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While Syracuse barely clung to its 2-1 lead over Stanford with less than 10 minutes to go, defender Bo van Kempen looked up.

Heading for her was Stanford defender Mia Clark’s top corner shot, already past goalkeeper Tane King, ready to tear through the back of the net. Pure instinct kicked in as van Kempen hoisted her hands and blocked the ball in its path as it met the head of her stick. The deflected ball popped over 30 feet in the air, and van Kempen waited for its return.

Once it fell back, the Dutch defender quickly, yet calmly, knocked it out of play, ensuring Stanford was no longer a threat.

On Friday, No. 5 Syracuse (10-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) and Stanford (4-7, 1-4 ACC) were inseparable across the board — dead even with four shots on goal and four penalty corners each. Yet fine margins, like the inches on van Kempen’s stick that denied Stanford’s best look of the fourth period, pushed the Orange to a narrow 2-1 victory over the Cardinal.

Stanford has mounted two-goal comebacks in the fourth period before, namely in its first and only win over the Orange in 2019. But Syracuse’s van Kempen-led defense controlled the backfield throughout the match and refused to let the scoreline fall out of its favor.

“We put ourselves in some defensive scramble,” head coach Lynn Farquhar said. “For (van Kempen) to come up big on that line and protect Tane’s back, that was huge.”

Syracuse started out strong. Just five minutes after the starting center pass, the Orange won a penalty corner after a foot foul in the Stanford arc.

Defender Danique Schuurman’s shot deflected off Stanford goalkeeper Daisy Ford, falling at the top of the arc and into the stick of midfielder Bo Madden. Through traffic in the arc, she found her twin sister — forward Hattie Madden — right in front of the net. In prime scoring position, Hattie reached out and cleverly deflected the ball between Ford’s legs to open the scoring.

“I saw my twin sister Bo wind up on the reverse, and I was like, ‘I’m just going to get in there and see what happens,’” Hattie said. “Then, she found me.”

Despite the 1-0 lead, the two sides evened out after Hattie’s goal. The initially Syracuse-dominated match turned into a back-and-forth affair of counterattacks and turnovers for both sides.

Following Hattie’s early goal five minutes in, neither team recorded a shot on goal for half an hour.

After a foot foul was called on defender Lotti Knights during a 35th-minute scramble in the shooting arc, the Cardinal were awarded a penalty corner. Stanford midfielder Natalie Hoppe found Clark at the edge of the box. In one motion, Clark flicked it into the bottom left corner, sending Syracuse’s goalkeeper the wrong way and scoring her first-career goal to tie the game.

With their lead gone, Farquhar changed their pressing shape.

“We wanted to make sure our defensive lines were a bit sturdier to settle in and make sure we kept it on their side of the field,” Farquhar said.

The change worked. Within two minutes of losing their lead to Clark’s strike, the Orange won a penalty corner.

It was a familiar routine for the Orange after that. Midfielder Pati Strunk inserted and midfielder Lana Hamilton trapped. But instead of van Kempen looking for her 19th goal of the season, it was Schuurman who converted the attempt. Her shot slipped past Stanford goalkeeper Anya Jackson, whose outstretched foot gave Schuurman only a few inches between the post and the keeper.

“There’s a ton of players that we have that can be dangerous,” Farquhar said. “So we need to make sure that we’re trading them all.”

Stanford was down but not out. The Cardinal mounted another offensive push as the fourth period came to a close, while Syracuse sat back to defend.

Van Kempen had to save Clark’s attempt at the top right corner of the net. Then, Stanford midfielder Jenny O’Grady forced the best out of King, as her deflected shot made SU’s goalkeeper dive out for a save.

Finally, with less than a minute left in the match, a Clark-thrown ball that threaded the entire Syracuse squad gave Stanford forward Maroussia Walckiers an open shot on goal. Yet, van Kempen was there again to stifle the opportunity.

“It was pretty tense, Stanford did a good job of making it quite chaotic,” Hattie said. “But I think we held our own, we dropped our press back and did the best (that) we could.”

For Farquhar, it was how the team held its lead through the end that impressed her most.

“Managing the emotional tempo, the ups and downs, is a part of the game as well,” Farquhar said. “For us to be able to bounce back and go back to the style of hockey that we want to play, against an opponent that plays a very different style of hockey, is something I do give our group credit for.”

Published on October 11, 2025 at 12:23 am
Contact Peter: peterhradosh@gmail.com