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PALO ALTO, California - The Miami University field hockey team earned its first NCAA tournament win by beating No. 16 Stanford 2-1 on Wednesday. The RedHawks improve to 12-8 on the season and the Cardinals fall to 13-8.

"I think it was an impressive performance," said head coach Inako Puzo. "We played against a great team. We knew it was going to be physical, in good terms, but we were going to request a lot of good fitness and running if we want to come with the result here and we want to compete here on this field."

Miami led the game in shots 13-8 and penalty corners 8-1. The RedHawks held the Cardinals without a penalty corner in the second half.

Kristina Bassi opened scoring for the game, giving Stanford the lead during the 24th minute of play. Bassi scored her 12th on a pass from Frances Carstens by one-timing it into the bottom left corner of the goal.

With only two and a half minutes remaining in the first half, Paula Portugal tied the game for Miami. Portugal received a pass from Henni Otten and scored on a backhanded shot into the far corner from the left side of the circle. This is Portugal's 19th goal of the season, setting a new personal career-high. She has also scored in four consecutive games.

Portugal scored her second of the game and 20th of the season with a minute and a half to play in the game. She shot from the top of the circle into the left side of the goal, beating All-American goalkeeper Kelsey Bing, to give the RedHawks the lead.

Portugal led both teams with six shots and Maddie Passarella had two saves.

"I think we played to win and we really put our hearts out there," said senior midfielder/forward Brie Stahl. "I know Inako said during the game that we're all going to have to get new hearts because we work so hard. I think that's pretty amazing. That shows our grit."

"I think we played great," said senior midfielder/forward Henni Otten. "We played so hard. We played our hearts out and I think that's the key. You can't just go for the game and think that you will lose or win, you just have to go for it."

The RedHawks play at Duke on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.