Pacific Field Hockey Welcomes No. 9 Stanford To Brookside Field

Stockton, Calif. – The Pacific Field Hockey team continues NorPac Conference play Saturday, September 17 against the No. 9 Stanford Cardinal (5-1, 0-0). The contest will take place at Brookside Field beginning at 1 PM. 

The Tigers (1-4, 0-2) return home after a 1-2 trip to Rhode Island that included a last minute goal from senior Amanda Spellman to defeat Brown 4-3. It was Spellman's second goal of the season.

The Pacific and Stanford matchup features two freshmen honored by the NorPac Conference this week in the Tigers' Tarah Trotter and the Cardinal's Kelsey Harbin. Trotter was named the NorPac West Division Rookie of the Week on Monday September 12.  Her first two collegiate goals led Pacific to its win over Brown.  Head Coach Linda MacDonald talked about why Trotter is experiencing success so early in her career saying, "she is fearless. Tarah is successful because she is aggressive, fast, and has excellent composure in front of the goal. " Stanford's Harbin was awarded NorPac West Division Defensive Player of the Week after recording a key defensive save to lift the Cardinal over then-No. 18 Northeastern.

Stanford poses one of the biggest tests all season for Pacific, and MacDonald knows it saying, "they are a legitimate top 10 team, and deserve to be ranked ninth. Stanford is very strong, with excellent players, but we made a lot of progress on our road trip. If we can stay focused and keep our composure we can put pressure on the Cardinal."

The Tigers are coming off their most productive offensive weekend of the season. Pacific will need to continue its attack to beat Stanford, MacDonald added; "we started to work the ball down the field this weekend and got more shots off. Of our 27 shots against Bryant, most of them were at the goalkeeper."

Pacific takes to the road where competition will continue to test the Tigers with No. 11 California on September 25.