March 4, 2011

Stanford, Calif. - After a fast start with four straight wins at home, the Cardinal will head out on the road this weekend for the first time. Stanford will head to Columbus, Ohio, for games against Ohio State and Canisius. The Cardinal and Buckeyes will faceoff on Saturday at 10am, PST, while Canisius will be in town on Sunday to face Stanford at 9am, PST, in a neutral site game.

The Cardinal moved up to No. 9 in the national rankings after its strong start. Stanford already has wins over two top-10 teams, then No. 5 Syracuse and then No. 10 Notre Dame. The Cardinal also earned its first MPSF win of the year over Fresno State and defeated Harvard to close the homestand.

The Cardinal have been one of the top offensive teams in the nation in the early going, ranking 10th in the country in goals per game thus far. Leslie Foard leads Stanford in scoring with 10 goals and 14 points, but the Cardinal has had a balanced attack with 12 different goal-scorers already. Emilie Boeri has chipped in nine goals, while Sarah Flynn has eight and Karen Nesbitt has seven. Anna Boeri leads Stanford with five assists.

In net, Annie Read has seen the majority of the action, earning all four wins. Read has made 24 saves thus far and is allowing 10.98 goals per game. Lyndsey Munoz has also seem some time and has made three saves. Ashley Aruffo, Paige Farmakis, Catherine Swanson and Elizabeth Adam have held down the defense in the early going.

The matchup with Ohio State will be the eighth in program history with the Cardinal winning last year at Cagan Stadium, 11-10. Overall Stanford is 4-3 against the Buckeyes. Ohio State is 2-2 so far this season and outside the IWLCA top-25. It's only home game thus far was a big 19-4 win over St. Bonaventure. The Buckeyes are led by Alayna Markwordt who has already accumulated 20 points on the season with 11 goals and nine assists. Brittney Zerhusen has added 10 goals.

Sunday's game with Canisius will be the first between the two programs. Ohio State will host the game, making it a neutral site contest. The Golden Griffins are off to a 1-1 start and are unranked. In its most recent contest, Canisius earned a road win at Detroit. The Golden Griffins are led by Taylor Gray who has five goals in two games.

Stanford will look to build on its early home success with the pair of road games before a two week break for dead week and finals.