Teams: UC Davis vs. No. 17 Stanford
Records: Aggies, 1-1 (1-1); Cardinal, 3-1 (2-0)
Where: Aggie Stadium
When: Today at 7 p.m.
Who to watch: Midfielder Gina Hoffmire is coming off of her best game as an Aggie.
Hoffmire, a sophomore, went off on St. Mary’s on Sunday, lighting up Gaels keeper Hilary Gardner for four scores. The Aggies need Hoffmire to make her presence on the field known as they look to contend with a talented Stanford club.
Did you know? The Cardinal heads into Davis on top of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with a 2-0 record in conference play. Stanford is coming back from an East Coast swing where it went 1-1, beating Albany handedly before falling to powerhouse Syracuse.
Preview: Davis is riding high coming into tonight’s showdown under the lights at Aggie Stadium.
In Moraga, Calif. on Sunday, the Aggies staged a second-half comeback to beat the Gaels 14-13 in double overtime. Hoffmire scored the game-winner and added an assist.
“Gina was on fire,“ said coach Elaine Jones. “She was all over the place.“
Hoffmire’s impressive performance was nicely complimented by Christina Corsa and Molly Lapolla, who went for a hat trick and an assist apiece. Britt Farquharson scored and Patrice Clark added two more to give the Aggies the confidence-boosting win.
“As long as we win, I don’t care who scores,” Jones said. “It was close, but the bottom line is that we won the game.“
UC Davis will need its scoring by committee approach to fire on all cylinders to knock off Stanford tonight.
– John Heller
