By: Joe Lami

STANFORD, Calif.—Hall of Fame coach, Tara VanDerveer earned her 800th victory at Stanford on Saturday night, as her Cardinal defeated Cal State Northridge 73-60 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.  It’s only the tenth time in NCAA history where a coach has accomplished the feat of coaching one team to 800 wins.  The win also marked the 500th at Maples Pavilion. “This was an exciting one, one to remember,” mentioned VanDerveer post game.

The Cardinal came out of the gates on fire, going on an 8-0 run to start the game.  Their lead was as high as 13 with 11:48 to play in the first half, but then Northridge stormed back.  The Matadors were able to string together an 18-2 run to eventually take the lead into halftime 29-28.

However, strong shooting and tenacious defense in the second half helped the Cardinal prevail.  Stanford shot an outstanding 59%, while holding Northridge to only 39%.  Much was in thanks to a Matadors scoreless streak that lasted 7:10, which helped the Cardinal eventually make a comeback and bullhead by 14, their largest of the game. Stanford was then able to cruise to victory, getting help from the foul line, where they finished 19 of 25.

Northridge senior, Ashlee Guay, led all scorers with 27 points, finishing 41% from the field.  However, she was really the only one to get things going for the Matadors, as the next closest soccer was Camille Mahlknecht finishing with eight.  All eight of Mahlknecht’s points came in the first half. 

Taylor Greenfield was once again the difference maker for the Cardinal, leading the team with 19 points.  She has been on fire of late, scoring 56 points in the last three games.  This was after she was scoring an average of 4.6 per game.  Part of her great play of late she references to tournament play, “part of it is the excitement of the tournament,” explains Greenfield. She later added, “I don’t think it was the game of my life, but since ASU it’s been repetitive”.  Her reference to the ASU game was where she put up 17 points in the semi-final of the Pac-12 tournament.

CSUN head coach, Jason Flowers commented on Greenfield’s play after saying, “she was a tough matchup offensively.  She became the difference maker on the floor”.

The Cardinal were led by three other players to get into double figures.  Lili Thompson soon followed Greenfield, finishing with 17 points.  Bonnie Samuelson was lights out from three-point territory hitting three of four to finish with 14 points.  She also played all 40 minutes for the first time in her career.  Capping off the double digit scorers was Erica McCall with ten.

The Cardinal advance to take on the Oklahoma Sooners on Monday.  Oklahoma was victorious in an impressive victory 111-84 over Quinnipiac in the first game played at Maples on Saturday afternoon.  VanDerveer commented on the Sooners play, “They’re very well balanced”.  That they are, as six players scored double figures, three of which scored more than 15.