Sports Shorts
ON THE AIR Friday Women’s basketball: Stanford vs. Baylor, 4:30 p.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM) Prep football: Sequoia at MenloAtherton, 7 p.m.; KCEA (89.1 FM)
Saturday College football: Stanford at Oregon, 5 p.m., ABC (7); KNBR (1050 AM); KZSU (90.1 FM) Women’s basketball: Stanford at Hawaii, 9 p.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM)
Sunday
Wednesday Women’s volleyball: Colorado at Stanford, 8 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks
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Plenty is riding on outcome of Pac-12 showdown by Rick Eymer
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tanford football coach David Shaw’s eyes are blurry after watching hours of tape on Oregon. Even after all of that, he’s still has more questions than answers. How do you stop the top-ranked Ducks powerful, lightening-fast offense? “I have no idea,” Shaw said. “We talk about slowing everybody down. There’s no stopping them. You always know they will spring a couple on you. When the defense does slow them down, we have to score. You’re not holding them down all the time.” It’s an interesting matchup, with No. 14 Stanford (6-1, 8-2) entering the game with the NCAA’s top rushing defensive (58.6) team going up against the nation’s third-best rushing offensive (325.1) team. The Ducks (7-0, 10-0) average 54.8 points a game while the Cardinal allows just 17.2 points a game. There’s a lot riding on the game, the least of which is the winner will likely represent the North Division and host the Pac-12 championship game against the South Division. If Oregon wins, it clinches the berth. If Stanford wins, the Cardinal will still have to beat UCLA, on the road, in the regular-season finale. Stanford doesn’t have to win to
Stanford defenders (L-R) Shayne Skov, Josh Mauro and David Yankey will be among those responsible for slowing down Oregon’s high-powered offense on Saturday in a Pac-12 game wit bowl-game and title-game ramifications.
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NCAA SOCCER
CCS FOOTBALL
Stanford, SCU women renew their rivalry
It’s a first for Paly-Serra in postseason
by Rick Eymer
by Keith Peters alo Alto has enjoyed its fair share of success against West Catholic Athletic League teams the Central Coast Section football playoffs. The Vikings hold wins over Bellarmine, Valley Christian and St. Francis and are 5-4 against the WCAL all-time in the postseason. One team Palo Alto has never beaten in the playoffs is Serra. The obvious reason for that is the two have never faced each other outside the regular season. The Padres beat the Vikings in 1973 (42-21) and 1974 (34-6) and Paly holds a 62-0 triumph in 1947. Fourth-seeded Palo Alto and No. 5 seed Serra, however, will meet for the first time in the postseason on Friday night in the first round of the CCS Open Division playoffs on the Vikings’ field. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
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n Northern California, there is no better rivalry in women’s college soccer than Stanford and Santa Clara. Friday night, the teams will meet for the ninth time in the NCAA tournament. The 17th-ranked Broncos (123-6) own a national title just as top-ranked Stanford (18-1-1) is the defending national champion. They will meet, in a second-round match of the NCAA tournament, at 7 p.m., at Stanford for anther chance to add another. The Cardinal may have had the upper hand in recent years, winning the past seven consecutive meetings, but it’s been anything but easy. And forget that season-opening 6-1 victory over Santa Clara. The teams have four common opponents. Stanford went 4-0 against California, Boston University, (continued on next page)
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Grant Shorin/THE VIKING
Men’s basketball: Belmont at Stanford, 6 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks; KNBR (1050 AM) Women’s basketball: Stanford vs. Tennessee-Martin, 7 p.m.; KZSU (90.1 FM)
Slowing the Ducks is crucial
Bob Drebin/stanfordphoto.com
GOING TO NATIONALS . . . The Menlo College women’s volleyball team will take a 14-match winning streak into the NAIA National Championships this weekend in Caldwell, Idaho, where the Oaks will face No. 14-ranked College of Idaho on Saturday afternoon. The Coyotes (21-6), who were 13-1 at home, were the Cascade Conference regular season and postseason tournament champions, slipping past Eastern Oregon University in three sets this past Saturday to claim the tournament crown. Menlo (17-6) earned its ticket to the national tournament with a three-set sweep of Embry-Riddle on Saturday in Atherton to take home the California Pacific Conference Tournament championship. Menlo enters the opening match having not lost since Sept. 13. Up two sets to none in the conference playoff finals and leading 21-19 in Game 3, Menlo’s Stephenie Monderine set Nicole Yap, who rose atop the net and let one loose. The ball ricocheted off of Embry-Riddle’s defensive efforts and, just like that, Menlo was on its way to the NAIA Tournament. The top-seeded Oaks toppled the No. 2 Eagles, 25-13, 25-22, 25-23. The Oaks took nothing to chance in their three-set sweep. Menlo trailed 19-18 but, thanks to a Courtney Calicdan kill and ace, an attack error by Riddle, and a Stephanie Wertz kill, the Oaks took a 22-19 advantage. The Eagles rallied with two of their own to trim the Menlo lead to one, before making an attack error to pad the Oaks’ lead to 23-21. Menlo then made an error of its own, before two Yap kills, with a Mahlet Lee kill sandwiched in the middle, gave the Oaks the set and the match. “I was overwhelmed with emotion,” Menlo head coach Daniel Rasay said on capturing his first conference crown since joining the Oaks in 2010. “Every season you go through your ups and downs with injuries, emotions, and all of those kinds of things. To endure it though and come through to win a championship makes all those emotions come back to you, and to see the look on the girls’ faces is awesome.”
STANFORD FOOTBALL
Palo Alto junior quarterback Keller Chryst, who accounted for five TDs last week, leads the Vikings against Serra in a CCS opener Friday.
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