Battle tested and proven, the No. 25 Washington State soccer team has another opportunity to state its case as the best team in the Pac-12 this week.

The Cougars (11-3-0, 4-2-0 Pac-12) host No. 4 Stanford (12-2-0, 6-0-0) today in the first of two home matches this week.

With a similar style of play, WSU Head Coach Todd Shulenberger said Stanford has more than just the class to beat his side.

“They score goals,” Shulenberger said with a light-hearted laugh Tuesday during his press conference. “From a possession standpoint, Stanford is as good as they get. They got goal scorers, they’re well balanced, they know how to win. We know it’s a tall task, but no one we’ve played yet looks like Stanford.”

Sophomore midfielder Andi Sullivan leads the Cardinal with five goals, with freshman midfielder Michelle Xiao and redshirt freshman forward Kyra Carusa right behind with four a piece.

A lot of Stanford’s possession is built from the back and pushed through its midfield. To combat that, sophomore midfielder Chelsea Harkins said the Cougars will have to press the Cardinal back line to disrupt possession.

“They will play between 20 to 30 passes before they move out – they try to run your legs off to get past you,” Harkins said Wednesday. “Definitely the press is going to be important because that’s how you’re going to slow teams down. You want to try and create havoc to hopefully create turnovers.”

Stanford also uses its outside backs to get forward and move the game into its opponents’ half. While WSU will try to prevent the Cardinal from getting out of their shape, it’s something redshirt junior defender Susie White said will be another point of emphasis.

“We don’t try to change our formation too much based on other teams, but we will adapt defensively,” White said. “We will adjust because of their outside backs getting so high. We’re working on defending that in a new way, but we will still attack in a similar way so we don’t get away from that.”

WSU and Stanford kick off at 7:05 p.m. and the Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the game. Wsucougars.com will post live stats of the match.