By JACK SALISBURY

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Arnav Moudgil

Junior midfielder Hillary Braun and the Stanford field hockey team clinched the NorPac title with the team’s first victory over Cal since 2001 and will now play Lock Haven for the 16th berth in the NCAA Tournament, which would be Stanford’s first in seven years.

MANAGING EDITOR

Solidifying its best season in years, Stanford field hockey won the NorPac Tournament Championship this past Saturday with a 3-1 win over archrival Cal, a team which had not lost to Stanford since 2001. The Cardinal won its first conference title in seven years and will now compete in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in as many years.

The win qualified the team for a play-in game against Northeast Conference champion Lock Haven; the match will be played today at 11 a.m. on Stanford’s home field and will determine which school goes on to the 16-team NCAA Tournament.

With Saturday’s win over Cal, the Cardinal improved its record to 12-7 overall.

After dropping behind 1-0 in the 16th minute, Stanford answered with a goal in the next two minutes and never looked back, scoring in the 22nd minute on a goal by freshman Xanthe Travlos and securing the game with a score by senior Jess Zutz in the 66th. For her efforts over the course of the tournament, junior Bailey Richardson was named the competition’s Most Valuable Player.

“I’m just so proud of our team,” head coach Lesley Irvine told GoStanford.com. “Throughout the year, we felt we had the ability to knock off great teams like California. Today everything just came together. All 11 players were firing on all cylinders, and that was great to see in a pressure situation.”

“We played with so much passion and heart today. There was no way we were going to lose,” Travlos said to GoStanford.com.

With a conference championship now under their belts, the Stanford players face an even bigger task as they take the field today — making a run in the NCAA Tournament. However, Stanford will not make it to the round of 16 without a win against Lock Haven today.

Lock Haven comes into this afternoon’s must-win game with a lofty record of 17-5 overall and 7-0 in conference. They have won their last nine games on the year and were champions of the Northeast Conference.

That said, today’s outcome will do little to change the remarkable season that the Cardinal has had under fifth-year coach Lesley Irvine. Irvine was named the Coach of the Year in the NorPac, and it seems as if the program — which had not had a winning season in six years — has finally righted the ship.

As Travlos said to GoStanford.com, “This is the start of something new and very big.”