By Matthew Bernstein on September 26, 2016

The No. 1 Stanford women’s soccer team (8-0-1, 1-0 Pac-12) began conference play decisively with a 3-0 victory against the Oregon Ducks (6-3-1, 0-1) on Saturday.

The Cardinal lead the all-time series with an 18-0-1 record against Oregon. In fact, Stanford has not lost a conference opener since 2000. Under head coach Paul Ratcliffe, Stanford is 11-0-3 in Pac-12 openers since he took over the program in 2003.

The Cardinal’s dominance was evident in the second half when, in an eight-minute span, three sophomores scored in the 64th, 66th and 72nd minutes. Sophomores continue to lead the team in scoring as a class.

The goal scoring began with sophomore forward Tegan McGrady, who scored her first goal of the season with a left-footed shot that flew past the Ducks’ goalkeeper and into the top-right corner of the goal.

Next came sophomore midfielder Jordan DiBiasi’s goal, bringing her team-high scoring to a total of 6 on the season. Sophomore forward Averie Collins aggressively battled Duck defenders to head in her first goal of the season as well.

Senior goalkeeper Jane Campbell made three solid saves, earning the second shutout of the season. Campbell is in the top five of multiple NCAA active career ranking categories and is in the top 10 of numerous Stanford career rankings, including third in shutouts with 32. The Cardinal defense held the Ducks to only 6 shots and 2 corner kicks.

This season Stanford has not trailed in a game at any point and has, in seven of eight games, scored 2 or more goals. In addition, Stanford has not allowed more than 2 goals in a match over its past 266 matches and hasn’t allowed more than 2 goals in a home match since 1998.

Stanford entered Week 6 of the 2016 season ranked No. 1 in the NSCAA Coaches Poll, No. 1 in the TopDrawerSoccer rankings and No. 1 in the Soccer America rankings. This is the first time the Cardinal has been ranked first in all three polls. In addition, Stanford was recently ranked No. 1 in the first RPI rankings of the year.

Next up, Stanford hosts Washington State on Sept. 29 and Washington on Oct. 2.

Contact Matthew Bernstein at mbernste ‘at’ stanford.edu.