STANFORD, Calif. — Having secured the No. 3 seed in its inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), No. 13/12 Stanford is back in action on Wednesday, April 23, taking on the No. 6 seed in No. 17 Syracuse in the quarterfinals of the ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championships. Opening draw from American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. is slated for 8 p.m. ET.
SEVENS
Stanford (13-4, 7-2 ACC) heads into the postseason having wrapped up the regular season in a big way, dispatching the California Golden Bears 19-4 on the road last Thursday. With career-high six-goal performances from both Rylee Bouvier and Ava Arceri - the latter of which secured her hat trick in the first quarter - Stanford seized an insurmountable 7-1 lead through the first 15 minutes before riding an eventual 12-3 run through the remainder of the game. Defensively, Stanford accounted for 14 caused turnovers with Olivia Rose leading the charge with four caused turnovers and five ground balls while the Cardinal limited Cal to its second-lowest goal total this season.
No. 13/12 Stanford has been ranked in both the IWLCA and ILWomen.com Poll every week this season and ranked inside the top 10 in all three polls seven times this season. Stanford earned a program high in the IWLCA Poll on March 24 having been slotted in at No. 4. 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).
Stanford enters the ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championships having faced five of the other seven teams in the bracket, amassing a 3-2 record against those teams. Appearing in the top half of the bracket, Stanford took home wins over both Clemson (14-8) and Virginia Tech (23-4). In the bottom half of the bracket, Stanford has the opportunity to play two of its three other conference opponents from this season, squaring off against Syracuse (L, 14-13 2OT) in the opening round before a possible rematch against either Boston College (L, 17-9) or Virginia (W, 13-7).
Aliya Polisky continues to hold the team lead in goals, tying her single-season high with her 53rd of the year against Cal. Polisky, who has a career-high 14 hat tricks this season - started the campaign with six-consecutive hat tricks and has recorded a hat trick in eight of the last 10 games for the Cardinal including a five-goal outing against No. 4 Yale in what was the second highest win in program history for Stanford. Polisky’s 67 points also leads the Cardinal in that regard as the sophomore currently ranks fifth in the conference in goals and eighth in points. Ava Arceri sits second in goals with 46 on the year and has scored in every game this season for the Cardinal while Rylee Bouvier joined the 20-goal club following the six-goal outing against the Golden Bears.
Elsewhere offensively, Martha Oakey leads the Cardinal in assists after grabbing three of her 25 assists in the win over the Irish before nabbing one in the win over Cal. Her 26 assists ranks 11th all-time in program history, surpassing Ali Baiocco’s 24 assists in the 2021 campaign while setting a new high for single-season assists by a true freshman. Sophomore Elise Murphy sits behind Oakey with 25 assists and has earned points in four-consecutive games after starting the season on a nine-game point streak.
Stanford contains one of the strongest defensive corps in the country placing 14th in the nation in scoring defense, holding opposing teams to 8.53 goals per game. Leading the charge is junior goalkeeper Lucy Pearson who boasts a 9.31 goals-against average and .464 save percentage, both of which rank inside the top five in the conference. Pearson’s goals-against average sits at 14th best in the nation.
Elsewhere defensively, Stanford sits third in the conference in ground balls per game (18.53) and fourth in the ACC in caused turnovers per game (10.03) with Rylee Bouvier’s 26 caused turnovers and Olivia Rose’s 46 ground balls leading the way for Stanford. Rose currently slots tied for first in the conference in ground balls per game (2.71) while Bouvier’s 1.47 caused turnovers per game is good for 7th in the ACC. On the draw, Stanford is led by Dakota Uy, Amanda Lawson and Arceri who have all accumulated 45 or more draw controls this season.