The Stanford University Cardinal had to beat New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, last Sunday just to qualify for the six-team America East Tournament. They did just that, 3-0, after losing to the University of Maine 4-2 two days earlier.
Now the fifth-seeded Cardinal are just one win away from a fifth league tournament championship in seven seasons after parlaying a masterful defensive performance and a hat trick from junior forward Haley Mossmer into an impressive 3-1 victory over top seed UMaine in their semifinal on Friday afternoon at the UMaine field hockey complex.
Stanford, now 10-8, will take on the winner of the Albany-New Hampshire game in Sunday’s noon title game in Orono.
Defending champ UMaine, ranked No. 23 in the country, concluded a 14-5 campaign and absorbed just its second loss in its last 15 games.
UMaine had entered the game averaging 3.56 goals per game, third best in the country.
Stanford has now won the last three playoff meetings against the Black Bears.
It was the first hat trick in an America East playoff game in Stanford program history as Mossmer scored her goals in the second, third and fourth quarters before UMaine’s Poppy Lambert broke the school record with her 22nd of the season just 22 seconds from the final whistle.
The Cardinal swarmed the ball and they made it very difficult for UMaine to get into the circle by intercepting Black Bear passes and making crisp passes in their defensive third to launch counter-attacks.
They played their passing and possession game to near-perfection.
The Stanford back line of Molly Redgrove, Isabelle Pilson and Cara Sambeth turned in a brilliant performance and freshman goalkeepers Daisy Ford (first half) and Kendall Dowd (second half) were solid, combining for five saves on 10 UMaine shot attempts.
Stanford coach Roz Ellis said Redgrove, Pilson and Sambeth are “our bloodline.”
UMaine coach Josette Babineau said Stanford’s defensive effort was exceptional.
“Even when we got the opportunity to go forward, it was like we were in a constant battle the whole game. There wasn’t a lot of space to utilize our skills to get through them,” Babineau said.
“We knew their biggest strengths were their counter-attacks and penalty corners,” said senior Redgrove, who is from Sudbury, England. “They scored [two goals] off penalty corners the last time we played them. We knew we had to close them down and not let them inside the circle.”
UMaine had beaten Stanford 4-2 a week ago.
Stanford limited UMaine to four penalty corners, all in the second half.
Lambert scored on the fourth corner with a blast from just inside the circle off a Julia Ross pass and Madisyn Hartley stick stop.
“This feels so good,” said Mossmer, who is from LaJolla, California. “We came out ready to play. We had that ‘refuse to lose’ mentality. We’ve been out here for over a week and we aren’t leaving without an America East championship.”
Mossmer, who scored with 1:46 left to beat Vermont 2-1 in Thursday’s quarterfinal, opened the scoring at the 19:54 mark off a Redgrove pass.
Redgrove had to handle a waist-high pass from a teammate and did so by directing it to Mossmer at the far post.
“It was a reverse tip with my left hand. Molly is the center back and I was thinking ‘What is she doing up in the circle?” Mossmer said. “We have a real good connection so I got low on the back post and she got it to me.”
Mossmer’s next two goals were assisted by Lynn Vanderstichele.
Moments after a UMaine penalty corner, a long aerial pass was chased down by Vanderstichele, who pushed the ball ahead to Mossmer, who was cutting left to right inside the circle.
“I knew I had to swing on it because the [goalkeeper Mia Borley] was coming close so I went for it,” said Mossmer, who spun around and shot it in one motion. It skipped past the outstretched right foot of Borley.
She made it 3-0 7:05 later when she was left alone at the far post and tipped a perfect pass from Vanderstichele into the empty net for her 11th goal of the season and seventh in her last six games.
“I told [Mossmer] how she has grown from last year and asked her to ignite it and display it on the biggest stage. And she is doing it,” Ellis said.
Borley finished with one save on nine shot attempts.
“They caught us today. It is what it is,” said Borley, the 2021 America East Goalkeeper of the Year who concluded a superb career. “They played a great game. It was their day, not ours.”
