PALO ALTO, Calif. - Junior goalkeeper Erin Guthrie (Sparta, N.J.) tied her career-high with 10 saves, but it wasn’t enough as Rutgers (13-7-2) fell to No. 5 Stanford (21-1-1) 1-0, Friday night in Palo Alto, Calif. The Scarlet Knights are 0-2 all-time in Sweet Sixteen matches.

 

“Stanford is an outstanding team and I congratulate them on the victory,” said head coach Glenn Crooks. “I know [Cardinal head coach] Paul [Ratcliffe] and his staff very well and I have nothing but respect for them. As far as our girls go, this has been an unbelievable year for us. The week leading into this game was very difficult to prepare for. We couldn’t have a normal training session because we didn’t have enough bodies to train. We had four players who didn’t practice all week because of injuries.

 

“Stanford played a great game but we have a bunch of warriors here who put a lot on the line tonight. It’s been that way all season, tonight we just couldn’t survive what was a great deal of pressure. Our organization defensively and our ability to negate some of their closer opportunities, everyone was involved with that.”

 

After holding the fourth-ranked scoring offense scoreless in their second round match against Oklahoma State, the Scarlet Knights faced the fifth-ranked scoring team in the nation in Stanford. The Cardinals, averaging over three goals a game, put the pressure on Rutgers from the opening tip. At the end of the first half, Stanford had taken 10 shots to RU’s one, but thanks to missed attempts and a stiff RU defense, the two teams went into halftime in a scoreless tie.

 

The Cardinal turned up their offense in the second half, taking 16 shots in the period. But Guthrie recorded eight saves and the RU defense held strong, keeping Stanford off the scoreboard. Five minutes into the stanza Camille Levin sent a cross to Christen Press on the left side of the goal, but her point-blank header was stopped by Guthrie. In the 63^rd minute, the home team scored an apparent goal off a corner kick, but the tally was waved away by a goalkeeper interference call.

 

Finally, with 4:46 to play in regulation, Press crossed to the left side of the goal and Kelley O’Hara scored her 13^th goal of the season to give the Cardinal a 1-0 lead. They held off a furious attack by Rutgers in the final minutes to win the game and advance to the Elite Eight.

 

“It was a great season for us,” said Crooks. “We are not happy with the loss but I am very proud of what we accomplished.”

 

Four seniors played in their final contest as Scarlet Knights: Kristen Edmonds (Metuchen, N.J.), Alicia Hall (Port Republic, N.J.), Nina Montero (Vineland, N.J.) and Courtney Roarty (Edison, N.J.).

 

Rutgers fell to 0-2 all-time in Sweet Sixteen matches. RU fell at North Carolina 2-1 in 2001.

 

In their last two games the Scarlet Knights limited the fourth and fifth-ranked scoring offenses to a combined one goal. RU shut out Oklahoma State, the fourth-ranked scoring offense, in their NCAA Second Round match, and held the fifth-ranked scoring Cardinal to one tally.

 

RU played in its 12^th 1-0 match of 2008. The Scarlet Knights finished the season 6-6 in games that ended with a 1-0 score.

 

Rutgers finished 2008 with six road victories, its highest single-season total since recording seven victories on the road in 1986.

 

The one goal for Stanford marks its lowest scoring output in a win in 2008. Its previous lowest score in a win was 2-0, set three times, most recently against UC Santa Barbara in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

 

Junior goalkeeper Erin Guthrie (Sparta, N.J.) tied her career-high with 10 saves against the Cardinal. She also recorded 10 stops in RU’s 1-0 win at Dayton on Sept. 14.

 

Guthrie finished the season with a career-high 87 saves. Her previous high was 68, set in 2006 and 2007. She finishes 2008 in sixth-place on Rutgers all-time saves list with 223, nine away from tying Kate Macfarlane (232) for fifth-place.

 

Guthrie recorded a save percentage of 0.861 in 2008, a career-high and the ninth-best single-season save percentage in RU history. She also set the 11^th best single-season save percentage total in 2006, with 0.85. Guthrie ranks fifth all-time on RU’s save percentage list with a mark of 0.814 in her career.

 

Guthrie finished 2008 with a goals-against average of 0.621, the fifth-best single-season total in RU history. In 2006 she recorded the second best goals-against average in school history, with a mark of 0.508. The junior stands in third-place on Rutgers’ all-time GAA list with a career mark of 0.749.

 

Guthrie played 2,030 minutes in 2008, surpassing her 2007 total (1,963) for a new third-best single-season total in RU history. She remains in second-place on RU’s all-time minutes played list with 6,127 career minutes, trailing Saskia Webber (7,401).

 

 

Rutgers head coach Glenn Crooks:

 

“Stanford is an outstanding team and I congratulate them on the victory. I know Paul and his staff very well and I have nothing but respect for them. As far as our girls go, this has been an unbelievable year for us. The week leading into this game was very difficult to prepare for because we couldn’t have a normal training session because we didn’t have enough bodies to train. Alicia Hall (Port Republic, N.J.), Kristen Edmonds (Metuchen, N.J.), Ashley Jones (Feasterville, Pa.) and Jenifer Anzivino (Middletown, N.J.) haven’t practiced all week because they’ve had one leg. The thing that I want to emphasize with my team is that Stanford played a great game but we have a bunch of warriors here who put a lot on the line tonight. It’s been that way all season, tonight we just couldn’t survive what was a great deal of pressure. Our organization defensively and our ability to negate some of their closer opportunities, everyone was involved with that. It was a great season with us, we’re not happy with the loss but I’m very proud of what we accomplished.”

 

“Two of our starting forwards were around 60, 70 or 75 percent. We had hoped to be able to run behind their back four a little more often, but I think the injuries played a major role in that.”

 

“Stanford certainly had something to do with that, but I think we can play better as well. We didn’t have a chance to get into any kind of rhythm in training because we didn’t have the bodies to do it. What effect that had I’m not sure, but we are a rhythm team and we didn’t keep the ball as well as we can, and Stanford had something to do with that as well.”

 

“We wanted to make sure that when we got the ball we generated an attack. We saw a lot of teams that were so worried about defending them that they don’t get involved in their attack, and I think that happened to us a little bit tonight. They are very good.”

 

“There’s a certain point where you’re saying let’s get to the end of the game and we’ll regroup. They were putting a lot of pressure on us, we had players out there who probably needed a bit of a five minute break would help us to gather ourselves physically and tactically.”

 

“It was a great finish. There were certain things we could have done to prevent it, but they put a lot of pressure on us. We played great, defended great for the most part.”

Rutgers senior midfielder Alicia Hall (Port Republic, N.J.):

 

“I would say this was probably the best team we’ve played this year, putting Notre Dame and Portland there as well. I wish Stanford all the best.”

 

Rutgers junior goalkeeper Erin Guthrie (Sparta, N.J.):

 

“This offense does not stop running. I think a big thing they did that I’ve never seen is the way they combine around people. I think we have one of the best defenses in the country and the way they can combine and get in, I’ve never seen it before. I would be shocked if someone can stop this team.”

 

“They attacked with so much speed and numbers, you think you have a breather when you clear the ball but they are right down your throat again. But we held them for 86 minutes and I think that says volumes about this team, especially under the circumstances that we were in. Like Coach said, we wanted to conquer the world, we thought we could, but we fell four minutes from doing that.”

 

“I just had a feeling that we were going to do it. I felt like they hadn’t scored on us, but then with four minutes they put in a goal like that.”

 

Rutgers sophomore back Rheanne Sleiman (Vancouver, Canada):

 

“Stanford is a very good offensive team. For the full 90 minutes you have to be on your toes, you can’t take a second to do anything, because they are coming at you all the time, combining around you. I would say they are probably the best offensive team we have faced.”

 

“I feel as though we are physical most of the time. We tackle and we block shots, and we try not to allow any opportunities. I would say we were physical tonight, just like most other games.”