After an unfortunate loss to Cal on Friday, the No. 20 Stanford field hockey team bounced back against the University of Pacific on Sunday with a dramatic 2-1 victory. The win was not assured until a final goal in the 51st minute by senior Jess Zutz, who pushed her team-leading goal tally to eight on the season.

Although the Cardinal had already defeated Pacific 4-2 in early September, this match was a little tougher for the team, as it was played on an unfamiliar surface on the Pacific campus.

“The game was played on grass, something we’re generally not used to,” Zutz explained. “Grass is so unpredictable. It’s basically a lot more uncontrolled than turf.”

The match against Pacific marked the one and only time that the Cardinal will see such a surface this year, but it was a good test for the team.

“It took a lot of heart to go and beat them on grass,” Zutz said.

Coach Leslie Irvine was also encouraged by what she saw in Sunday’s victory against Pacific.

“They were a hard team to play at their home,” she said. “It showed good character to bounce back from the loss [to Cal] on Friday.”

The win against Pacific improved the Cardinal’s record to 7-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play. Stanford is in second place in the NorPac conference behind Cal, which has yet to lose a game.

NorPac consists of seven teams: Stanford, Cal, Pacific, Bradford, Davidson, Appalachian State and Longwood. With more geographic diversity than most conferences, the league forces its competitors to often travel across the country for even conference games.

Two days before the Pacific game, the Cardinal dropped a non-league match to rival Cal. The Golden Bears pulled away in Stanford’s first home match in nearly a month, winning by the final score of 4-1.

“We were disappointed with the outcome against Cal,” Irvine said. “We felt like we dominated a large portion of the second half, but we set ourselves up for an uphill battle [by falling behind].”

It was the second loss of the season for Stanford; both losses have come against the archrival Bears.

Despite the team’s misses against Cal, the women are ranked higher than they’ve been in years, coming in at No. 20 in the national poll. And the team has a lot to look forward to — there are only two seniors on the squad. The Cardinal has a youthful roster, boasting only four juniors alongside nine sophomores and seven freshmen.

“This is by far the strongest team I’ve ever been a part of at Stanford,” Zutz said. “This is by far the strongest team I’ve ever been a part of, period. We have some really good players.

“We’re able to attract field hockey players who are also smart people, not smart people who happen to be field hockey players. We’re incredibly quick and what’s really fortunate is that we’re very young.”

The Cardinal will be off for two weeks before taking on Northwestern at home. After that, a non-conference schedule with matches against the likes of Wake Forest, Louisville, Georgetown and Michigan awaits.

“We’re really excited,” Irvine said. “It’s going to give us a chance to establish ourselves out of conference.”

Looming even deeper on Stanford’s schedule is the NorPac tournament which will take place during the first week of November. Stanford will play host to the competition, which will decide the NorPac’s representative for the NCAA Tournament.

“We’re really excited about that,” Irvine said. “It’s a great opportunity for us. We have some great talent and I’m excited.”