Recap: No.3 Stanford women’s soccer blows out Virginia Tech
On Thursday, No. 3 Stanford women’s soccer defeated Virginia Tech at home a by a final score of 5-0. Stanford junior midfielder Shae Harvey led the way for the Cardinal with two goals, the first multi-goal match and brace (two goals in a match) of her career. Harvey found the back of the net at 10:34 and 60:43. Senior defender Elise Evans (6:51), senior midfielder Jasmine Aikey (58:10), and freshman midfielder/forward Brooke Holden (68:47) scored for the Cardinal as well. Freshman Caroline Birkel (68:47) and sophomore Kaiya Jota (21:13) both played goalkeeper for the Cardinal, neither recording a save during the shutout.
As for Virginia Tech, graduate student Lauren Hargrove (82:59) was the losing goalkeeper for the Hokies, giving up all five goals while getting six saves. Junior Savannah Sabo played the final 7:01 in the net, not giving up a goal or recording a save. Stanford improves to 10-1-1 overall and 4-0-1 in the ACC while Virginia Tech falls 4-7-3 overall and 0-5-1 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Virginia Tech at Stanford-Thursday, October 9th
“Yeah, team started fast, scored a couple goals, and solid performance all around,” Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe said after the match. “And happy to get the 5-0 win.”
Stanford came out strong with corner kicks at 0:18 and 6:28 while Virginia Tech had a corner kick at 3:07. Shortly after the corner kick at 6:28, Evans scored at 6:51, finding the bottom left of the goal off her right foot. Lily Freer got the assist. That made it a 1-0 lead for Stanford.
“Yeah, it’s always super fun,” Evans said of scoring as a defender. “I think I always try to just stay around the box as much as possible and set pieces because it’s one of my only chances to get a goal. So, it’s super fun to be up there. I believe it was a corner kind of bouncing around. We got the ball served back in and Lily was able to head it back in and it just passed the keeper’s hands and then I just was able to tap it in.”
“Elise is a key leader for our team,” Ratcliffe said of Evans. “She’s one of our captains and she has a big presence and she has a knack for scoring goals on corner kicks. So I wasn’t surprised to see her get a goal. And then the save off the goal line was fantastic positioning and reading the play. And that was key to slow their momentum because they were a solid team.”
Not long thereafter, Stanford got a corner kick at 10:02, leading to Harvey scoring at 10:34 off an assist from Charlotte Kohler and Joelle Jung. Harvey found the top center of the goal off her right foot. That made it a 2-0 lead for the Cardinal.
Virginia Tech would pick up a yellow card at 12:12, the lone card of the half as Hannah Pachan got called for unsporting. Stanford would get a corner kick at 13:05 and 32:03, but couldn’t score off those chances. Virginia Tech in turn had a couple corner kicks at 36:11 and 37:57, unable to score off those chances as well. 2-0 Stanford led going into halftime as they were out-shooting Virginia Tech 9-1 with a 5-3 edge in corner kicks.
Virginia Tech would get a corner kick at 47:53, but wasn’t able to score off that chance. As for Stanford, they would get a corner kick at 56:16, which also didn’t directly lead to a goal. However, Stanford did score shortly thereafter at 58:10 as Aikey found the bottom right of the goal off her right foot thanks to an assist from Eleanor Klinger. That made it a 3-0 lead for the Cardinal.
Not long after that, Harvey scored her second goal of the match to record the brace at 60:43 as she found the bottom right of the goal off her right foot thanks to an assist from Jung. That made it a 4-0 lead for the Cardinal.
“Yeah, I mean, whenever I’m in the box, I know that I’m looking to get on the end of crosses or just whatever comes my way,” Harvey said of scoring two goals. “And that’s kind of my role. So, yeah, I was kind of just doing what the team needed of me.”
“Yeah, Shae, great leader for us,” Ratcliffe said of Harvey. “We’ve moved her up in the midfield a little bit. She’s not as much holding. So she’s putting her finishing ability on full display and scored two great goals for us today. So that’s a big boost to our team that we’re getting goals from Shae in the midfield now.”
Virginia Tech would get a corner kick at 63:49, but was unable to score off that chance. As for Stanford, they would score their fifth and final goal of the night at 68:47 as Holden found the bottom right of the goal off an assist from Klinger. That was Klinger’s second assist of the night. That made it a 5-0 lead for Stanford.
From there, Stanford would go on to win 5-0 as they had a couple more corner kicks at 76:49 and 86:00, unable to add any more goals. Of course, when you have scored five goals, that’s more than enough. Especially when you are getting a shutout in the process. All around a strong win for the Cardinal. They scored plenty and did what was needed to keep the Hokies out of the net.
“I mean, I think we took a lot of pride in our set pieces today,” Harvey said. “That’s something we’ve been talking about all week and just in like the past few games, we haven’t been capitalizing as much as we want to. And I think we did a really good job this game at getting the gritty goals…Yeah, I mean I think it’s a big emphasis [getting the shutout]. It’s like something we’ve been talking about and working on again. And yeah, we have a great backline. They are good on the build out. They’re good at keeping things out of the goal. Elise’s goal line save was crazy this game. Yeah, we’re lucky to have our back line.”
“I think I’m the last line of defense and my goal is to keep a clean sheet every single game,” Evans said. “And just kind of putting my body in the way as much as possible. In that sense, just stepping out and trying to make it as difficult as possible for her to get the shots she wants and thankfully I was able to make the block there.”
Perhaps the best part of the match for Stanford was the return of redshirt senior forward Andrea Kitahata. She went down with a left leg/ankle injury a little while back and there were concerns she’d have to miss an extended period of time. So it was great to see her back out there.
“Yeah, yeah, huge sigh of relief that she’s healthy and back out there,” Ratcliffe said of Kitahata. She’s another great leader for our team and you could see her presence when she was on the field. I thought the level of our game went up when she was on the field and she’s still getting her sharpness back, but I thought she had a good game and so happy to have her back out on the field for us.”
“Oh, it’s great. I mean, she’s a key player,” Harvey added. “The game changes when she’s in here. So, it’s good.”
Up next for Stanford is a home match against No. 1 Virginia on Sunday. Kickoff is set for 1:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, the ultimate test,” Ratcliffe said of facing the Cavaliers. “I think that they’re the number one team in the country and the RPI right now. So I think it’s going to be a really hard test for us and I think it’ll be good for our team to get tested because we want to be challenged. That’s why we pick Stanford. So, I expect an exceptional game. They’re a really high-level team, so it’ll be a hard game for us.”
“Yeah, we’re super excited,” Evans added. “I’ve never played Virginia before, so that’s something super exciting. We know a lot of those players, just because of national team and just being friends in and around the sport from youth clubs. So that’s something that we’re really looking forward to, especially to get to play them at home. It’s really exciting. So we’re hoping to have a great Cagan crowd and really give it everything we’ve got.”
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