[STANFORD WOMEN] The Cardinal won its first 25 games before falling to North Carolina in the 2009 Women’s College Cup final. Stanford should exact its revengethis season.
“In that final game, we didn’t play well,” Paul Ratcliffe said. “That was disappointing that we never really played the way we playedthe entire season. Hopefully, that’s in the back of their minds. Hopefully, they’re upset about that and realize it was a great opportunity, and they’ve got to turn that around and have another greatyear.
The Cardinal lost Soccer America Player of the Year Kelley O’Hara, the nation’s leading scorer, and AliRiley, who are both starting for WPS leader FC Gold Pride, but it is still loaded from front to back.
Christen Press (third-leading scorerin the country with 21 goals and a school-record 16 assists) and Lindsay Taylor (16 goals in 2008) return up top, while the midfield, led by All-Americans
As for the defense, KiraMaker is starting in goal for her fourth season, and sophomores Alina Garciamendez and Rachel Quon started forMexico and USA, respectively, at the recent Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Germany.
On just about any other team, Courtney Verloo, who hasrepresented the USA in two World Cups, the energetic Camille Levin and Nogueira would have been starters last year, but they came off the bench for Stanford inthe final against Carolina.
Verloo and Levin can play in a variety of roles.
“It’s going to be really entertaining team, with some very exciting players playing an excitingbrand of soccer,” Ratcliffe said. “They’re enjoyable to watch, no doubt about it.”
SCHEDULE:
Aug. 20 at Boston College 7 p.m. ET
Aug. 22at Boston Univ. 7 p.m. ET
Carolina Nike Classic
Aug. 27 at North Carolina 6 p.m. ET
Aug. 29 vs. Duke 11 a.m. ET
Sept. 10 vs. Georgia 7 p.m. PT
Sept. 12 vs. Pacific 2 p.m. PT
Santa ClaraClassic
Sept. 17 vs. Utah 5 p.m. PT
Sept. 19 vs. Georgetown 11 a.m. PT
Sept. 23 vs. Hawaii 7 p.m. PT
Sept. 25 vs. Portland 7 p.m. PT
Oct. 3 vs. SantaClara 1 p.m. PT
Oct. 10 at USC* 7 p.m. PT
Oct. 12 at UCLA* 1 p.m. PT
Oct. 15 vs. Washington State* 5 p.m. PT
Oct. 17 vs. Washington* 12 p.m. PT
Oct. 22at Arizona State* 7 p.m. MT
Oct. 24 at Arizona* 12 p.m. MT
Oct. 30 at California* 3 p.m. PT
Nov. 5 vs. Oregon State* 8 p.m. PT
Nov. 7 vs. Oregon* 1 p.m. PT
*Pac-10game.