Stanford (9-4, 4-1 MPSF)
California (4-10, 2-4 MPSF)
California Memorial Stadium • Berkeley, Calif.
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STANFORD, Calif. – The Cardinal continues MPSF action on Monday as it travels to Bay Area rival California for a 6 p.m. PT tilt against the Golden Bears. The game is set to be played at California Memorial Stadium and will be aired live on Pac-12 Networks.
Last Time Out:
Stanford resumed MPSF action against Fresno State and Oregon last week, where it moved to 10-0 all-time against the Bulldogs with a 17-4 win with Kelsey Murray scoring a career-best seven goals. Against the Ducks, Stanford fell behind 10-5 at the half, but surged in the second half to pull off a 17-13 win with Murray scoring five goals.
California:
The Cardinal enters Monday's game with a 30-7 all-time record against Cal with Amy Bokker holding a perfect 12-0 record.
Potent Offense:
The Cardinal returned five of its strongest offensive threats last year in Kelsey Murray, Anna Salemo, Kelly Myers, Elizabeth Cusick and Dillon Schoen.
Stanford is ranked 18th in the NCAA in scoring offense with a 14.50 average. Leading the way is All-American Kelsey Murray with 39.
Offense May Win Games, but Defense...
The Cardinal has taken pride in its defensive prowess in its program history, but this year it has a daunting task in replacing two All-Americans on defense in Adrienne Anderson and Meg Lentz. The duo combined last year with senior Alexa Mullins sending three new faces onto the defensive line. Freshmen Kyra Pelton and Mikaela Watson have filled that hole with junior Cameron Park.
The Cardinal is 37th in the NCAA in scoring defense, though where Stanford really shines is in caused turnovers per game, where its ranked first in the MPSF and 5th in the NCAA with a 12.00 average.
Murray the Menace:
Senior All-American Kelsey Murray has amassed an incredible career in her four years on The Farm. Overall, she's currently tied for sixth all-time with former teammate Lucy Dikeou in career goals for Stanford with 124. In addition to that, Murray has tallied a point for the Cardinal in every game she's played in since March 7, 2014 against Towson. That's 50 straight games of production for the senior.
Murray is also making marks on the rest of career records for Stanford - she's currently third in points with 196 and only needs one to tie for second and 11 to tie the all-time record of 207 by Megan Burker.
The senior also has the assist record in her sights as she has 72 to place her second in Stanford history - 16 shy of the all-time record.
Treat Your Elders With Respect:
The Cardinal is well aware of the adage after the return of Anna Salemo - the oldest MPSF Rookie of the Year. Salemo returned to Stanford lacrosse after a four-year break, including coaching the Mountain View High School girl's varsity lacrosse team. In her first season back she finished ranked 3rd in game-winning goals, 7th in the MPSF in goals, 9th in points and 10th in goals per game on the team. Bottom line - the southpaw isn't one you should ever take your eye off of.
Special situations:
• When scoring first: 9-1
• When the opponent scores first: 0-3
• When leading at halftime: 6-0
• When trailing at halftime: 3-4
• When tied at halftime: 0-0
• When leading with 10 minutes left: 9-0
• When trailing with 10 minutes left: 0-4
• When tied with 10 minutes left: 0-0
• In overtime: 0-0
• Largest deficit overcome: 4 goals – three times – last against Harvard 8-4 in second half.
• Largest deficit overall: 5 goals - against Colorado
• Record when holding opponents to 10 or fewer goals: 6-1
• Record when scoring 10 or more goals: 9-1