No. 1 Stanford Continues Opening Match Streak Against Cal Poly, But Questions Persist

· Yahoo Sports

Stanford women's soccer hasn't lost an opening match since 2006, and on Sunday that streak continued with a 1-0 win over Cal Poly. The Cardinal's win also extended a streak of shutting out their opponents in opening matches to six straight. 

The Stanford goal came from junior captain Charlotte Kohler, who is expected to be one of the program's top goal scorers this season. 

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The goal came in the 33rd minute off a goal kick that Kohler intercepted. She ran down the pitch and parked it into the right side of the Mustangs' net with her left foot. It was a beautiful first goal of the season for not only Kohler, but the Cardinal. 

The junior midfielder would take seven shots in the game, three on goal, and put pressure on Cal Poly goaltender Shannon Porubski all afternoon. Porubski also made a tremendous save on a Kohler shot earlier in the game when Kohler tried to sneak one in near post. 

Stanford held possession for most of the match, and controlled the game overall, thanks to the defensive work put in by junior Sammy Smith, junior Lizzie Boamah, and freshman London Young — all of whom played all 90 minutes. 

In addition to Young, Ella Krall also started for Stanford, going 82 minutes for the Cardinal and notching three shots. Freshmen Peyton Marinos (8 minutes), Sadie Leal-Schuman (46 minutes), and Ale Munneke (36 minutes) all made their regular season debuts. Munneke scored for Stanford in the program's lone preseason warmup last week. 

Takeaways

The big question this season is where Stanford's goals will come from. After leading the nation with 96 goals scored last season, the Cardinal are now without their top two scorers in Jasmine Aikey and Andrea Kitahata, who combined for 38 of those goals, or 40% of Stanford's scoring. 

Kohler ranked third on the team last season with 12 goals.

Stanford finished with 17 shots against Cal Poly, five on goal. They also only managed one goal in the match. The Cardinal will need to convert at a higher rate this season to ultimately chase a national championship. 

At the same time, the defense was tremendous, limiting Cal Poly to four shots (two on goal) and facing no real threats until the final two minutes of the game when Cal Poly was scrambling. 

Stanford will head back to The Farm to take on Georgetown on Thursday, August 20 at 4:00 p.m.

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