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NewsvineThe Cardinal’s loss to Illinois Sunday was the kind of defeat not soon forgotten. With every wrestler in Stanford’s lineup losing, the Cardinal need a win in the worst way. Even though those individual losses came against a talented fourth-ranked Illinois team, the after-effects of such a loss could have a drastic impact on the confidence and morale of the Stanford squad.
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But the Cardinal grapplers now find themselves with no time for looking back, as they plunge into their conference schedule this weekend.
On Friday, Stanford (3-3) is set to take on CSU Bakersfield (1-3, 1-1 Pacific 10 Conference) to open their Pac-10 schedule. And on Monday, the Cardinal face CSU Fullerton (1-9, 0-5) for their second conference dual meet of the season. Both matches will be at home for the Cardinal, and are scheduled for 7 p.m. in Burnham Pavilion.
With the two conference matches quickly approaching, it would be comforting if Stanford had achieved more success in its match against the Illini. But head coach Kerry McCoy deflated some of the importance of the staggering defeat when he spoke about the upcoming matches.
“Obviously the match [against Illinois] — and every match — counts,” McCoy said. “But it’s a different situation. That was a non-conference dual. This is one where we?re going to see these guys a couple of times this year. Illinois, we won?t see again until the national tournament.”
As for the mental effects of the 39-0 drubbing, McCoy stressed that his team would have to put the past behind them to prepare for future success.
“We dealt with the issues involved with the match and now it’s behind us,” McCoy said. “We can’t dwell on it any more. We can’t worry about the past; we have to move forward and just continue to get better.”
At 184 pounds, senior Ryan Hagen knows that some adjustments need to be made for the Cardinal to turn the team around.
“I think we need to be a lot quicker,” Hagen, a team captain, said. “They definitely came out a lot quicker. They were a lot bouncier on their feet. We need to be a little bit more aggressive and attack more.”
Whether or not an increased attack mentality would help the Cardinal, the familiarity of wrestling Pac-10 rivals should provide added motivation for a team looking to find its stride.
“You want to use that past experience,” McCoy said. “Not to rely on it exactly, but use it as motivation to do better the next time out. I know Bakersfield has a history with Stanford so we want to make sure to establish ourselves as a team to beat.”
But with Stanford starting such a young lineup (only two of nine wrestlers who faced Illinois were upperclassmen), there may not be much familiarity for the Cardinal to use to their advantage. Compounding that is the frequency of competition between now and the end of the season, illustrated by the short gap between the Cardinal’s next two matches. Hagen, though, doesn’t think that will be much of an issue.
“It doesn’t really affect our preparation that much,” Hagen said. “Really, when we were wrestling tournaments, guys might have seven matches in a couple of days. Now that we’re only facing one guy at a time, we can study film a little bit more.”
For the young Cardinal squad, the future is now. If the team wants to get in the habit of winning in the Pac-10, this weekend is the time to start.
“Our goal as a team this year is to become the dominant program in the west,” McCoy said. “So obviously when we’re wrestling our conference opponents we have to win...to establish ourselves. Overall we just want to go out and have a good strong performance and from there see what comes up.”