Stanford University’s women’s field hockey team, seeded seventh, is set to compete against the second-seeded Virginia Cavaliers in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Tournament Quarterfinals. The match will take place at Louisville’s Trager Stadium on Tuesday, November 4, with play beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Stanford concluded its regular season with a 3-1 loss to California in Berkeley. During that game, Natalie Hoppe scored her fourth goal of the season early in the second quarter, giving Stanford an initial lead. Cal equalized before halftime and secured two more goals in the final period.
Hoppe leads Stanford this season in both points and goals as a freshman, posting four goals and two assists for a total of ten points. Four other players—Chantal Eiwanger, Gemma Townsend, Kate Nemec, and Nadine Brenninkmeyer—are tied with three goals each. Six players share the team lead for assists, including Anna Ghuliani who assisted on Hoppe’s goal against Cal. Overall, 16 players have contributed points this season while 13 have scored goals.
On defense, Scout Butler has logged the most minutes for Stanford and is one of two players to start every game along with Mia Clark. Cara Sambeth ranks second in minutes played. Clark and freshman Summer Knight-Thompson have each recorded a defensive save this year.
In goalkeeping duties, Daisy Ford and Anya Jackson split time during the recent loss to Cal. Ford has made 11 starts with a 2.13 goals-against average and .667 save percentage; she also has Stanford’s only individual shutout this season. Jackson holds a slightly better goals-against average at 1.87 across four starts. Kendall Dowd made her second appearance during a win over UC Davis earlier this year.
This season, Stanford faced nine ranked opponents—including five from the top five—across thirteen games, marking their toughest schedule since facing eleven Top-25 teams in 2019.
Chantal Eiwanger recently notched her first multi-goal collegiate game against Davidson and became only the third Cardinal player this year to do so; Nadine Brenninkmeyer and Liv Martin previously achieved multi-goal performances in a win over Ball State on September 4th.
Defensively, Stanford allowed zero shots by UC Davis earlier this season—the fewest since holding UC Davis to just one shot (none on target) in September 2022.
As Stanford prepares for its fifth top-five matchup of the year against Virginia according to last week’s rankings, Head Coach Roz Ellis said: “Having qualified for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Field Hockey Tournament for a second-consecutive season, Stanford field hockey is back in action on Tuesday.”
The Cardinal will look to advance further into postseason play following consecutive ACC tournament qualifications.
