Photos

By Rick Eymer
Palo Alto Online Sports

Kelley O'Hara became the nation's leading goal scorer on Friday night, scoring twice in helping the Stanford women's soccer team beat visiting Boston College, 3-1, to advance to its second consecutive Women's College Cup.

The top-ranked and undefeated Cardinal (24-0) will play UCLA, a 2-1 winner over Portland on Saturday, in the NCAA semifinals next Friday in College Station, Texas.

O'Hara, who has 25 goals on the season, rewrote the Stanford history books this season and looks like the front runner for National Player of the Year. Christen Press also scored and has 20 on the season.

O'Hara and Press form the nation's leading scoring tandem with a combined 118 points.

"They get a lot of credit but they will be the first to tell you it's a great team and they reap all a lot of benefits," Stanford coach Paul Ratcliffe said. "At the same they are unselfish and they set up each other. I can't say enough about those two."

They say enough on the field. O'Hara and Press each took 10 of Stanford's 30 shots. The Cardinal produced 15 shots on the goal, as Boston College goalie Jillian Mastroianni made 12 saves.

Stanford's Kira Maker allowed a goal less than two minutes into the contest, but made four saves the rest of the way to keep the Eagles at bay.

Boston scored first but Stanford responded with a game-tying goal 50 seconds later when O'Hara redirected the rebound of a Press shot.

Stanford took the lead for good at the 26:10 mark of the first half when Lindsay Taylor won a ball, and directed it to Press, who then sent a through ball that O'Hara hit in stride.

Senior defender Alicia Jenkins produced her third assist of the season, all on long balls, as she found Press behind the defense.

"Sometimes you miss the easy chances," Press said. "It feels good to put one away."

O'Hara, by the way, was the first to mention her teammates' ability to play the game.

"You look at the stats and you realize that Boston College is an amazing team," she said. "They have a great attack and our defense held them to five shots. The midfield was awesome as well. That early goal was a wake up call."

Stanford has trailed before in games this season and always had an answer. The Eagles were the fifth team to take a lead against the Cardinal.

"That goal came out of nowhere," Press said. "But when we got the ball back on the kickoff I had positive thoughts."

Besides, O'Hara said, there was plenty of time to energize the offense. Stanford has scored 53 of its 78 goals after halftime.

Stanford meets a familiar opponent in UCLA, which beat Portland, 2-1, on Saturday. The Cardinal beat UCLA, 2-0, during Pac-10 play this season.

The teams that formed last year's Final Four will make an encore.

Stanford lost to Notre Dame in the last national semifinals. The Irish meet defending national champion North Carolina in the other semifinal.

"We were there last year and a lot of people have had that experience," O'Hara said. "We're just going to play our style of soccer."

Stanford advances to the Final Four for the third time in school history. The Cardinal has never played for a national championship.

Stanford took 30 shots or more for the seventh time this season