Stanford Women's Soccer Faces Key Question to Begin 2025

College soccer season is nearly here, as both the men's and women's programs begin their 2025 campaigns in under a month. For the Stanford women's soccer team, their schedule kicks off on Thursday, August 14 against San Francisco at home.

Last year, the Cardinal went 16-5-2, and that was coming off a year in 2023 where their sole loss of the season was to Florida State in the National Championship game. Last season their run ended in the semifinal matchup against No. 3 Wake Forest.

There are expectations heading into 2025, and with a large portion of the roster still together, this team will certainly have a shot at making some noise in 2025. The big question heading into the season, however, will be who will be replacing goaltender Haley Craig, who graduated from Stanford and was recently signed by Portland Thorns FC.

Craig handled all but eight minutes and 55 seconds in goal last season, starting all 23 games for the Cardinal and making 58 saves on 76 shots, good for a 76.3% save percentage. That save percentage ranked ninth out of 17 teams in the ACC, but paired with the program's offensive firepower, only five of the programs ranked ahead of Craig had teams that scored more goals over the course of the season than Stanford's 35.

It ended up being a pretty good mix between both offense and defense for Stanford that propelled them to the semis.

Another key departure will be Nya Harrison, who also started all 23 of Stanford's games last season as a defender. In fact, the Cardinal have three defenders leaving, and all three earned significant playing time last season. How their replacements set up the new goaltender in 2025 should be something to keep an eye on.

Heading into the 2025 campaign, Stanford will have Alyssa Savig (junior), Kaiya Jota (sophomore), and Caroline Birkel (freshman) to choose from in net. Savig was the only other goalkeeper to get playing time last season, and didn't face an attempted shot in her nearly nine minutes of playing time.

Birkel helped the United States to a bronze medal at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2024, and represented the U.S. at the Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship in Costa Rica in 2025, so she certainly has the resumé to be a serious contender for the starting job.

While the goalie and the defenders that will be in front of her are a bit of a question, Stanford will still have their biggest offensive weapon in redshirt senior Andrea Kitahata. The forward scored nine times last season and assisted on six more, making her involved in 15 of Stanford's 35 goals on the season.

The women's soccer schedule will be comprised of games mostly on Thursdays and Sundays, though there is a late-season Saturday game thrown in there on October 25 at home against SMU. With kickoff set for August 14, we won't have to wait long for the sports calendar to begin back on The Farm.