BYU defeated by No. 1 Stanford in NCAA quarterfinals

STANFORD, Calif. ­­– The No. 4 BYU women’s soccer team was defeated 5-1 by No. 1 Stanford on Friday afternoon at Cagan Stadium.

​“Stanford is such a great team with great individual players and they have been well-coached. They’ve been playing at this level for so long now,” BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We didn’t pull the trigger and for some reason we did not get our shots off today and you can’t allow that against a team like this.”

Stanford’s Catarina Macario put the Cardinal on the board in the 17th minute on their fifth shot of the game to take an early 1-0 lead. On Stanford’s next attack, Rachel Lyman cleared the ball near the goal line to keep the Cardinal from adding another goal to the score line.

In the 30th minute, a cross to Macario extended Stanford’s lead to 2-0 as she one-touched the ball past a diving Sabrina Davis.

Two goals in the final four minutes of the first half gave the Cardinal a dominant 4-0 advantage at the break. After one half, Stanford recorded 20 shots compared to the Cougars’ four.

The Cardinal scored their fifth goal in the 54th minute after the ball deflected into the back of the net.

In the 64th minute, Danika Serassio scored off a free kick as it hit the crossbar and bounced over the line to put BYU on the board and avoid a shutout.

On the game, Stanford racked up 33 shots while the Cougars tallied nine. In goal, Davis grabbed 10 saves.

The Cougars finished their record-breaking season with a 21-1-1 overall record in their 25th season as a program. BYU loses seven seniors but will be returning five of its starters for the 2020 season.

GAME NOTES

• The last time BYU trailed at halftime was in their only tie of the season at Santa Clara. The Broncos had a 2-1 lead at the break.
• The Cougars scored at least one goal in all 23 matches this season.
• Serassio’s fourth goal was the first goal scored on the Cardinal in the NCAA tournament.