DAVIDSON, N.C. - Returning home for the first time since Mar. 18, the Davidson women's lacrosse team fell behind early and were never able to regroup, dropping a 19-4 decision to No. 14 Stanford on Friday evening at Richardson Stadium.

Stanford scored the first 11 goals of the game by eight different players, before the Wildcats broke through as the Cardinal improved to 10-3. The 'Cats fell to 5-9 on the season and 5-4 at home.

The game started quickly for Stanford as Leslie Foard got a nice feed from Sarah Flynn in the eight-meter box with just 19 seconds ticked off the clock for the first score of the contest. Foard was one of 14 Cardinal players in all to score on the evening. Of the 14 players, five of them had multiple goals. Bess Siegfried led the Cardinal on the evening in points with four on two goals and two assists.

Davidson broke up the shutout with a strike from freshman Anna Smith (Newburyport, Mass.) at the 7:02 mark for an 11-1 score. Smith later opened up the second half with her second goal of the game, and 14th of the season, to make it 13-2. Her two-goal game was the sixth of the season.

Jen Crawford (Mountain Lakes, N.J.) followed in the 17th minute with Davidson's second score of the half as the Wildcats matched Stanford's two-goal output through the first 13 minutes of second period.

Finishing out the scoring for Davidson was junior Haley Cook (Darien, Conn.) as she found the back of the net in the 14th minute. Stanford then closed out the game with three more goals for the final of 19-4.

Goalie Michele Pav (Golden, Colo.) was credited with two saves, while Stanford's Annie Read picked up four saves.

Davidson held a 15-9 lead in draw controls with Erin Betsch (Port Washington, N.Y.) picking up a season-best five. The 'Cats finished with eight groundballs as Laura Renaud (Lutherville, Md.) recorded the third and fourth of her young career.

Davidson closes out its home portion of its schedule with a Senior Day game against No. 5 Duke on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

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DAVIDSON, N.C. – The No. 15 Stanford women's lacrosse team opened a two-game trip in North Carolina with a 19-4 rout of Davidson, getting scoring from a season-high 14 players in Friday's nonconference contest.

Freshman Maria Fortino scored the first two goals of her collegiate career to tie Bess Siegfried, Sarah Flynn, Karen Nesbitt and Maggie Sachs for team goal-scoring honors.

Leslie Foard scored only 19 seconds into the game, off an assist from Flynn, to spark a flurry of 11 unanswered goals over the first 21 minutes for Stanford (10-3).

Goalkeeper Annie Read, ranked No. 11 in the country in goals-against average, lowered her average to 8.62 and was required to make only four saves behind a defense that compensated well for the loss of injured senior Maris Perlman, the reigning conference player of the week.

“Our defense made adjustments, and was very organized,” Stanford coach Amy Bokker said. “And the offense was able to put it in, which is something we've been working on.”

Co-captain Bess Siegfried played a large leadership role in defense and was pivotal to the team's strong ball distribution. The defense also got boosts from the additions of Foard and Jamie Nesbitt, filling in for Perlman, and from the return of co-captain Melissa Vogelsong from injury.

Stanford is 4-0 in nonconference games against teams outside the Top 10 rankings. However, the Cardinal will be looking for its first victory against a Top 10 team in four tries when it plays Sunday at No. 4 North Carolina (12-3), which won at No. 5 Duke on Friday, 9-7.

A victory against a highly-ranked team would go far in helping secure an NCAA at-large bid should Stanford win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament (April 23-26) at home.

“I hope so,” Bokker said. “Overall, we have a pretty good strength of schedule. It would be nice to upset one of these Top 10 teams.”

2009-04-17