The Stanford women’s soccer team will face a typically tough schedule in 2015. The 19-match slate, announced Wednesday, features 11 opponents who reached the NCAA tournament last season and 14 who posted winning records. Three — BYU, Penn State and UCLA — won conference regular-season titles.
Overall, the 2014 winning percentage of this year’s opponents is .574, including a combined record of 202-144-43.
Stanford went 20-2-3 last season, going 13-0-2 at home and 9-1-1 in Pac-12 play. The Cardinal advanced to the NCAA College Cup for the sixth time in seven seasons before falling to eventual champion Florida State, 2-0, in Boca Raton, Florida.
Among the red-letter days on Stanford’s home schedule are a Sept. 11 contest against Penn State, the 2014 Big Ten regular-season champ, and a Nov. 1 showdown against conference rival and defending champion UCLA.
Stanford plays host to Fresno State in an exhibition on Aug. 14, and opens the season in earnest on Aug. 21 at Hawaii. The Cardinal home opener is Aug. 28 against Boston College, a frequent NCAA tournament opponent in recent years, and plays its Pac-12 home opener on Oct. 8 against Oregon State.
Stanford will be featured in 11 Pac-12 Networks broadcasts this season, including nine of its 11 conference matchups.
The Cardinal features central defender Andi Sullivan, the consensus national freshman of the year last season, as well as junior keeper Jane Campbell.
Field hockey
Stanford released its 2015 schedule Thursday, which features 17 games including five against 2014 NCAA Tournament teams.
The Cardinal has made a habit of playing one of the nation’s most challenging nonconference schedules and continues the trend in 2015.
The Cardinal will take on six teams that finished the 2014 season ranked in the top 20 in the country including matchups against two-time defending national champion Connecticut (Sept. 25), NCAA runner-up Syracuse (Aug. 28) and NCAA quarterfinalist Duke (Aug. 30). Stanford’s contest against Syracuse is the season and home opener.
The Cardinal’s matchups against Syracuse, Duke and California (Sept. 18) will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
The Cardinal will also see NCAA tournament teams Kent State (Sept. 13) and Northwestern (Oct. 9).
Stanford begins its tenure in the America East this season along with previous NorPac members California, Pacific and UC Davis. The quartet joins current members Albany, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and UMass-Lowell. The Cardinal will not see any of the new members of the league until the America East Tournament on Nov. 5-8.
Stanford registered the most successful season in school history and continued to establish itself as one of the nation’s elite programs during 2014.
The Cardinal claimed its first NCAA Tournament victory in program history, recorded a 19-3 record and achieved a program-high No. 3 national ranking for three consecutive weeks (Oct. 14-Nov. 2). Stanford went 4-1 against top-10 opponents and 6-2 against the top 20.
The Cardinal returns 15 letterwinners and added five freshmen for the 2015 campaign.
Men’s water polo
The Pac-12 Networks released its 2015 schedule for men’s water polo on Thursday and Stanford will have three regular-season games televised this fall as part of its typically challenging slate.
The final two matches of the MPSF Tournament at USC on November 22 — third-place and championship — also will be carried live on the Pac-12 Networks.
The Cardinal’s home games against UCLA (October 17) and the Big Splash against California (November 15) will be televised as will the team’s MPSF opener on October 3 at USC. Times for all three are still to be determined. Stanford is 5-3 all-time in games broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks and has won its last four such matches at home.
In addition to its home TV contests, Stanford also will play UC Santa Barbara at Avery Aquatic Center on October 24. The Cardinal’s final four regular-season games will be at home against Pepperdine (November 6), UC Davis (November 8), Santa Clara (November 10) and the aforementioned Big Splash with the Golden Bears.
The weekend of September 19 and 20, the Cardinal will host the 16-team NorCal Invitational, an annual tournament that was last held on The Farm in 2012.
As Stanford heads into MPSF action in October it will play road league games at Pacific (October 18), Long Beach State (October 31) and UC Irvine (November 1). A non-conference road contest at San Jose State is also on the docket for October 25.
The Cardinal begins its 2015 campaign in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Harvard/Brown Invite the weekend of September 5 and 6. Following the NorCal Invitational Stanford will be at UC Davis for the Aggie Roundup on September 26 and 27 and it concludes the regular-season tournament portion of its schedule with the SoCal Tournament on October 10 and 11.
Stanford returns four ACWPC All-Americans this fall and is coming off a campaign in which it posted its highest win total since 1994 and also won its first MPSF Championship since 2004.
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics