Stanford Secures First Place at Home Tournament

This weekend the Cardinal women kicked off the winter season with an invitational tournament hosted here at Stanford. The competitors included UC San Diego, UCLA, Western Washington, New Mexico, Oregon, Cal, and Chico State. In their first match of the tournament, Stanford came out strong, dominating Western Washington and coming away with a 54-0 win. Try scorers were Darcey Pancoast, Sasha Herbst de Cortina (2), and rookies Dani McDonald, Diana Rodriguez, Esther Melton (2), and Marika Sitz, with conversions made by Allie Ballesteros (2/3) and Aly Gleason (5/5).

In the next game of the day, Stanford faced a tough opponent in UC San Diego. The game was hard fought, but a try by UCSD after time was out closed the game, with Stanford losing 24-21. Tries were scored by Jemima Oso (2), and rookie Sarah Houdamed, with conversions made by Nikki Richardson (3/3)

To round out the day, Stanford faced UCLA for the last game of pool play. Stanford came on strong in the first half with tries scored by Jessica Smith, Aly Gleason, Sasha Herbst de Cortina (2), Sara Maurer, and Jemima Oso and conversions made by Aly Gleason (5/6) for a score of 40, before an injury on the field in the last few minutes of the half half caused UCLA to forfeit. The day’s standings left Stanford at #2 in pool A, and UCSD as #1

Going into Sunday’s championship matches were UCSD (#1, pool A), Stanford (#2, pool A), New Mexico (#1 pool B), and Oregon (#2 pool B). Stanford faced off against New Mexico in an intense, hard-fought game. Two tries by Stanford (Lai Turn, Chelsea Harris) in the last seven minutes of play gave them the win at 19-10, with conversions by Aly Gleason (2/3).

In the final, Stanford had a rematch against UCSD, who beat Oregon 5-0 in the morning. The Cardinal women were ready this time around, putting up points in the first minute of play with a try scored by Jemima Oso, and conversion made by Aly Gleason. Stanford continued strong, with tries scored by Sasha Herbst de Cortina, Sara Maurer, and rookie Madda Wilson (2), and conversions made by Aly Gleason (2/5) shutting out UCSD for a 29-0 win, and 1st place at the invitational.

Overall, junior Chelsea Harris summed up the weekend, saying “I would say that this weekend was a great way to jump start our season. Winning out tournament really fired up our rookies and gave them a chance to play in some intense matches…[but] we have a lot of work ahead. This win can’t make us complacent.”