STANFORD, Calif. — No. 4/6 Stanford heads back on the road this week, traveling back out east to face the Army West Point Black Knights on Wednesday, March 26 before an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) showdown with Louisville on Saturday, March 29. Opening draw against the Black Knights is slated for 1 p.m. PT while the matchup against the Cardinals is scheduled for 9 a.m. PT.
SEVENS
Stanford faced tough opposition in its last outing, falling at home to undefeated and reigning national champions Boston College, 17-9, in what was the first loss at Cagan since 2023. Having fallen behind early in the first quarter, Stanford battled hard throughout the entirety of the game, cutting the deficit to four goals in the second quarter before a run by BC stretched the lead to a game-high 11. However, Stanford outscored the Eagles 4-1 in the final quarter as both Aliya Polisky and Ava Arceri secured multi-goal outings in the eventual 17-9 loss. In defeat, Stanford capped its nearly three-season long home winning streak at 20 games while the 1,177 fans was the largest attended match at Cagan since 2012.
Heading into Wednesday, Stanford ranks inside the top-10 in all three women’s lacrosse polls for fourth-straight week, earning a program high in the IWLCA Poll having been slotted in at No. 4. Stanford, which entered the season having never been slotted higher than No. 6 in any poll (regular season or postseason), ranked fifth in last week’s IWLCA and ILWomen.com rankings and placed fourth in the USA Lacrosse Magazine Top 20, all three of which were program high’s. Prior to this season, Stanford’s highest ranking came in the 2012 preseason poll where the Cardinal was ranked sixth while Stanford’s No. 4 ranking is the highest ranking of any West Coast program since 2017 (No. 3 USC, IWLCA Week One Poll, Feb. 20, 2017).
With a 9-2 start to the campaign, Stanford is enjoying its best start to a season since 2021 where the Cardinal went a perfect 11-0 in the regular season before falling in the NCAA Tournament to Denver (15-13). Prior to 2021, Stanford had only been undefeated through the first eight games once in program history, starting the 2011 season 8-0 before finishing 16-3 with an NCAA Tournament bid and MPSF Tournament championship. Stanford has also secured four ranked wins this season which is the most in a single season since the 2022 campaign.
Aliya Polisky continues to pace the Cardinal this season in goals (36) and points (43) after earning a three-point outing against the Eagles last Saturday via a 2-1-3 line. Polisky has tallied at least a point in every contest this season and has scored in all but one (3/7/2025 v. Syracuse). The Tennessee native has grabbed nine hat tricks this season which is one shy from her freshman year total after banking two of them in the 2-0 weekend against Virginia Tech and then-No. 4 Yale. Polisky has also tied her single-season record in game-winning goals, tallying three this season which stands tied for the current team lead with Ava Arceri.
Elsewhere offensively, Stanford has two players slotted inside the top 10 in the conference in assists with Elise Murphy and Martha Oakey placing sixth and eighth, respectively, entering the week. Murphy leads the Cardinal with 22 helpers on the year which is 26th nationally and sixth in the ACC while Oakey’s 17 assists placed her 43rd in the nation and eighth in the conference. On the draw, Dakota Uy and Jordyn Case are tied for the team lead with 38 this season while Ava Arceri and Amanda Lawson sit third and fourth on the squad with 30 and 28 draw controls, respectively.
The Cardinal continues to keep pace with the nation’s best defensively, securing the fourth-best scoring defense in the conference and 17th in the nation (9.36). Junior Lucy Pearson ranks inside the top 10 in the conference in saves (83), save percentage (45.1%) and goals-against average (9.53). Pearson claimed ACC and IWLCA Defensive Player of the Week last weekend after a 17-save weekend against the Hokies and Bulldogs, stopping a career-high 15 saves in the win over Yale before a solid day against BC on Saturday, grabbing 11 saves on 41 shots faced.
The defensive corps for Stanford still ranks highly entering week eight of the season, sitting sixth in the ACC in caused turnovers per game (9.27) and first in the conference in ground balls per game (19.55). The Cardinal also ranks 10th in the nation in scoring margin at +5.45. Olivia Rose and Lucy Pearson bookend the top three placements in the conference in ground balls per game at 2.91 and 2.73 per game, respectively. Rylee Bouvier is just outside the top 10 in the ACC in caused turnovers per game at 1.45.