Dec. 21, 2012

STANFORD, Calif. -

2013 Lacrosse Schedule

Stanford women's lacrosse head coach Amy Bokker announced the Cardinal's 2013 schedule Friday. The Cardinal will play another challenging schedule this season including four teams that finished in the national top 25 rankings in 2012.

Stanford continues its trend of playing one of the most difficult schedules in the country as it looks to win its seventh Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title in the past eight years and return to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years.

The Cardinal will face two teams from last year's NCAA Tournament, including the defending national champion as part of the non-conference season. In addition, the MPSF season will once again be challenging as the league continues to expand and grow in talent.

The Cardinal opens its season playing five of its first six games at home. Stanford will take on perennial powerhouse and NCAA Tournament regular Notre Dame on Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. PT in its first match of the season. Notre Dame's last visit to The Farm was a thrilling 13-12 victory for the Cardinal in its 2011 season opener.

Stanford then plays host to Harvard before it hits the road for its first road match against Ohio State. The Cardinal is 1-1 against both programs over the past two seasons.

The Cardinal will return home for three matches against Georgetown, USC and Temple. It will be the first time in school history the Cardinal face USC, as this year is the Trojan's inaugural season.

Stanford will then mirror the beginning of its season with a slate that includes five of six matches on the road, beginning at Vanderbilt and James Madison, before returning for its only home game of the stretch against MPSF opponent Fresno State.

The Cardinal will return to the road for its most challenging road stretch of the season, visiting Denver and Saint Mary's while concluding the stretch at defending national champion Northwestern, who has won seven of the last eight NCAA titles.

Stanford concludes its regular season with four consecutive conference games beginning at home with defending MPSF champion Oregon on April 19 and second-year MPSF member San Diego State on April 21. The Cardinal has established a strong rivalry atop the MPSF with Oregon in recent years, facing the Ducks in three of the past six MPSF tournaments, including the last two.

The Cardinal finishes with road games at UC Davis and rival California.

The MPSF Tournament will take place at Oregon May 2-4. Last year, the Cardinal defeated Denver 14-7 in the semifinals before falling to Oregon 13-10 in the championship match.

The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament begin May 10-12. The finals will be hosted by Villanova beginning May 24-26.