Stanford women’s soccer recorded its sixth and seventh shutouts of the season this weekend, holding off UC Irvine 2-0 Friday, and San Diego State 4-0 yesterday.

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Mae Ryan

Freshman Kelly O’Hara and the Cardinal have recorded seven shutouts this season after beating UC-Irvine 2-0 on Friday and San Diego State 2-0 yesterday.

Stanford (7-3-0) set the tone for the weekend in their match against the Anteaters (2-6-0), turning in a dominating performance. Friday’s match included a season-high 27 shots, with four in just the first ten minutes. Stanford controlled the entire first half, leading 20-0 in shots. Still, the game remained scoreless going into the break.

“We took more shots this weekend than all of last season,” joked sophomore forward Hillary Heath.

The opening of the second half started with a shot by Heath within the first 30 seconds, but the ball slipped over the net. In the next ten minutes, freshman Kelley O’Hara finally put Stanford on the scoreboard with her third collegiate goal, assisted by sophomore midfielder Lizzy George. The goal was the eighth this year by a Cardinal freshman.

Stanford’s second goal came less than ten minutes later when Heath passed to senior midfielder Shari Summers on the left, who then scored off the right goal post.

Summers came back strong again yesterday to put two unassisted goals on the scoreboard against San Diego State. The Cardinal out-shot the Aztecs 14-2 at the close of the first half, and led on the scoreboard 2-0. Both teams struggled in the beginning of the second half, with only one shot in over 20 minutes. Sophomore midfielder Lea MacKinnon put an end to the dry spell and recorded her first Stanford career goal. Freshman midfielder Kristin Stannard scored the final of four goals less than 30 seconds after the restart.

Sophomore goalkeeper Alex Gamble marked her fourth shutout of the season with two saves. The Cardinal have won seven of their last eight games heading into a critical matchup against No. 5 Santa Clara.

Head coach Paul Ratcliffe was pleased with the Cardinal’s persistence over the weekend, but is looking ahead to next week’s challenge.

“Our opponents were tough teams, but we were able to hold them off with our level of play,” Ratcliffe said. “The real test will be next weekend against Santa Clara.”

The Cardinal face the Broncos Sept. 30 at Buck Shaw Stadium.

“We need to start finishing and put teams away earlier,” Heath said. “Santa Clara will be the toughest team we played so far, but we’ve been doing really well this season.”