Stanford Men’s & Women’s Soccer both ranked No. 1 in latest polls
Stanford men’s and women’s soccer are both ranked No. 1 in the nation (September 1st to 7th) by both the United Soccer Coaches Poll and Top Drawer Soccer’s D1 Top 25:
The men’s team is 4-0 with wins over Sacramento State (5-1), No. 4 Denver (2-1), Santa Clara (2-1), and UC Davis (1-0). The Santa Clara win coming on the road after trailing 0-1 at halftime. As for the women’s team, they are 5-0 with wins over San Francisco (7-0), No. 16 Santa Clara (5-1), San Diego State (3-0), Saint Mary’s (4-1), and Arizona (6-0). It’s been a fantastic start to the season for both teams.
The women have had a more dominant start in terms of their margin of victory. Nobody has really challenged them yet this season as Jasmine Aikey (5 goals & 1 assist) and Allie Montoya (4 goals & 3 assists) each have 11 points on the season. It’s been an onslaught of goals so far by the Cardinal at Cagan with those two players leading the way. And then the defense has been superb. While they are known more for their offense, it needs to be underscored that they are bringing it on defense. When you got somebody like Elise Evans in the back row, you’re going to be tough to score on.
As for the men’s team, they’ve had to win some more gritty battles. As I mentioned, they trailed at halftime at Santa Clara 0-1 last week only to score two goals in the second half to win 2-1. And then on Sunday, they had a 1-0 win over UC Davis as Jude Stone scored the lone goal late in the second half. Something that the men’s team needs to figure out is how to avoid some of the offensive lulls they go into, but with how rock solid their defense is (Rowan Schnebly at goalkeeper giving up 0.78 goals per match), sometimes one or two goals is all they need.
Looking ahead to this week, both teams will be on the road. Men’s soccer will be at Louisville on Friday, September 5th at 8:00 AM PT on ACCNX. Women’s soccer will be at No. 6 USC on Thursday, September 4th at 6:30 PM PT on Big Ten Network and then at No. 18 UCLA on Sunday, September 7th on Big Ten + at 1:00 PM PT. It’ll be challenging road test for both teams, but given their ranking, they should be up to the task.
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