10-02-2011, 03:02 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-02-2011, 03:10 PM by Viking_Guy.)
Some other happenings:
Women's soccer went even farther into the game without scoring in comparison to Friday's game. Taking on the Huskies in Seattle is never easy, but this one needed extra time to settle it. UW is not nearly as technically skilled as the Cardinal, but they made up for it with tenacious physical defending, packing the center of their defense and trying to put some high pressure on Stanford's backline to prevent them from knocking the ball around at will. And it worked, for the most part.
This is not to say the game was close; Stanford outshot the Huskies 10-1 in the first half, hit the crossbar, hit the inside of the far post and trickled out, and basically had their way with the UW midfield. But as the Cardinal started to get a bit frustrated, they began to get a little too out-of-formation, pressing forward and opening up some holes in their defense. And they still couldn't get it behind UW keeper Jorde LaFontaine, who had both a good game and some assistance from the woodwork in keeping a clean sheet. Cardinal keeper Emily Oliver never really had many big threats to deal with; although the Huskies got more "shots" in the second half, most of them were cross attempts that Oliver came off her line to smother.
The real story of the game was the success of UW's physical 4-4-2 defense; they pressed forward, but sagged at the backline, giving space to Stanford's forwards (to prevent Taylor, Ubogagu and friends from turning and getting behind them. It didn't completely shut the Cardinal down, but it did take away their favorite tactic of knocking the ball around at the back looking for an angle forward, and if Stanford hit a lazy or long pass, the Huskies would challenge hard, generating some of their best chances from that.
The best example was in the first minute of the extra period. Quon going forward on the left, instead of settling the ball, tried to loft a volley pass forward to Ubogagu. A Husky defender cut in front, settled the ball and knocked a long pass forward to big UW target player Zevenbergen (she's 6'0" and solid) running one v one vs Alina Garciamendez, who was giving up too much pace. Zevenbergen got around her and took a crack at it from a narrow angle about 8 yards out, forcing Oliver into her biggest save of the day, parrying the ball over the endline to concede a corner that came to naught. But it was scary, with OT being golden-goal.
The opposite face of that coin came up 2 minutes later. I think it was either Ubogagu or Taylor on the left sideline about 10 yards past midfield who looked up and hammered a cross to the far post. Teresa Noyola busted through, got on the end of it about 4 yards of the line and punched a header into the back of the net. The UW defense got caught flat, and the keeper didn't get to the cross as quickly as she might have, but the finish was solid.
All in all, a solid if unspectacular effort, pointing out a couple of things about Stanford: they have trouble with big, physical defenses, and they don't have a finisher right now of the caliber of Press or O'Hara. They have to look for a volume of shots from Taylor, Ubogagu, Zurmuhlen, Noyola, Payne and Hing-Glover. We'll see how it plays against SC and UCLA next weekend.
Remember my complaint that the UCLA game wasn't being webcast? Well, UW's free webcast of the game today proved that you get what you pay for: jagged, interrupted, no commentary and a low-res feed. Heck, the feed dropped entirely from the last minute of the first half to about the 18 minute mark of the second (although there were wonderful shots of the scoreboard clock running at halftime). Still hoping that next Sunday's game gets a webcast, however.
Congratulations to the men's water polo team, who made the final of the Long Beach tournament later today, beating #1 SC 6-4. They play da Bares at about 5:30 this afternoon for the tournament title.
Finally, women's v-ball took care of business against an outsized and outblocked University of Arizona team, winning 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-15, 25-18). Rachel Williams of course led the Cardinal with 19 kills, and Karissa Cook had a field-day dumping the ball for 7 kills against the Cats. But the story was the dominance of the Stanford block. 21 blocks (5 solo, 32 block assists) for Stanford, vs 3 for Arizona. A large part of that was the play of Carly Wopat at MB, but my favorite part of the story was the resurgence of Stephanie Browne, who was the big missing piece for the Cardinal last year after her mid-season injury. Today in 3 games and limited time she had seven kills in eight attempts for an .875 hitting percentage, 1 solo and 6 block assists. If she can provide a steady MB2, as Jessica Walker just isn't having a good year, the Cardinal will be a much better balanced side.
All in all, not a bad weekend.
VG
Women's soccer went even farther into the game without scoring in comparison to Friday's game. Taking on the Huskies in Seattle is never easy, but this one needed extra time to settle it. UW is not nearly as technically skilled as the Cardinal, but they made up for it with tenacious physical defending, packing the center of their defense and trying to put some high pressure on Stanford's backline to prevent them from knocking the ball around at will. And it worked, for the most part.
This is not to say the game was close; Stanford outshot the Huskies 10-1 in the first half, hit the crossbar, hit the inside of the far post and trickled out, and basically had their way with the UW midfield. But as the Cardinal started to get a bit frustrated, they began to get a little too out-of-formation, pressing forward and opening up some holes in their defense. And they still couldn't get it behind UW keeper Jorde LaFontaine, who had both a good game and some assistance from the woodwork in keeping a clean sheet. Cardinal keeper Emily Oliver never really had many big threats to deal with; although the Huskies got more "shots" in the second half, most of them were cross attempts that Oliver came off her line to smother.
The real story of the game was the success of UW's physical 4-4-2 defense; they pressed forward, but sagged at the backline, giving space to Stanford's forwards (to prevent Taylor, Ubogagu and friends from turning and getting behind them. It didn't completely shut the Cardinal down, but it did take away their favorite tactic of knocking the ball around at the back looking for an angle forward, and if Stanford hit a lazy or long pass, the Huskies would challenge hard, generating some of their best chances from that.
The best example was in the first minute of the extra period. Quon going forward on the left, instead of settling the ball, tried to loft a volley pass forward to Ubogagu. A Husky defender cut in front, settled the ball and knocked a long pass forward to big UW target player Zevenbergen (she's 6'0" and solid) running one v one vs Alina Garciamendez, who was giving up too much pace. Zevenbergen got around her and took a crack at it from a narrow angle about 8 yards out, forcing Oliver into her biggest save of the day, parrying the ball over the endline to concede a corner that came to naught. But it was scary, with OT being golden-goal.
The opposite face of that coin came up 2 minutes later. I think it was either Ubogagu or Taylor on the left sideline about 10 yards past midfield who looked up and hammered a cross to the far post. Teresa Noyola busted through, got on the end of it about 4 yards of the line and punched a header into the back of the net. The UW defense got caught flat, and the keeper didn't get to the cross as quickly as she might have, but the finish was solid.
All in all, a solid if unspectacular effort, pointing out a couple of things about Stanford: they have trouble with big, physical defenses, and they don't have a finisher right now of the caliber of Press or O'Hara. They have to look for a volume of shots from Taylor, Ubogagu, Zurmuhlen, Noyola, Payne and Hing-Glover. We'll see how it plays against SC and UCLA next weekend.
Remember my complaint that the UCLA game wasn't being webcast? Well, UW's free webcast of the game today proved that you get what you pay for: jagged, interrupted, no commentary and a low-res feed. Heck, the feed dropped entirely from the last minute of the first half to about the 18 minute mark of the second (although there were wonderful shots of the scoreboard clock running at halftime). Still hoping that next Sunday's game gets a webcast, however.
Congratulations to the men's water polo team, who made the final of the Long Beach tournament later today, beating #1 SC 6-4. They play da Bares at about 5:30 this afternoon for the tournament title.
Finally, women's v-ball took care of business against an outsized and outblocked University of Arizona team, winning 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-15, 25-18). Rachel Williams of course led the Cardinal with 19 kills, and Karissa Cook had a field-day dumping the ball for 7 kills against the Cats. But the story was the dominance of the Stanford block. 21 blocks (5 solo, 32 block assists) for Stanford, vs 3 for Arizona. A large part of that was the play of Carly Wopat at MB, but my favorite part of the story was the resurgence of Stephanie Browne, who was the big missing piece for the Cardinal last year after her mid-season injury. Today in 3 games and limited time she had seven kills in eight attempts for an .875 hitting percentage, 1 solo and 6 block assists. If she can provide a steady MB2, as Jessica Walker just isn't having a good year, the Cardinal will be a much better balanced side.
All in all, not a bad weekend.
VG