[OCcardinal]

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-soccer/rankings

Stanford tied for 3rd with ucla

The coaches' poll is more rational than TDS this week.  Though I think Tennessee is overrated at #1. Massey has Stanford at #2 and Tennessee at #9.  https://masseyratings.com/csocw/ncaa-d1/ratings  Massey's statistical ratings didn't move Stanford at all this week (USC blowout cancelled out the UCLA loss), while Tennessee dropped 5 places.  That makes sense given their respective performances this past week.

Tennessee lost to Mississippi State this weekend.  Dropped to #6 in today's TDS poll. Still ahead of #7 Stanford. We'll see how the rest of their season goes. Mississippi State is a good team. Massey has Stanford at #4, with the #2 offense (behind Florida State) and the #2 power rating (also behind FSU). Massey says Stanford has played the 6th most difficult strength of schedule. St. Mary's defeating Georgetown this weekend surely helped Stanford's statistical rankings.

Some other thoughts:

-Stanford's tie against Clemson was a bit of a fluke. We are WAY better than Clemson. Clemson parked the bus for about 75 minutes, then suddenly started pressing when Andrea Kitahata went to the bench at 74 minutes. Kitahata was greeted there by Shae Harvey, Jasmine Aikey, Charlote Kohler, Allie Montoya and Lizzie Boamah. So 6 of our 10 field starters were on the bench when we needed to close out the game. We have great bench players, but you can't replace the experience of players like Kitahata, Aikey and Montoya that easily in key strategic moments like that. Clemson's coach clearly recognized that and pounced.  Ratcliff tried to get all but Kitahata back in after the 80 minute goal, but it was a bit of an organizational mess.
-One of the biggest things that may have cost us the win was sophomore Jaden Thomas taking an off-balance shot with about 2 minutes left instead of just dribbling to the corner and taking time off the clock. The ensuing Clemson goal kick lead to the corner and their second goal. Thomas is a terrific player and I'm sure she learned from that. I'm just glad this was a regular season game and not NCAAs.
-Finally, I don't know that the video was clear enough to call Montoya offside on Stanford's last second goal.  The AR would have had a far better angle. But it is what it is.

As for the Pitt game:
-Pitt played a little more forward than Clemson and we just torched them. 
-The 3 goals in the first half (and continued scoring in the 2nd) gave Ratcliffe a lot of flexibility. He played 24 different players, including 3 goalkeepers. We truly are a deep team.  I was very happy to see Brooke get another goal and Y-Lan get another assist.  The future looks bright if we can hold onto our youngsters.
-11 different players earned at least 1 point (goal and/or assist). That could very well be a Stanford record.
-We tied Pitt at home last season so I was happy to see the big win. (Granted Pitt lost a lot of players this season, but they are still a good program.)
-The win gave us 4 points for the week, more than we earned in any ACC road trip last season.

One last thing - Stanford graduate Lumi Kostmayer is doing great at Cal. She scored both goals for them vs Clemson yesterday and leads the team in goals (4), points (10), shots (31) and shots on goal (14).  She has started all 10 games for them.  Glad to see her doing well, even if its for Cal.

[OCcardinal]

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-soccer/rankings

Stanford tied for 3rd with ucla

The coaches' poll is more rational than TDS this week.  Though I think Tennessee is overrated at #1. Massey has Stanford at #2 and Tennessee at #9.  https://masseyratings.com/csocw/ncaa-d1/ratings  Massey's statistical ratings didn't move Stanford at all this week (USC blowout cancelled out the UCLA loss), while Tennessee dropped 5 places.  That makes sense given their respective performances this past week.

Tennessee lost to Mississippi State this weekend.  Dropped to #6 in today's TDS poll. Still ahead of #7 Stanford. We'll see how the rest of their season goes. Mississippi State is a good team. Massey has Stanford at #4, with the #2 offense (behind Florida State) and the #2 power rating (also behind FSU). Massey says Stanford has played the 6th most difficult strength of schedule. St. Mary's defeating Georgetown this weekend surely helped Stanford's statistical rankings.

Some other thoughts:

-Stanford's tie against Clemson was a bit of a fluke. We are WAY better than Clemson. Clemson parked the bus for about 75 minutes, then suddenly started pressing when Andrea Kitahata went to the bench at 74 minutes. Kitahata was greeted there by Shae Harvey, Jasmine Aikey, Charlote Kohler, Allie Montoya and Lizzie Boamah. So 6 of our 10 field starters were on the bench when we needed to close out the game. We have great bench players, but you can't replace the experience of players like Kitahata, Aikey and Montoya that easily in key strategic moments like that. Clemson's coach clearly recognized that and pounced.  Ratcliff tried to get all but Kitahata back in after the 80 minute goal, but it was a bit of an organizational mess.
-One of the biggest things that may have cost us the win was sophomore Jaden Thomas taking an off-balance shot with about 2 minutes left instead of just dribbling to the corner and taking time off the clock. The ensuing Clemson goal kick lead to the corner and their second goal. Thomas is a terrific player and I'm sure she learned from that. I'm just glad this was a regular season game and not NCAAs.
-Finally, I don't know that the video was clear enough to call Montoya offside on Stanford's last second goal.  The AR would have had a far better angle. But it is what it is.

As for the Pitt game:
-Pitt played a little more forward than Clemson and we just torched them. 
-The 3 goals in the first half (and continued scoring in the 2nd) gave Ratcliffe a lot of flexibility. He played 24 different players, including 3 goalkeepers. We truly are a deep team.  I was very happy to see Brooke get another goal and Y-Lan get another assist.  The future looks bright if we can hold onto our youngsters.
-11 different players earned at least 1 point (goal and/or assist). That could very well be a Stanford record.
-We tied Pitt at home last season so I was happy to see the big win. (Granted Pitt lost a lot of players this season, but they are still a good program.)
-The win gave us 4 points for the week, more than we earned in any ACC road trip last season.

One last thing - Stanford graduate Lumi Kostmayer is doing great at Cal. She scored both goals for them vs Clemson yesterday and leads the team in goals (4), points (10), shots (31) and shots on goal (14).  She has started all 10 games for them.  Glad to see her doing well, even if its for Cal.