The Stanford men's soccer team seems to have put things together at just the right time. The Cardinal beat visiting Vermont, 2-1, in a nonconference contest Sunday, and now own a two-game winning streak, a three-game unbeaten streak and have recorded points in four of its last five games.

The Cardinal (3-4-1) timed its good run for the Pac-12 Conference opener, which comes about Friday afternoon at San Diego State. Stanford also plays at No. 18 UCLA on Sunday afternoon.

"Going to Southern California is always tough, but we are looking forward to getting into Pac-12 play" Stanford coach Bret Simon said. "We had our backs to the wall this weekend. We had to win two games this weekend against a pair of quality opponents and we were able to do just that."

The Cardinal scored in the seventh minute to take the early advantage. Eric Anderson crossed a corner kick toward the middle, where Adam Jahn took control and took a shot. The ball was deflected to Hunter Gorskie, who scored his first career goal at Stanford.

Vermont tied in before halftime, but Stanford scored the game winner three minutes into the second half. Garrett Gunther dribbled to the right wing and played a through ball, in the air, to a streaking Dersu Abolfathi. The Cardinal junior finished with one touch in front of the sliding Vermont goalkeeper.

Field hockey
Three different players scored for No. 8 Stanford, which had to grind out a 3-1 NorPac Conference victory over host UC Davis on Sunday.

Hope Burke, Emily Henrikson and Katie Mitchell each scored as the Cardinal (3-0, 8-1) outshot the Aggies, 21-17 and had a 10-4 edge in penalty corners.

Stanford puts its seven-game winning streak on the line when Robert Morris visits for a nonconference game Friday at 7 p.m.

Eight different players recorded at least two shot attempts, with Kelsey Harbin recording a game-high four shots. Burke and Henriksson each took three shots.

Stanford took a 2-0 lead within the first 10 minutes. Hope Burke, on a penalty corner in the sixth minute, started the sequence with a pass to Stephanie Byrne. She also ended it, scoring after collecting a missed attempt from Becky Dru.

Henriksson scored at the 9:54 mark, taking a cross from Hannah Thiemann and beating UC Davis keeper Lauren Sawvelle.


Mitchell added an insurance goal in the second half. Ale Moss made seven saves in goal for Stanford, lowering her GAA to 1.88.

— Palo Alto Online Sports

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