[Jamesy]

Lumi is a much better player than Haley. Haley benefited tremendously from playing alongside Macario (see how she did after Macario left).

I agree that everyone benefits from playing alongside Macario, but Haley was also dealing with injuries.  She was drafted #7 in the NWSL, deferred to play another year at Stanford, but was only able to play limited minutes in about 1/2 the games. She still hasn't played in any NWSL regular season games and I haven't seen any news on her. If anyone knows let me know! I loved watching her play.

Speaking of injuries, I assume that Kitahata's limited minutes so far (and total absence in the last game) is due to an injury. Ratcliffe never seems to explain what's going on injury wise. I don't recall he ever announced that the Paulson twins would miss the entire season last year.  And in Macario's sophomore season, I don't recall Ratcliffe ever explaining why she only had 13 starts. I know it's college, but it's still weird when you see some of the top players in a sport just disappear without explanation.

Anyway, back to Lumi's terrific start.  She now has 7 goals and 1 assist in her first 8 games. Compare that to some of these Stanford greats:

Catarina Macario 8 goals, 4 assists in 1st 8 games (Cat didn't have her 1st hat trick until her junior season)
Sophia Smith 4 goals, 2 assists in 1st 8 games
Christen Press 8 goals, 6 assists her entire freshman year (21 games)
Kelly O'Hara 9 goals, 2 assists her freshman year (17 games)
Marcie Ward 14 goals, 14 assists her freshman year (21 games)
Lindsay Taylor 16 goals, ? assists her freshman year (25 games)

She was drafted #7 in January 2021, so the last game played was the 2019 championship. She then played the spring 2021 (rescheduled from fall 2020) and fall 2021 seasons. Agree that injuries may have significantly limited her as well. Another player comparison for Lumi that I thought of was Taylor Uhl. She does seem to be in good company as far as her first 8 games go though, and she doesn't even play 90 minutes/game!

The injury situation is interesting. I'm not sure Ratcliffe/Stanford has ever announced any injuries. Is there even a means for them to do that? It's not like they have weekly or post-game press conferences like football/basketball do.

[Jamesy]

Lumi is a much better player than Haley. Haley benefited tremendously from playing alongside Macario (see how she did after Macario left).

I agree that everyone benefits from playing alongside Macario, but Haley was also dealing with injuries.  She was drafted #7 in the NWSL, deferred to play another year at Stanford, but was only able to play limited minutes in about 1/2 the games. She still hasn't played in any NWSL regular season games and I haven't seen any news on her. If anyone knows let me know! I loved watching her play.

Speaking of injuries, I assume that Kitahata's limited minutes so far (and total absence in the last game) is due to an injury. Ratcliffe never seems to explain what's going on injury wise. I don't recall he ever announced that the Paulson twins would miss the entire season last year.  And in Macario's sophomore season, I don't recall Ratcliffe ever explaining why she only had 13 starts. I know it's college, but it's still weird when you see some of the top players in a sport just disappear without explanation.

Anyway, back to Lumi's terrific start.  She now has 7 goals and 1 assist in her first 8 games. Compare that to some of these Stanford greats:

Catarina Macario 8 goals, 4 assists in 1st 8 games (Cat didn't have her 1st hat trick until her junior season)
Sophia Smith 4 goals, 2 assists in 1st 8 games
Christen Press 8 goals, 6 assists her entire freshman year (21 games)
Kelly O'Hara 9 goals, 2 assists her freshman year (17 games)
Marcie Ward 14 goals, 14 assists her freshman year (21 games)
Lindsay Taylor 16 goals, ? assists her freshman year (25 games)

She was drafted #7 in January 2021, so the last game played was the 2019 championship. She then played the spring 2021 (rescheduled from fall 2020) and fall 2021 seasons. Agree that injuries may have significantly limited her as well. Another player comparison for Lumi that I thought of was Taylor Uhl. She does seem to be in good company as far as her first 8 games go though, and she doesn't even play 90 minutes/game!

The injury situation is interesting. I'm not sure Ratcliffe/Stanford has ever announced any injuries. Is there even a means for them to do that? It's not like they have weekly or post-game press conferences like football/basketball do.