Stanford Athletics

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LOOKING AHEAD » Tied for first in the Pac-12 halfway through its conference schedule, No. 12 Stanford (7-2-3, 4-1-0) hosts Oregon State (7-4-2, 3-2-0) on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m. and Washington (7-6-0, 2-3-0) on Sunday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. Troy Clardy and Cobi Jones will have Thursday's call on Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Bay Area and Pac-12 Oregon while Joe Castellano and Christopher Sullivan will broadcast Sunday's match on Pac-12 Network, Pac-12 Bay Area and Pac-12 Washington.
 
STANFORD-OREGON STATE SERIES » The Cardinal is 36-7-5 all-time against the Beavers in a series dating back to 1988, 16-2-3 in the past 21 and 11-1-1 under Jeremy Gunn. The Cardinal's 1-0 loss last Thursday night in Corvallis was its first to the Beavers since Oct. 23, 2011. Stanford had outscored the Beavers 13-0 in the previous six meetings. Gloire Amanda's 23rd-minute winner was OSU's first goal against the Cardinal since Nov. 9, 2014. Oregon State last earned a point on The Farm in a 0-0 draw on Nov. 9, 2008 and hasn't beaten Stanford at Stanford since Oct. 16, 2005 (3-1). The Cardinal hasn't lost consecutive matches to the Beavers since 2003.
 
STANFORD-WASHINGTON SERIES » Stanford is 20-34-6 in 60 all-time meetings with the Huskies dating back to 1974 and 4-3-2 against UW since 2014 with none of the last seven being decided by more than a goal. After going a decade without a win at Washington, the Cardinal has now won three in a row in Seattle following its dramatic 3-2 win in double overtime on Sunday night. Arda Bulut's 107th-minute golden goal was Stanford's latest winner since Eric Verso won one in the 108th at SMU on Sept. 13, 2015 (3-2).
 
WINNING IN BUNCHES » The Cardinal is 34-4-7 (.833) in conference since 2014, has won six straight league matches at home and is unbeaten in its last eight Pac-12 games at Cagan Stadium. It's last conference defeat at home came to No. 16 Washington on Oct. 30, 2016 (1-0 OT). Stanford's loss at Oregon State on Thursday snapped its nine-match Pac-12 winning streak and its 14-game unbeaten run in conference. The Cardinal's 17-match Pac-12 unbeaten run from Oct. 9, 2014 to Oct. 30, 2015 is tied for the 15th-longest in conference in NCAA history.
 
CONFINES OF CAGAN » The Cardinal has 41-4-9 (.843) record at Cagan Stadium since 2014 with a goals against average of 0.46. In conference the past two seasons at home, Stanford has outscored its Pac-12 opponents 18-2.
 
BOUNCING BACK » The Cardinal's loss to Pacific on Sept. 20 (1-0) was its first in 363 days. That result ended Stanford's program-record unbeaten streak at 21 consecutive matches and also snapped its 12-match home unbeaten run. The defeat 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). Stanford still has not been beaten in two consecutive matches in the same season since 2012, Jeremy Gunn's first year as head coach.
 
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 and is now 59-9-13 (.809) since 2015.
• 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).

CONVERTING CHANCES » Stanford's passing and movement in the final third has kicked into high gear since entering conference play. The Cardinal, which had scored seven goals in its first seven matches of the season, has put in 13 in its first five Pac-12 contests, its most since 2001 (14). Stanford is first in the conference and 50th in the country in scoring offense (1.67 goals per game) and 13th nationally in assists per game (2.33).
 
DEFENSE WINS » With shutouts in seven of its first 12 matches, the Cardinal is seventh in the nation in goals against average (0.545) and redshirt freshman goalkeeper Andrew Thomas is seventh individually in that category (0.547). Amazingly enough, Stanford has given up a goal to its opponent in three consecutive matches (at Cal, at Oregon State, at Washington) for the first time since the 2015 NCAA Tournament when it beat Santa Clara in the second round (3-1), Ohio State in the third (3-1) and Wake Forest in the quarterfinals (2-1 OT).
 
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.
 
NEW LOOK, SAME STANFORD » A process-oriented bunch, Stanford headed 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 has started at least four freshmen in seven of its first 12 matches this season.
 
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 91-27-21 (.730) in his seven seasons on The Farm and he owns a career record of 278-88-52 (.727) in 20 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 were 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 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 72 of Jeremy Gunn's 139 matches as head coach and is 66-0-6 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.