[Viking_Guy]

Kelsey Harbin picked a bad time to have an absolutely awful game.

Stanford's best player, and the NorPac player of the year, turned the ball over three times in her own end in the first five minutes of the game, and the last one was converted into a goal by Liberty that stood up for the entire game.  She hit an attempted groundball pass right into the middle of the field and right onto the stick of a Liberty player 5 yards in front of her.

And Harbin kept on doing it throughout - she must have turned the ball over 5-6 times in her own half of the field with each resulting in a good offensive chance for Liberty.

The Cardinal as a whole appeared to play really tight - lots of passes to no one, or clearances that didn't clear.  They had a couple of good chances to tie it, but every short corner was pretty much hit directly at the keeper, without a whole lot of deception or set plays, and whenever they got into the circle, Liberty had 6 or 7 players crowding.

The goal itself was a bit unlucky - the ball bounced into the air over Dulcie Davies' pads and into the far corner.  Davies had a great game, with several sprawling saves mostly caused by her defense's iffy play.  But she can't score, and all of Stanford's offense managed only three shots on goal the entire game.  They had one great chance, with a ball across the face of goal and Cardinal players nearby, but no one managed to get a stick on the ball rolling 2 feet in front of the net.

Darn it.

They should still make the tournament, but now they're going to get sent somewhere east.  Hopefully they won't make them play a play-in game, but to lose this way, when you've had such a great season, and against the team that knocked you out last year, has to be just heart-breaking.

At least the water polo team won Big Splash today, in all likelihood keeping themselves at #2 by beating C.al 11-9, and with only Santa Clara and Pacific left before the MPSF tourney at Long Beach in a couple of weeks.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

Kelsey Harbin picked a bad time to have an absolutely awful game.

Stanford's best player, and the NorPac player of the year, turned the ball over three times in her own end in the first five minutes of the game, and the last one was converted into a goal by Liberty that stood up for the entire game.  She hit an attempted groundball pass right into the middle of the field and right onto the stick of a Liberty player 5 yards in front of her.

And Harbin kept on doing it throughout - she must have turned the ball over 5-6 times in her own half of the field with each resulting in a good offensive chance for Liberty.

The Cardinal as a whole appeared to play really tight - lots of passes to no one, or clearances that didn't clear.  They had a couple of good chances to tie it, but every short corner was pretty much hit directly at the keeper, without a whole lot of deception or set plays, and whenever they got into the circle, Liberty had 6 or 7 players crowding.

The goal itself was a bit unlucky - the ball bounced into the air over Dulcie Davies' pads and into the far corner.  Davies had a great game, with several sprawling saves mostly caused by her defense's iffy play.  But she can't score, and all of Stanford's offense managed only three shots on goal the entire game.  They had one great chance, with a ball across the face of goal and Cardinal players nearby, but no one managed to get a stick on the ball rolling 2 feet in front of the net.

Darn it.

They should still make the tournament, but now they're going to get sent somewhere east.  Hopefully they won't make them play a play-in game, but to lose this way, when you've had such a great season, and against the team that knocked you out last year, has to be just heart-breaking.

At least the water polo team won Big Splash today, in all likelihood keeping themselves at #2 by beating C.al 11-9, and with only Santa Clara and Pacific left before the MPSF tourney at Long Beach in a couple of weeks.

VG