Senior Day Success

STANFORD, Calif. – Celebrating the accomplishments of its five-member senior class, Stanford field hockey rolled to a 3-1 victory on Friday evening over UC Davis. Stanford, playing without a goalkeeper for the sixth-consecutive game to open the season, improves to 3-3 overall (2-1 America East), while the Aggies fall to 5-4 (1-2 AE).

Haley Mossmer scored twice to lead the offense, giving her a goal in five straight games and seven goals over the span. The brace marked her second-straight multi-goal game. Lynn Vanderstichle added her third goal of the season in the second half to punctuate the win.

Prior to the game, Stanford honored its class of 2022: Liz Heckard, Fenella Scutt, Isabelle Pilson, Lily Croddick and Juli Porto.

"These five seniors came in incredibly open-minded and ready for a new principle of play, a different culture," said head coach Roz Ellis. "I'm so grateful for their leadership and for being catalysts that the whole team follows with our philosophy."

"I'm really proud of the way our team came together, and put together an awesome effort and connect in ways we hadn't before," said Porto. "It was an amazing feeling to have the support of the team before the game, and seeing my parents and having family here made it all the more special."

Stanford jumped ahead in the ninth minute after Mossmer's reverse shot found the back of the cage. Her attempt came off the rebound, calmly slotting it home to give Stanford the lead.

Mossmer doubled the advantage in the second quarter with her second-straight rebound, poking home her second of the game. With her two goals in the battle, Mossmer jumped to third nationally with 1.17 goals per game.

"I'm very proud of the team for being present in celebrating the seniors, but then grounding themselves to focus on the game plan," continued Ellis. "Our structure led to a lot of success in our attack, with the fluidity of how we exchange and the connectivity of how we're leading."

"I feel like I'm supported by a great team, it makes it easy to score goals. We came into this game with a ton of energy – all day – and had a lot of fans in the stands," said Mossmer. "The seniors have meant so much, they've been such positive inspirations. They really support me out there."

UC Davis responded with a goal to open the second half, but Vanderstichle scored an impressive solo effort in the 43rd minute to give Stanford back its two-goal cushion. Vanderstichle weaved through a pair of defenders and fired a shot off the post, which deflected into the back of the goalkeeper and across the line.

Stanford held UC Davis to just one shot in the final quarter, and three in the game, to hold onto the result.

"Liz, Cara, Molly and Izzy have had an extreme focus on intercepting, getting to 50-50 balls first, which stops the play dead before it can even get down there," said Ellis on the Cardinal's defense. "On top of that, we've been doing so much work on our organization, and we respect their voices and respond to their commands."

Stanford returns to action Friday, Oct. 8 at Albany. Game time is set for 11 a.m. PT.