five of its first seven matches, the Cardinal is third nationally in goals against average (0.261) and redshirt freshman goalkeeper Andrew Thomas is third individually in that category (0.263). At the other end of the spectrum, Stanford's scoring offense is ranked 145th out of 205 Division I schools (1.00).
 
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford heads into 2018 with the task of replacing seven starters from a year ago, including the conference's career goal scoring leader Foster Langsdorf and 2017 Top Drawer Soccer Player of the Year Tomas Hilliard-Arce. Those two, along with Corey Baird, Nico Corti, Bryce Marion, Drew Skundrich and Sam Werner led Stanford to three national championships, four Pac-12 titles, a 65-10-13 overall record (.813) and 30-3-7 (.838) conference mark in their four years on The Farm. They combined for 71 percent of Stanford's scoring last season (34 of 48) and are all playing professionally. (Nico Corti – RGVFC; Foster Langsdorf – Timbers FC2; Tomas Hilliard-Arce – LA Galaxy; Bryce Marion – RGVFC; Corey Baird – Real Salt Lake; Drew Skundrich – Bethlehem Steel FC; Sam Werner – Israel). The Cardinal started four freshmen in each of its first six matches of 2018 and had five freshmen in the starting XI against Pacific.
 
SIMILAR TO 2016? » Stanford returned a loaded bunch last season, but after its first championship the Cardinal was also forced to search for answers at key spots the following year. The Cardinal had to replace five starters, including MAC Hermann Trophy winner Jordan Morris and two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Brandon Vincent. Those two, along with Slater Meehan, Ty Thompson and Eric Verso, accounted for 53 percent of the Cardinal's scoring (23-of-43) during its 2015 title run. Stanford started its 2016 season 3-2-3, but only lost once again all season, finishing 12-1-2 in its last 15 en route to title No. 2.
 
GREAT UNDER GUNN » One of four coaches to win NCAA titles in both Division I and Division II, head coach Jeremy Gunn has led a team to the College Cup final four times in the past seven seasons. He and Virginia's Bruce Arena (1991-94) are the only coaches to win three consecutive NCAA men's soccer championships. His teams are 87-26-21 (.728) in his six-plus seasons on The Farm and he owns a career record of 274-87-52 (.726) in 19-plus seasons, a mark which makes him the fourth winningest active coach at the Division I level and the 18th winningest coach all-time (both by percentage). Gunn and his staff were named the 2017 National Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches and he also secured the first national men's coach of the year award handed out by Top Drawer Soccer.
 
KENNEDY PROMOTED » On August 22, third-year assistant Oige Kennedy was promoted to associate head coach. Working primarily with the Cardinal's keepers, Kennedy's first two years on The Farm have been hugely successful. In 2017, Nico Corti put together the best statistical season for a goalkeeper in Stanford men's soccer history. He finished second in the country in both goals against average (0.386) and solo shutouts (14), set Pac-12 records in both categories, a school record in goals against average and tied the school record in solo shutouts. A year prior, Andrew Epstein made two consecutive penalty kick saves in the College Cup final against Wake Forest to lead the Cardinal to its second straight national championship. That season, Epstein was named the College Cup's Defensive Most Outstanding Player, a United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-American, CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American and finished seventh in the country in goals against average (0.571). Corti (0.00) and Epstein (0.34) are first and second in NCAA history in career postseason goals against average and just the fifth and sixth keepers in college soccer history to go through an entire postseason without allowing a single goal.
 
MAKE IT FOUR » Stanford was unbeaten in conference action for the first time last season (9-0-1) and added a 2017 conference title to championships from 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2001. Stanford became the second Pac-12 school to win four in a row. UCLA won the same number of consecutive conference crowns from 2002-05. Jeremy Gunn is the only coach in league history to win more than two consecutive Pac-12 titles as UCLA's four-year run was split evenly between Tom Fitzgerald and Jorge Salcedo. The Cardinal is 30-3-7 (.838) in conference the past four seasons.
 
THE CAPITAL OF COLLEGE SOCCER » Last season Stanford became the first Division I school to win national titles in both men's and women's soccer in the same season. The men's championship came one week after the Cardinal women knocked off UCLA, 3-2, for that program's second national crown. Stanford has won more NCAA titles (117) than any other school and owns an active 42-year stretch with at least one NCAA team championship dating back to 1976-77.
 
SCORE TWICE AND WIN » Stanford has scored two or more goals in 68 of Jeremy Gunn's 134 matches as Stanford's head coach and is 62-0-6 in those games. The Cardinal hasn't lost when scoring at least two goals since Nov. 11, 2010, when it fell 3-2 at Cal.
 
FOREIGN TOUR » In late March, Stanford went on a foreign tour of England that included stops in London and Manchester and matches against academy sides from Fulham (W, 3-0), Queens Park Rangers (W, 5-2) and Bradford City (W, 3-1). A 20-minute documentary from Ingredient Films on the team's trip has garnered more than 70,000 views on YouTube and debuted on Pac-12 Networks immediately following the match against San Jose State on August 24.