MUNCIE, Ind. – The first game of the season for Stanford field hockey was a 4-1 win over Ohio at Briner Sports Complex on Friday. With the win, the Cardinal is now 1-0 on the season and getting ready for their game against Ball State on Sunday.
Stanford put a lot of offensive pressure on the Bobcats early on and often. At halftime, they had a clear 3-0 lead, and they added a fourth goal in the third quarter to seal the win.
Head coach Roz Ellis said, “We’ve looked at how we attack and how many people we attack with a lot in the last two weeks.” “I’m really proud of how well the offense played today.” It’s great to see their hard work pay off.
Start Horlock, Allison Kuzyk, Kate Nemec, and Cara Sambeth all scored goals for Stanford. Together with student Jenny O’Grady, Nemec also set up a goal, and Daisy Ford got her first win of the season in goal.
Kuzyk’s backhand hit the cage hard just after the five-minute mark, giving Stanford an early lead. Horlock doubled the lead with her own backhand in the second quarter, and Nemec scored her first goal to make the lead even bigger going into halftime.
“We’ve been really confident in the work we’ve put in this offseason,” he said. “We went into the game with the mindset that this game was ours to take and it paid off today.”
Shortly after halftime, Ohio scored their only goal of the game to close the gap to two goals. However, Cara Sambeth quickly scored off a penalty corner to end the scoring.
Samuel said, “It was very important to get that goal back.” “We’ve talked a lot of momentum and we lost it for a bit after their goal, but being able to score quickly after was a big step for us.”
In Friday’s season start, the Cardinal had 15 shots to Ohio’s 8 and won 6 of the penalty corners.
“Feels good to have a good start to the season,” Ellis said. “I know it’s cliche but we’re going one game at a time so we’ll enjoy this game for a bit, then put it in our back pocket and move on to the next.”
Stanford’s next game on the road is against Ball State on Sunday at 10 a.m. PT. You can watch the game live on ESPN+.