STANFORD, Calif.- No. 16 Stanford returns to action this weekend, hosting rival California on Sunday, Sept. 19, in a pivotal conference game that carries added significance in the NorPac's West Division standings.

Stanford (5-1, 2-0 NorPac) has won three straight matches since its only loss: a hard-fought 3-2 setback against then-No. 7 Michigan State back on Sept. 6. Meanwhile, California (2-4, 1-0 NorPac) has lost two of its last three and will take on Pacific one day before playing Stanford.

The Cardinal is enjoying the better start. In addition to nearly upsetting a top-10 team, Stanford has outscored its opponents 21-7 while receiving offensive contributions from multiple players. Furthermore, Stanford can improve upon its No. 16 national ranking with games against North Carolina, Wake Forest and Syracuse left on its schedule.

Regardless of either team's record, Stanford and California remain the premier teams of the NorPac. East Division programs Davidson and Radford have raced out to solid 5-1 starts, but traditionally the Cardinal and Golden Bears have been the class of the eight-team league and a string of consecutive appearances in the NorPac Tournament championship game prove that.

The conference tournament winner receives the NorPac's berth to an NCAA Play-In game, so the two regular season matchups between Stanford and California typically determine conference tournament seeding.

On Sunday afternoon, Stanford will be looking to continue a recent trend of success against California. After losing 18 games in a row to California from 2001-2007, Stanford has now won five of the last seven meetings overall. More impressively, that includes victories in each of the last three NorPac Tournament championship games.

Simply put, the Cardinal has owned this series as of late.