At Champagne Classic, Second Place for the Cardinal Women

San Marcos, CA, Saturday & Sunday March 29-30, 2014

After going undefeated in league play, the Stanford women headed to San Diego for a week of training followed by the Champagne Classic tournament. Stanford finished the tournament in second place with a record of 3-3.

In the first game of the weekend, against Arizona, the Cardinal women came out strong. They took an early lead, and kept up their game, shutting out Arizona 78-0. Notable performances include junior Jessica Smith, who performed a hat trick.

The second and third matches on Saturday saw tough losses to ORSU and Denver. Against ORSU, Stanford struggled to gain forward momentum, and gave up several tries due to penalties. The final score was 37-7. The game against Denver immediately followed, and Stanford tried to shake off the loss and move forward, but unfortunately gave up two tries early in the game. Stanford never recovered from their lost momentum, and though they came close, they did not manage a try, losing the match 44-0.

In the last match of the day, Stanford faced a familiar opponent, the Berkeley All-Blues. This time, Stanford was prepared for the All-Blues experience and aggression, and ended the day on the win. The day’s standings left Stanford seeded fourth, allowing them to advance to bracket play in day two of the tournament.

Sunday morning Stanford faced off against ORSU once again. Having defeated Stanford by a sizeable margin in Saturday’s match, ORSU underestimated the Cardinal women. This time Stanford came out ready for action and finished on top, edging ORSU out 14-12 and advancing to the final. In the final match of the tournament Stanford faced off once again against the previous day’s toughest opponent, Denver. Fresh of the morning’s win, Stanford came out ready to play a better game. While Stanford’s performance improved, it wasn’t enough to overcome the experience of the Denver team. Stanford lost the final match, claiming second in the tournament overall.

Next Up: Stanford hosts regional playoffs at Steuber Stadium April 5-6.