By Carlie Tenenbaum on November 17, 2014

The best season in Cardinal field hockey history came to a bitter close Saturday at the hands of the UConn Huskies. The Cardinal stunned the No. 2 Huskies with a 3-1 win this September, but in this rematch, the tables turned and it was UConn who celebrated a hard-fought 3-1 victory. Despite this loss in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, the season will not be forgotten.

The tournament opened on a high note. Scoring in just the fourth minute of their first game against Louisville, the Cardinal jumped out to a 1-0 lead. Senior defender Kasey Quon gained possession at the top of the circle, and seeing a hole, threaded a pass to junior attacker Lauren Becker. Becker whipped around and fired her tenth goal of the season into the right corner of the net. The resulting energy and passion managed to keep Louisville at bay for the next twenty minutes of the half, as both teams played a very high-energy game with lots of pressure placed upon both defenses.

Louisville drew even in the 25th minute on their fifth penalty corner attempt of the match. They would go on to out-gain Stanford 9-3 in penalty corners. However, the fifth and final corner of the first half was the only one to find the net. Louisville junior Elisa Garcia netted her seventh goal of the season off a stop by senior Paige Monsen, putting the finishing touch on the 15-minute barrage of Louisville offense.

The second half was equally tense, with neither team converting their chances. Stanford tallied five shots in the second half to Louisville’s three, but a save by Stanford goalkeeper Dulcie Davies and five by Louisville’s Sydney King kept the teams knotted at one. The final minutes ticked down and the game headed to overtime.

Overtime, despite its exhausting and stressful environs, has yielded nothing but success for the Cardinal this season. Entering this game Stanford was 4-0 in overtime matches. Four minutes into this contest, senior midfielder Alex McCawley made it 5-0. Becker took the ball into the circle off a pass from junior Maddie Secco and drew a defender before sliding it over to McCawley. Evading the diving Louisville goalie, McCawley ripped a shot into the net. The Stanford team swarmed McCawley, celebrating a win that made history for the Cardinal. This win, improving the team to 19-2, was the first NCAA tournament win in program history. In fact, it was the first NCAA tournament win for any NorPac team.

Stanford set multiple records in 2014, including first NCAA Tournament win and 19 victories. #gostanford | http://t.co/Uapv70NjSR — Stanford FieldHockey (@StanfordFH) November 16, 2014

Riding that incredible wave of momentum, the Cardinal had a quick turnaround to be ready for No. 3 Connecticut. Stanford may have had memories of their previous upset, but the Huskies came out blazing, with no intention of losing again. UConn got on the board after only 80 seconds, as freshman forward Casey Umstead scored a pass from Olivia Bolles to put the Huskies up 1-0. The game went without a goal for the next 32 minutes as Davies warded off five UConn shots before Charlotte Veitner scored. After Stanford successfully fought off three straight corners, Veitner was able to collect a rebound and knock it into the right side of the net to give the Huskies a 2-0 lead entering the half.

The second half featured a much larger offensive presence from the Cardinal. They recorded all four of their shots and two penalty corners but the game was scoreless until the 60th minute. It was UConn however, who broke the silence. Veitner got her second goal of the game on one of the Huskies’ nine penalty corners, giving UConn a late, insurmountable 3-0 lead. Stanford however, would not leave the contest scoreless. With eight minutes left, senior defender Kelsey Harbin converted a penalty stroke to bring the match to 3-1, where it remained.

Though the Cardinal fell short of national title dreams, this does not diminish the glory of a 19-3 season in which the team can find plenty to be proud.

Contact Carlie Tenenbaum at carliet ‘at’ stanford.edu.