[muiron]

(repeated from my post on the Sears Board)

Stanford beat a game #2 regional seed Tennessee 2-0 today at the Q to move to its 9th overall College Cup ... and its 8th in the last 11 years.


Stanford dominated possession and shots and looked the better team - but Tennessee was good and dangerous. With a bit better luck, Tennessee might have had two goals. With a bit better luck, we might have had six.

But two was enough. Civana Kuhlmann slammed home the first after a beautiful feed from Catarina Macario at 26:04. No time to think or try something subtle - she quickly hit it hard and we had a lead. The second was a Macario goal at 58:12 after a very nice feed by Jaye Boissiere into the box.

We ended up with 30 shots, 15 on goal, and at least one bar. Tennessee had 12 shots, six of them on goal. Which means that in the last home game of her four year career, Alison Jahansouz set her own personal career high for saves, with six. And several of them were great, including one stunning deflection of a chip in a one on one with Tennessee's star (and the hero of Jamaica's World Cup qualifying national team) Bunny Shaw. But better yet was her save in the 78th. We gave up an unfortunate PK on an inadvertent (but real) handball in the box. AJ guessed right - in more ways that one. Her dive to the right let her push the shot away and kept us from having only a one goal lead to hang on to for the last twelve minutes.

Good news - though neither started, both Tegan McGrady and Madison Haley played. Madison played about 15 minutes in the first half, though slipped awkwardly after a brilliant pass, came of the game, and didn't come back. I THINK (hope!) that was just precautionary, as we already had the one/nil lead. Otherwise, no one got hurt which on a slick surface, freshened up by periodic light showers, the ball was skidding and players were slipping and sliding.

The game started relatively evenly, as Tennessee got a few good early opportunities. Halfway through the first, we had eight shots, they had four. By half time, we had 16 shots (and the lead); they had five. Halfway through the second half, we had 24 shots and they had seven. They did manage five shots in their desperation last 22 1/2 minutes, and there were a few minutes when they seemed to have us on our heels, but it wasn't enough.

Players of the match? Jahansouz, of course. Kiki Pickett, who was everywhere, doing everything in the most eye catching way (especially when she was matched up against the 5'11" Shaw!). Macario, Boissiere, Xiao, DiBiasi, Kuhlmann and the twin defensive rocks, Alana Cook and Naomi Girma. But no one played poorly - Sam Hiatt and JoJo Harber played impressively solid and controlled games. Not a lot of subs in this one, but Beattie Goad and Belle Briede got quite a few minutes and Carly Malatsky got a few - and Tegan and Madison.

So, on to Florida State in the semis next Friday in Cary, North Carolina. We don't know yet whether we'll be the early match or the later one. The other semi will feature tomorrow's winners of two #1 v #2 regionals: Georgetown v Baylor and UNC v. UCLA. We've played Florida State twice before in the semis, winning in 2011 and losing in 2014. The winners in each case won the national championship.
Oh.. and just one more thing...Paul Ratcliffe says Tierna Davidson, who was dressed today, should be available for the Cup, at least for some minutes.

It should be great!

Go Card!

[muiron]

(repeated from my post on the Sears Board)

Stanford beat a game #2 regional seed Tennessee 2-0 today at the Q to move to its 9th overall College Cup ... and its 8th in the last 11 years.


Stanford dominated possession and shots and looked the better team - but Tennessee was good and dangerous. With a bit better luck, Tennessee might have had two goals. With a bit better luck, we might have had six.

But two was enough. Civana Kuhlmann slammed home the first after a beautiful feed from Catarina Macario at 26:04. No time to think or try something subtle - she quickly hit it hard and we had a lead. The second was a Macario goal at 58:12 after a very nice feed by Jaye Boissiere into the box.

We ended up with 30 shots, 15 on goal, and at least one bar. Tennessee had 12 shots, six of them on goal. Which means that in the last home game of her four year career, Alison Jahansouz set her own personal career high for saves, with six. And several of them were great, including one stunning deflection of a chip in a one on one with Tennessee's star (and the hero of Jamaica's World Cup qualifying national team) Bunny Shaw. But better yet was her save in the 78th. We gave up an unfortunate PK on an inadvertent (but real) handball in the box. AJ guessed right - in more ways that one. Her dive to the right let her push the shot away and kept us from having only a one goal lead to hang on to for the last twelve minutes.

Good news - though neither started, both Tegan McGrady and Madison Haley played. Madison played about 15 minutes in the first half, though slipped awkwardly after a brilliant pass, came of the game, and didn't come back. I THINK (hope!) that was just precautionary, as we already had the one/nil lead. Otherwise, no one got hurt which on a slick surface, freshened up by periodic light showers, the ball was skidding and players were slipping and sliding.

The game started relatively evenly, as Tennessee got a few good early opportunities. Halfway through the first, we had eight shots, they had four. By half time, we had 16 shots (and the lead); they had five. Halfway through the second half, we had 24 shots and they had seven. They did manage five shots in their desperation last 22 1/2 minutes, and there were a few minutes when they seemed to have us on our heels, but it wasn't enough.

Players of the match? Jahansouz, of course. Kiki Pickett, who was everywhere, doing everything in the most eye catching way (especially when she was matched up against the 5'11" Shaw!). Macario, Boissiere, Xiao, DiBiasi, Kuhlmann and the twin defensive rocks, Alana Cook and Naomi Girma. But no one played poorly - Sam Hiatt and JoJo Harber played impressively solid and controlled games. Not a lot of subs in this one, but Beattie Goad and Belle Briede got quite a few minutes and Carly Malatsky got a few - and Tegan and Madison.

So, on to Florida State in the semis next Friday in Cary, North Carolina. We don't know yet whether we'll be the early match or the later one. The other semi will feature tomorrow's winners of two #1 v #2 regionals: Georgetown v Baylor and UNC v. UCLA. We've played Florida State twice before in the semis, winning in 2011 and losing in 2014. The winners in each case won the national championship.
Oh.. and just one more thing...Paul Ratcliffe says Tierna Davidson, who was dressed today, should be available for the Cup, at least for some minutes.

It should be great!

Go Card!

[PVTree]

Tierna could play? That would be of immense proportions to our team and h-u-g-e for our defense.

[PVTree]

Tierna could play? That would be of immense proportions to our team and h-u-g-e for our defense.

[muiron]

Tierna could play? That would be of immense proportions to our team and h-u-g-e for our defense.

That's what Ratcliffe said in the Go Stanford write up of the game. Though she hasn't been in a match for over two months - we can't expect too much from her. 

Also, another interesting factoid from today's match: between the 9th minute and the 67th, Tennessee got off 4 shots. We got off 21.

[muiron]

Tierna could play? That would be of immense proportions to our team and h-u-g-e for our defense.

That's what Ratcliffe said in the Go Stanford write up of the game. Though she hasn't been in a match for over two months - we can't expect too much from her. 

Also, another interesting factoid from today's match: between the 9th minute and the 67th, Tennessee got off 4 shots. We got off 21.

[oldalum]

A dominant performance; I was nervous during the game only because of the conditions (one slip could result in a goal) and because of the 5'11" Shaw who they tried to feed high balls to for headers. The game played out as most of ours do against lesser Pac-12 teams, which really shouldn't happen in a regional final--supporting my contention 3 weeks ago that Tennessee should not have been a 2-seed, and that we were treated very well by the bracketing committee. Compare them to the other 2 seeds, and to 4-seed USC! But they were game and played well and came out to play in their usual style instead of turtling back in defense, I give them a lot of credit for that. In those wet conditions, playing for a 0-0 tie and winning on PKs, or hoping for a fluke goal to win it, probably would have had more chance of success.

How terrific that really everyone played well, especially under such wet conditions. Peaking at this time, and getting injured players back on the field, is a good formula for us. In addition to all the physically amazing things Kiki does on the field (the crowd roared once when she outjumped a much taller player and made a header), she made one important play that was pure smarts: when Jahansouz went out of the goal a few yards to try to catch or punch a ball away from an attacker, mostly missed, and the ball hopped over her toward the goal, Kiki had moved to the goal line when Jahansouz went out and was there to calmly stop the ball and boot it away. A dangerous moment converted into nothing because of her soccer intelligence. And she's the outside back, not a central defender, yet she was in that right spot. Every time she is near the ball I subconsciously sit up a little more in my seat and lean forward because I might see something terrific.

From how Haley walked off, it seems she tweaked whatever had been bothering her. I hope she can recover by Friday. She seems constitutionally unable to play at anything less than 100% (this is not a criticism) but I wish she would just pass up trying to get the ball in some very-low-percentage situations and save herself for when we have control of the ball and are running our offense. As I've commented before, for probably our strongest player, she ends up on the ground more than anyone else on the team, which is mainly due to being fouled and in part to her own strong efforts to do something hard.

Getting Tierna back would be unequivocally great, even for limited minutes. We are going to face great attacking teams in the College Cup. And the emotional lift for the team would be great too. The crowd's reaction to Tegan returning to the field was indicative of this (and she played at her usual high level too).

I dearly hope UCLA ends UNC's season today.

[oldalum]

A dominant performance; I was nervous during the game only because of the conditions (one slip could result in a goal) and because of the 5'11" Shaw who they tried to feed high balls to for headers. The game played out as most of ours do against lesser Pac-12 teams, which really shouldn't happen in a regional final--supporting my contention 3 weeks ago that Tennessee should not have been a 2-seed, and that we were treated very well by the bracketing committee. Compare them to the other 2 seeds, and to 4-seed USC! But they were game and played well and came out to play in their usual style instead of turtling back in defense, I give them a lot of credit for that. In those wet conditions, playing for a 0-0 tie and winning on PKs, or hoping for a fluke goal to win it, probably would have had more chance of success.

How terrific that really everyone played well, especially under such wet conditions. Peaking at this time, and getting injured players back on the field, is a good formula for us. In addition to all the physically amazing things Kiki does on the field (the crowd roared once when she outjumped a much taller player and made a header), she made one important play that was pure smarts: when Jahansouz went out of the goal a few yards to try to catch or punch a ball away from an attacker, mostly missed, and the ball hopped over her toward the goal, Kiki had moved to the goal line when Jahansouz went out and was there to calmly stop the ball and boot it away. A dangerous moment converted into nothing because of her soccer intelligence. And she's the outside back, not a central defender, yet she was in that right spot. Every time she is near the ball I subconsciously sit up a little more in my seat and lean forward because I might see something terrific.

From how Haley walked off, it seems she tweaked whatever had been bothering her. I hope she can recover by Friday. She seems constitutionally unable to play at anything less than 100% (this is not a criticism) but I wish she would just pass up trying to get the ball in some very-low-percentage situations and save herself for when we have control of the ball and are running our offense. As I've commented before, for probably our strongest player, she ends up on the ground more than anyone else on the team, which is mainly due to being fouled and in part to her own strong efforts to do something hard.

Getting Tierna back would be unequivocally great, even for limited minutes. We are going to face great attacking teams in the College Cup. And the emotional lift for the team would be great too. The crowd's reaction to Tegan returning to the field was indicative of this (and she played at her usual high level too).

I dearly hope UCLA ends UNC's season today.

[ca245]

Not our side of the bracket, but a Stanford connection: Georgetown leads Baylor 1-0. Kyra Carusa had the assist. A Stanford-Georgetown final would be fun.

[ca245]

Not our side of the bracket, but a Stanford connection: Georgetown leads Baylor 1-0. Kyra Carusa had the assist. A Stanford-Georgetown final would be fun.

[oldalum]

and Kyra scores on a header to make it 2-0 in the second half.

[oldalum]

and Kyra scores on a header to make it 2-0 in the second half.

[Langdude]

Not our side of the bracket, but a Stanford connection: Georgetown leads Baylor 1-0. Kyra Carusa had the assist. A Stanford-Georgetown final would be fun.

Can someone tell me why Kyra Carusa transferred? I know she graduated (Human Biology) and did not have to sit out to play at Georgetown, but why not play her fifth year at Stanford? Did she have problems here? IIRC, she's from SoCal...

-m.

[Langdude]

Not our side of the bracket, but a Stanford connection: Georgetown leads Baylor 1-0. Kyra Carusa had the assist. A Stanford-Georgetown final would be fun.

Can someone tell me why Kyra Carusa transferred? I know she graduated (Human Biology) and did not have to sit out to play at Georgetown, but why not play her fifth year at Stanford? Did she have problems here? IIRC, she's from SoCal...

-m.

[oldalum]

I think (but don't know) that there was a specific master's degree program she wanted to do at Georgetown. She was a starter here and would have started this year had she stayed.

[oldalum]

I think (but don't know) that there was a specific master's degree program she wanted to do at Georgetown. She was a starter here and would have started this year had she stayed.

[Spiny_Norman]

UNC defeats UCLA on penalty kicks. All 4 #1 seeds advance to the College Cup.

[Spiny_Norman]

UNC defeats UCLA on penalty kicks. All 4 #1 seeds advance to the College Cup.