Senior Day turned into quite a celebration for the Stanford women’s lacrosse team, which clinched the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament with a 16-7 victory over visiting St. Mary’s on Sunday.
The Cardinal (5-2, 7-9) will meet second-place Denver, which had its 12-game winning streak ended by Oregon on Saturday, in a semifinal game at Stanford on Friday.
Regular-season champion Oregon faces No. 4 seed California in Friday’s other semifinal, with the winners playing Sunday for the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
The Cardinal and Oregon played in last year’s title match, with Stanford earning its seventh consecutive tournament title.
Stanford, winner of a season-high four straight, will be looking to avoid just its second losing season in the 16-year history of the program. The Cardinal finished 7-10 in 2000 and has won at least nine games every season since.
An aggressive preseason schedule, which included matches against four of the top 19 teams in the nation, may have contributed to Stanford’s record but it should help entering play this week.
Kyle Fraser led Stanford with three goals and two assists, while Emily Newstrom and Carolyn Bradley each added three goals. Anna Kim and Hannah Farr each added two goals. Lyndsey Munoz recorded seven saves.
Emilie Boeri, Ann Boeri, Catherine Swanson and Maria Fortino were the honored seniors.
Women’s gymnastics
Samantha Shapiro, Ivana Hong and Amanada Spinner each earned All-American honors during Sunday’s NCAA individual championships in Duluth, Ga.
Shapiro placed second on the uneven parallel bars, recording a score of 9.900. Hong and Spinner tied for fourth, each with a score of 9.875, on the balance beam.
Softball
Jenna Rich continued to move up the ranks of Stanford’s all-time leaders, hitting a home run to account for the Cardinal lone run in Sunday’s 7-1 loss to host Arizona State.
The Cardinal (6-12, 35-16) hosts UC Davis at 6 p.m. in a nonconference game Wednesday, hoping to end a four-game losing streak.
Rich hit her ninth home run and drove in her 57th run of the season in the top of the fourth. It was her 31st career homer and 153rd RBI. The junior ranks sixth all-time in home runs, one behind Jessica Allister, and assumed sole possession of fifth place in career RBI.
Rich also matched four-time All-American and three-time Olympian Jessica Mendoza for the second-best single-season RBI mark. Sarah Beeson (in 2001) holds the single-season record with 66.
Sailing
Stanford Sailing won its eighth-straight Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference title, while on the East Coast the coed team finished second at the Admiral Cup.
With the win, the women will join the three-boat team racing at the national championships in Texas at the end of May. The coed team will compete at the conference championships next week in Santa Barbara, as the Cardinal look to complete the trifecta.
In the final tuneup for the coed team, the Cardinal moved up to second place to finish with 344 points, six points ahead of Georgetown. College of Charleston won the event with 315 points.
The B Division did the heavy lifting on day two, as skipper Oliver Toole and his crew of Haley Kirk moved up to a division-low of 89 points, 17 points ahead of the Hoyas and Cougars’ 106 points. The duo finished in the top-six among the 19 teams in 15 of 19 races.
Mateo Vargas fell to second place in the laser division with 86 points. The A Division, skippered by Kevin Laube, finished with 169 points.
Crew
In a battle of the nation’s top two lightweight eight crews, No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Wisconsin split a pair of races Saturday and Sunday in Boston.
The Cardinal Lightweights return to action next Saturday at the WIRA Championships in Gold River, Calif.
Racing into strong head winds on Saturday the Stanford I Eight came up just short of Wisconsin. The Cardinal fell back a length to Wisconsin in the second 500 meters, then edged slightly into the lead for a few strokes late in the 3rd 500 Stanford.
However, Wisconsin came back over the final quarter of the race, finishing in a time of 7:24.9, eight-tenths of a second ahead of the Cardinal crew, 12 seconds ahead of Harvard and 45 seconds ahead of Buffalo.
In the II Eight lightweight race, Harvard led all crews from the second 500 to the end. Stanford remained in third for the duration of the race, finishing behind Wisconsin but ahead of MIT.
Sunday brought about much faster conditions for racing, and the Cardinal I Eight led the Badgers from the start and steadily moved out to the finish line. Stanford would claim the race with a time of 6:35.4, nearly a full second ahead of Wisconsin.
The II Eight had one of the most exciting races of the day as they fell behind early by about three-quarters of a length. They then started to chip away at the Wisconsin lead during the middle 1,000 and moved in front with about 600 meters to go. From there, the Cardinal finished 1.4 seconds ahead of Wisconsin with a time of 6:57.8.
“This was a really important trip for our team,” Stanford coach Al Acosta said. “We made some mistakes on Saturday while Harvard and Wisconsin had some impressive performances. I was happy to see both Stanford boats row better and more aggressively on Sunday.”
Track and field
Stanford sent a small group to the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, but had some solid results — including Kori Carter nearly breaking her own school record in the 100-meter hurdles.
Carter ran the Olympic Development section of the 100 hurdles, finishing third in a time of 13.14. Carter holds the Stanford record of 13.13 set last season.
In the University section of the 100-meter hurdles, Katie Nelms finished third in 13.40. The time tied her season best, which ranks second in school history.
Also in the sprints, Shataya Hendricks was second overall in the 100 meters with a mark of 11.51. On the field, Katerina Stefanidi placed fifth in the Invitational section of the pole vault with a mark of 14-1 1/4.
Ellie McCardwell placed seventh in her section of the pole vault with a mark of 13-1 1/2.
On the men’s side, Spencer Chase placed fourth in the 400 meters with a time of 47.19, while Corey Dysick cleared 15-3 in the pole vault.
At the Woody Wilson Relays in Davis, the Cardinal throwers were led by Alyssa Wisdom who won the shot put. Wisdom tossed 50-0 1/2 to finish just ahead of her teammate Rebecca Hammar, who was second in 44-4.
Hammar also competed in the discus, placing fourth with a mark of 154-2. Teammate Christina Medina was sixth with a mark of 130-5.
Stanford will be back in action this weekend when it hosts the Payton Jordan Invitational on Sunday. The meet will be one of the most competitive meets of the season in an Olympic year.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports