Undefeated Cardinal Host No. 1 Northwestern in a Rematch 28 Years in the Making

Stanford field hockey returns home off a perfect road trip to face the top team in the country — on the exact date of the only home win the program has ever notched against the Wildcats.

Stanford field hockey is back at Varsity Turf tonight to host No. 1 Northwestern, and the timing carries some extra weight: the Cardinal's lone home win over the Wildcats in program history came on September 17, 1998, a 4-3 decision. Twenty-eight years later, to the day, Stanford gets another shot at home. Cancer Awareness Night is set for 6 p.m. PT.

Stanford arrives having done its part to earn this spot. The Cardinal swept a two-game trip through Massachusetts last week, beating Holy Cross 3-0 before grinding out a 4-1 win at Northeastern that included three fourth-quarter goals. That keeps Stanford at 6-0, one of just seven remaining unbeaten Division I teams and the best start of head coach Roz Ellis's tenure.

The production has been spread around. Star Horlock and Natalie Hoppe are tied for the team lead with nine points apiece, with Horlock's four game-winners this season leading the roster and Hoppe posting a five-point weekend against Holy Cross and Northeastern.

Jenny O'Grady and Ella Ganocy sit tied for second on the team with three goals each, and 12 different Cardinal have recorded a point through six games.

The bigger story defensively is Anya Jackson. The goalkeeper has started and finished every game this season, posting a career-high six wins, a .70 goals-against average and an .818 save percentage. She's allowed only two field goals all year and matched her career high with seven saves in the win over Holy Cross.

The challenge only gets tougher against a Northwestern side that has been just as impressive to start the season. The Wildcats enter the matchup ranked No. 1 nationally, giving Stanford its biggest test yet after six straight wins.

For the Cardinal, the opportunity is not only to protect an unbeaten record, but to measure their early-season progress against the standard of the sport.

None of that changes what the head-to-head record shows. Northwestern leads the all-time series 15-7 and has won the last four meetings, with Stanford's only other win in the series coming on the road in Ann Arbor, Michigan back in 2016.

A team that's controlled this matchup for a decade now walks into a building where the Cardinal have only ever beaten them once — on this exact date.