Stanford women’s lacrosse avenged one of its two conference losses yesterday in an 11-8 win over Cal in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Tournament semifinals at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley. Tomorrow, the team will try to make up for its other loss when it takes on Denver in the finals.

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Stanford made up for one of its league losses by defeating archrival Cal in the MPSF semifinals yesterday. Tomorrow, the team gets another crack at Denver, the only other team that beat the Cardinal in the conference, in the finals. Stanford is trying to win its fourth straight MPSF title. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/9087
Jeff Keacher

Stanford made up for one of its league losses by defeating archrival Cal in the MPSF semifinals yesterday. Tomorrow, the team gets another crack at Denver, the only other team that beat the Cardinal in the conference, in the finals. Stanford is trying to win its fourth straight MPSF title.

Tied 4-4 at halftime, the Cardinal came out with two quick goals — one from sophomore attacker Claire Hubbard and the other from senior attacker Daphne Patterson — in the first five minutes of the second half to take a two-goal lead that it would not relinquish.

“It was good to get some revenge today,” said sophomore Dana Lindsay, who had a goal and assist in the team’s victory. “I think it was just a lot of fight from everybody. It wasn’t our prettiest game. With Cal being such a huge rivalry it’s always vicious. I think everyone stayed composed under all the pressure they threw at us.”

“It was just awesome,” said senior midfielder Megan McClain. “It was great for our team to come together and beat them on their home turf. It was a really emotional win. It’s great to beat Cal.”

Freshman midfield Karen Nesbitt was the star for the Cardinal yesterday, recording a hat trick. Sophomore midfield Julie Christy also had two goals to lead the Stanford attack.

“I think we’ve learned a lot over the course of the season,” said senior goalkeeper Laura Shane, who had 13 saves on the day. “We knew it was gonna be physical going into the game with our big rivals. We were more ready for that this time and just stayed tough the entire game.

Yesterday’s victory over the Golden Bears set the Cardinal up for tomorrow’s final against the Pioneers. A possible NCAA berth will be on the line; if Stanford wins, it will have a shot at qualifying for the NCAA Tournament through an at-large bid. That said, a win does not guarantee a berth — the primary concern of the team is winning the conference for the fourth year in a row.

“In terms of [the] MPSF [Tournament], it would just be so great to win it again this year,” Lindsay said. “The seniors have won it the past three years so it would be nice for them to go out with a kind of dynasty in the conference . . . It would really be nice to keep the conference in our name.”

“Winning MPSF four years in a row would be something really nice for us to go out on,” Shane added. “It’s always our goal to be best in the west so that would definitely be nice. Making the NCAA Tournament would be a huge step for us but we’re gonna worry about Denver first.”

The No. 17 Pioneers certainly won’t be an easy opponent. Denver had little trouble with Oregon yesterday, putting up 18 goals on the Ducks in the team’s 18-12 victory. The team is 13-5 on the season and went undefeated in conference play. The Cardinal and Pioneers clashed nearly two weeks ago on April 20, and despite Stanford jumping out to a 4-0 lead, it was Denver who went on to win the game, 13-9.

“We are really looking forward to avenging that loss,” McClain said. “They are a very aggressive team so we’re gonna have to hold our own and fight back. We just need to go strong for a whole 60 minutes.”

“Denver’s a great team, they’re very athletic,” Lindsay said. “If we can keep the tempo in our favor and just play composed lacrosse then we should be great.”

Tomorrow’s match-up with Denver will take place at 1 p.m. at Cal’s Memorial Stadium.

Win or lose, however, the Cardinal women were able to reflect on a season that has been filled with ups and downs. Wins over Penn (now ranked No. 1 in the country) and Notre Dame have been the highlights, although the team has struggled at times.

“We definitely had some rough stretches of the season but in the past few games we’ve gotten to playing to how we know we can,” said Shane, who might be playing in her final collegiate game this Saturday. “We’re just looking to finish strong at [the] MPSF [Championships].”