Zajac added another right before the break in the 44th when Ezana Kahsay spun on the ball at the top of the box and slid it behind Stanford's back line to Zajac in stride.

Hosting its first quarterfinal since 2002, Stanford (12-4-5) fell behind 2-0 at halftime after Marcel Zajac scored a pair of goals for Akron (13-6-2). From the top left corner of the box, Zajac bent one to the far post in the 15th minute. The ball pounded the bar and ricocheted back across the face of goal and into the opposite side netting to put Akron up early.

It took a great goal from Akron to win. Marco Micaletto worked free on the right side and sent in a cross to Zajac. Zajac headed it to Colin Biros at the top of the six, who kept it in the air for the game winner.

"In the first half we were just waiting for the game instead of taking the game," Gunn said. "I just really wanted to encourage the players to go after the game and see what happens. In the first half we waited and we got punished. In the second half we were assertive, played some fantastic soccer, bossed the game and thoroughly deserved to get back into it."

Stanford equalized 12 minutes later when Zach Ryan scored his team-leading 10th goal, thanks to assists from Jared Gilbey and Adam Mosharrafa. Gilbey played in a perfect ball on a free kick from 30 yards that caused some chaos in the box. Mosharrafa got a touch on it and Ryan finished it off to bring the Cardinal level.

Tanner Beason brought Stanford closer in the second half, converting a penalty kick at the 56:14 mark to trim the lead to 2-1. Charlie Wehan broke through on goal and was dragged down from behind to earn the chance from the spot. Beason, a semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy, buried his fifth penalty of the season.

"They're a fantastic team and you can't afford to give them a head start," Stanford coach Jeremy Gunn said. "They settled into the game better than we did, they got the early goal and were going to be more confident the rest of the game. They deserve to be going to the final four and we congratulate them for it. We fought back, we gave it everything we had and then they scored a great goal to end it."

"We've had an incredible run," Gunn said. "I'm so proud of all the ambassadors of the game that we've had go through the program. We've enjoyed immense success with many groups and some incredible student-athletes. I really feel good about how they've represented our program and at the end of tonight there's nothing I complain about - our players or the game."

"You can't argue for a more exciting game," Gunn said. "It had everything you needed. We just fell short to a very good team on the night. I thought our boys fought incredibly and when we got to 2-2 we looked good. Absolute credit to Akron, though, they settled the game down again and the goal they scored was fantastic."

Stanford's joyous run of great men's soccer comes to an end