Sept. 26, 2012

STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 2 Stanford women's soccer team takes on No. 23 Oregon State in a match that could have Pac-12 title implications. The Thursday match is the first of a pair against the visiting Oregon schools on a weekend that is sure to help shape the conference race.

The following is a closer look at Stanford's matches this weekend:

Who: No. 23 Oregon State (9-1-0, 1-0-0) at No. 2 Stanford (7-1-1, 1-0-0)
When: Thursday, 6 p.m. PT
Where: Laird Q. Cagan Stadium, Stanford, Calif.
What: A Pac-12 Conference matchup of ranked teams
Watch: Pac-12 Networks (Mark Rogondino and Krista Blunk on the call)
Listen: KZSU-2 online
Follow: Gametracker live stats (gostanford.com)
Tickets: 1-800-STANFORD; gostanford.com; Cagan ticket office opens at 4:30 p.m. on gameday.

Who: Oregon (5-3-1, 0-0-1) at Stanford
When: Sunday, noon PT
Where: Laird Q. Cagan Stadium, Stanford, Calif.
What: A Pac-12 Conference matchup of ranked teams
Listen: KZSU-2 online
Follow: Gametracker live stats (gostanford.com)
Tickets: 1-800-STANFORD; gostanford.com; Cagan ticket office opens at 10:30 a.m. on gameday.

CURRENT STANFORD STREAKS
• Four consecutive College Cup appearances
• Three consecutive College Cup finals appearances
• Three consecutive Pac-10/12 Conference titles
• 138-match unbeaten streak (132-0-6) when scoring a goal
(the last time Stanford scored and lost was Aug. 27, 2006; 2-1 to Wake Forest)
• 94-match home unbeaten streak (90-0-4) when scoring a goal
(Stanford hasn't scored at home and lost since Oct. 5, 2003; 2-1 to Loyola Marymount)
• 59-match home unbeaten streak (57-0-2)
(last loss, Nov. 23, 2007; 2-0 to Connecticut in an NCAA third-round match)
• 32-match Pac-10/12 winning streak
(last loss, Oct. 31, 2008; 1-0 at UCLA)
• 22-match Pac-10/12 home winning streak
(last loss, Oct. 19, 2007; 2-0 vs. UCLA)

SHUTOUT STREAK: Stanford has shut out its past five opponents and has not allowed a goal since the 57th minute of a 1-1 draw against Boston College on Aug. 31. Since that goal, Stanford has assembled a scoreless streak of 503 minutes, 19 seconds. Stanford's defense allowed five goals in the first four matches, but none since. Also consider that since Paul Ratcliffe and goalkeepers coach Jay Cooney's arrival in 2003, the program's collective goals-against average is 0.55 (going into this season), and the Cardinal has been below 1.00 each year. The school record for most consecutive shutouts is seven (accomplished four times, including 2011) and the mark for most consecutive scoreless minutes is 774:22 (2002-03).

SECOND-HALF DOMINANCE: The Cardinal has outscored opponents, 18-3, in the second half this season. On Sunday, in a 3-0 victory over Arizona State, Stanford scored all of its goals in the second half, while outshooting ASU, 14-2. Stanford has outscored opponents, 11-0, in the second half of its past five matches and outshot teams, 67-19, in that time.

FIRST-HALF DEFENSE: Over its past 17 matches dating back to last season, Stanford has shut out opponents in the opening half 15 times. Over the past 806 minutes, 8 seconds of first-half play, Stanford has allowed only two goals - a GAA of 0.22 -- and has shut out its past seven opponents in the opening half. Emily Oliver, who just returned to the Stanford lineup on Sunday, hasn't allowed a first-half goal since Oct. 28, 2011, against Oregon State (by Jenna Richardson in the fourth minute).

SCHOOL'S IN: Thursday's match against Oregon State is the first contest for Stanford since the fall quarter began on Monday. Stanford had played eighth matches and had been together for eight weeks before school actually began. The women's soccer team was the first Stanford fall sport to report for camp, on July 31.

EMILY'S BACK: Junior goalkeeper Emily Oliver, who did not play in the first eight matches because of injury, played the second half of Stanford's 3-0 victory over Arizona State on Sunday. She has a career goals-against average of 0.26. She has allowed only 11 goals in 45 career matches. Her GAA, if maintained, would rank No. 1 in Stanford career history. U.S. national teamer Nicole Barnhart has the Stanford record of 0.45. Barnhart, a member of the U.S. national team, also holds the career shutout record of 35. Oliver is fifth, with 22.

LAST WEEK: Stanford opened defense of its Pac-12 title with a 3-0 victory over visiting Arizona State on Sunday. Courtney Verloo had a goal and an assist within a seven-minute span of the second half to spark the Cardinal, which was tied 0-0 at halftime. Natalie Griffen and Taylor McCann had the other goals. For Griffen, it was her team-leading fifth. It was McCann's first.

VERLOO SCORING STREAK: Redshirt junior Courtney Verloo, playing forward for the first time since 2009, has scored in three consecutive matches - twice on set pieces. She leads the team in points, with 13, but hadn't scored a goal over the first six matches. Her most recent goal, against ASU, was on a penalty kick - her first at Stanford. Her first goal of the season was on a 25-yard free kick against San Diego State. She ranks third in the nation in assists per game, with 0.88. Verloo was a backup forward as a true freshman in 2009 (4 goals, 6 assists, 14 points) and filled a need at central defender as a sophomore, earning third-team All-America honors in 2010. Last year, she suffered an injury the week before the season began and redshirted.

FORWARDS RETURN: Stanford's leading returning scorer, sophomore forward Chioma Ubogagu, is looking for her first goal after returning three games ago after helping the United States capture the FIFA Under-20 World Cup title in Japan. Ubogagu missed Stanford's first six matches while in service with the national team, which beat Germany in the final, 1-0, on Sept. 8. Ubogagu scored 10 goals and had 10 assists for Stanford's national championship team last season as a freshman and was named to the NCAA College Cup All-Tournament team.

Also back is forward Marjani Hing-Glover, a senior who missed the team's first seven matches with an injury she suffered last spring. Hing-Glover came off the bench in Stanford's past two matches, making her season debut in a 4-0 victory over UNC Greensboro on Sept. 16. Hing-Glover started 12 times last season, mostly down the stretch and in the NCAA tournament, and was the team's fourth-leading scorer (6 goals, 5 assists, 17 points). Her hard shot is known on the team as the Jani Rocket.

PAC-12 SUCCESS: Stanford has won the past three Pac-10/12 Conference titles, all won with perfect records. Stanford went 11-0 in 2011, and 9-0 each in 2010 and 2009. Stanford, which has a 32-match conference winning streak, hasn't dropped a point in conference play since 2008 (Oct. 31, 1-0 loss at UCLA) and hasn't done the same at home since 2007 (Oct. 19, 2-0 vs. UCLA). In 2011, Stanford won three matches by one goal in Pac-12 play - 1-0 at Washington State, 1-0 at Washington in overtime, and 2-1 at Oregon State. The other eight were by a combined 29-3. The last time Stanford won in conference by a one-goal margin at home was Oct. 17, 2010, in a 2-1 victory over Washington.

FROM BEHIND: Stanford trailed in its first three matches - against Santa Clara, Penn State, and West Virginia. That equaled last year's total for the entire season. Since then, Stanford hasn't trailed at all, over a span of six matches.

NO SHOTS ALLOWED: On Sept. 16, Stanford held an opponent without a shot for the first time in school history in beating UNC Greensboro, 4-0, at the Santa Clara Classic. Stanford got goals from four different players and earned its fourth consecutive shutout while outshooting the Spartans, 25-0. In a program history that began in 1984, Stanford had held an opponent to one shot eight times, but never to none. UNCG (3-5) also failed to secure a corner kick, meaning Stanford goalkeepers Aly Gleason and Lindsay Dickerson had an uneventful day.

LEADING SCORER: Stanford lost 20-goal scorer Lindsay Taylor, the Pac-12 Player of the Year, to graduation, but has filled her scoring duties by committee. Six Stanford players have multiple goals, led by first-year starter Natalie Griffen. She has five goals after scoring two goals in her first two seasons. Sydney Payne and Mariah Nogueira are next with four apiece. However, the team scoring leader by points is Courtney Verloo (3 goals, 7 assists, 13 points). In all, 10 Stanford players have scored.

RANKINGS: Stanford moved up a spot to No. 2 in the NSCAA/Continental Tire Coaches' Poll. In other rankings, Stanford is No. 2 by Soccer America, No. 2 by Top Drawer Soccer, No. 2 by Soccer Times, and No. 3 by Our Game.

THURSDAY'S OPPONENT, OREGON STATE: No. 23 Oregon State (9-1, 1-0) has proven to be the Pac-12's up-and-coming program, with a pair of top-three conference finishes the past two years. The Beavers were third last season and advanced to the NCAA tournament, but were eliminated in the first round by Portland on penalty kicks. OSU was picked to finish fourth in a preseason poll of conference coaches, but has looked better than that in nonconference play. OSU has a five-match winning streak, which began after a 1-0 home loss to UC Irvine. Before that, the Beavers gained a measure of revenge with a 1-0 victory over Portland.

Junior forward Jenna Richardson, who played for Canada at the recent FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup in Japan, has played in six matches and leads the team in scoring with four goals, including both in a 2-0 conference-opening victory over Utah. Richardson and freshman goalkeeper Sammy Jo Prudhomme, who made nine saves against Utah, are the reigning Pac-12 Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively.

THE STANFORD-OREGON STATE SERIES: Stanford leads the all-time series 18-1 and has won the past eight matchups since suffering its only loss to the Beavers, 1-0 in Corvallis in 2003. In the past two years, the matchup has pitted the first- and second-place teams at the time of the match. Last year, Stanford clinched its third consecutive conference championship with a 2-1 road victory over the then-second place Beavers on Oct. 28. Lindsay Taylor scored two second-half goals to allow Stanford to erase a 1-0 deficit created when OSU's Jenna Richardson scored in the fourth minute. In 2010, Stanford beat visiting Oregon State, 3-0, when the winner would have earned at least a share of the Pac-10 title with one more match remaining.

SUNDAY'S OPPONENT, OREGON: The Ducks (5-3-2, 0-0-1) were picked to finish 10th, in a preseason poll of conference coaches. However, the Ducks look like they are much better than that. Oregon lost to No. 12 BYU on Monday, 1-0, and will play at California on Friday, before coming to Stanford. Freshman forward Kristen Parr (6 goals) has scored more than half of the Ducks' 11 goals this season. No one else has more than one. Senior midfielder Scout Libke is a returning first-team All-Pac-12 player. The Ducks have allowed only eight goals this season and have four shutouts.

THE STANFORD-OREGON SERIES: Stanford leads the all-time series, 14-0-1. The only blemish was a 0-0 draw in Eugene in 2007. Since then, Stanford has outscored the Ducks, 13-1, in four meetings. Last year, Stanford won 2-0 in Eugene.

THE SCHEDULE: Stanford opened with five matches against teams that reached the 2011 NCAA tournament and emerged with a 3-1-1 record - losing to West Virginia and tying Boston College. In all, Stanford plays nine teams that reached the postseason last year. Oregon State was will be the sixth team ranked at the time of its meeting with Stanford. The Cardinal is 4-0-1 against ranked teams this season.

CLUTCH PLAYER: Mariah has made a habit of scoring clutch goals for Stanford. She scored the go-ahead goal against Georgetown, after earlier scoring a late winner against Penn State and the second-half tying goal in the season-opener against Santa Clara. Last year, she headed in the 88th minute winner to beat Notre Dame.

Of Nogueira's team-high 17 career goals, 13 have tied the score or put Stanford ahead. She also has 10 game-winning goals. And, technically, she's not an offensive player, but rather a holding midfielder. Most of her goals are headers off corner kicks, as has been the case on each of her four goals this season.

SENIOR CLASS CANDIDATE: All-America Mariah Nogueira is one of 30 players around the country selected as a candidate for women's soccer's Senior CLASS Award, which honors those who excel in athletics, academics, and community service. Nogueira, a senior captain, carries a 3.63 cumulative GPA. She has been involved with Special Olympics, the Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative, weekly tutoring for young students from East Palo Alto, working the Halloween Carnival in East Palo Alto, visiting the elderly, and being involved in Kappa Alpha Theta sorority philanthropy events. Nogueira has also served as a Sunday school teacher and as the single adults co-President at her church. The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists in October.

RETURNING PLAYERS: Stanford returns seven starters and 21 letterwinners from last year's NCAA championship team. Among those are six all-conference players and three NSCAA All-Americans - goalkeeper Emily Oliver (2011 third team), midfielder Mariah Nogueira (2009 third team), and forward Courtney Verloo (2010 third team as a defender). Stanford returns 34 of last year's 73 goals (47 percent), its lowest percentage since 2004, with Chioma Ubogagu the team's top returning scorer (10 goals, 10 assists, 30 points).

FRESHMAN IMPACT: Of the five freshmen in this year's class, four have played and two have been regular starters. Laura Liedle has started every match at left outside back. Kate Bettinger has started four times as an attacking midfielder. Central defender Maya Theuer and midfielder Katie Donahue made their collegiate debuts in the season opener. Sarah Cox is a backup goalkeeper.

SENIOR CLASS: Stanford has three players - tri-captains central defender Alina Garciamendez, outside right back Rachel Quon, and holding midfielder Mariah Nogueira - who are four-year starters, with College Cup finals appearances in each of their previous three seasons. Stanford has 10 members of the class of 2013, including three who will still have eligibility after this year. Five members of the class started the opener: Garciamendez, Quon, Nogueira, goalkeeper Lindsay Dickerson, and forward Courtney Verloo.

COACH OF THE YEAR: Paul Ratcliffe, in his 10th season at Stanford, is the reigning NSCAA National Coach of the Year, an honor he has received three times in four years. He also has been named Pac-12 Coach of the Year the past four seasons. Ratcliffe's Stanford record is 165-36-20. Over his career, now in his 14th year as a Division I head coach, Ratcliffe is 220-70-27.

HERMANN TROPHY WINNERS: Before last year, no other school has had three different players win the Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy in three successive years. Stanford became the first in the 24 years of collegiate soccer's most prestigious honor when Kelley O'Hara (2009), Christen Press (2010) and Teresa Noyola captured the honor. In addition, Lindsay Taylor, the runner-up to Noyola, was named Soccer America's National Player of the Year. This year, goalkeeper Emily Oliver has been named to the Hermann Trophy watch list.

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: Central defender Alina Garciamendez and goalkeeper Emily Oliver were named to Soccer America's Preseason All-America team.

POSSIBLE LINEUP: Goalkeeper: Aly Gleason or Emily Oliver; Defenders: Laura Liedle, Alina Garciamendez, Madeleine Thompson, Rachel Quon; Midfielders: Mariah Nogueira, Lo'eau LaBonta, Alex Doll; Forwards: Chioma Ubogagu, Haley Rosen or Natalie Griffen, Courtney Verloo.