Jeff Watt’s Stanford University polo shirt with a logo featuring the redwood tree El Palo Alto on Nov. 4, 2024, in Palo Alto, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Stanford star Jasmine Aikey has a chance to go out on top in her final collegiate game thanks to a perfectly-placed free kick Friday night.
The Palo Alto native scored from just outside the penalty area nine minutes in to give No. 1 Stanford a 1-0 win over No. 2 Duke in a women’s College Cup semifinal in Kansas City.
The Cardinal (21-1-2) will face No. 3 Florida State (15-2-4) in the title game Monday at 4 p.m. The two Atlantic Coast Conference schools have combined for seven of the last 14 NCAA championships, including FSU’s win over Stanford in the 2023 final.
The Cardinal won at Florida State 2-1 earlier this season.
“It’s about imposing your will in the final games,” Stanford coach Paul Ratcliffe said. “Both teams have so much talent, and it’s going to be just a few moments like tonight was with the free kick that separated us from them. We have to show our character, and then when we get those critical moments, we gotta execute.”
Aikey is the national leader in points with 53 and is tied for third with 21 goals. The senior midfielder has had a goal contribution in all 13 of her NCAA Tournament games.
After Duke fouled senior Andrea Kitahata to the left of the goal, Kitahata went to restart play quickly, but decided to regroup. Aikey, the TopDrawerSoccer Player of the Year, then lined up to take the free kick.
“What I rely on when I’m taking a free kick is just the knowledge that I’ve taken a thousand of these and it’s just one more, not any different,” Aikey said. “I think I saw (the goalie) cheating a little bit, or the near post was open. I just thought, you know, let me just try to get it there. But really it was just like relying on the stuff I’d done previously. Nothing special.”
Duke hadn’t allowed a goal in its four previous NCAA Tournament games entering the College Cup.
The game featured the two teams that lost in last year’s semifinals, though Aikey missed last year’s postseason run due to an injury.
It was the third straight College Cup appearance for the Cardinal.
“I think that experience of being in two College Cups, now we know exactly what we need to do,” said senior defender Elise Evans, a Redwood City native and Woodside High graduate. “There’s so many lessons we’ve learned from the past games that we’ve had at the College Cup.”
Stanford matched its national-best total of 23 shots per game, including eight that were on target, but didn’t come close to its national-best 4.13 goals a game. Charlotte Kohler missed a breakaway two minutes into the second half, and hit the post with about 15 minutes left.
But Aikey’s goal held up thanks to lockdown defense from the Cardinal, which allowed only two shots on goal. Freshman Carolina Birkel recorded the shutout.
Next up is an all-ACC final against the Seminoles, who beat No. 2 TCU 1-0 earlier on Friday.
“I’m just really excited to get out there one more time with the girls and play my last game as a college player,” Aikey said.
Stanford has won NCAA titles in 2011, 2017 and 2019, while Florida State has won in 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
Originally published at Harold Gutmann