It would have been the perfect ending to a less-than-perfect season, with the Final Four just a 20-minute ride down the Bayshore Freeway. But this was not a year for fairy-tale endings, and the NCAA basketball tournament would be no different for the Cardinal women, who lost in the first round to the Black Bears of Maine, 60-58.
"We'd love to be in it, of course," coach Tara VanDerveer told the San Jose Mercury News. "But that's okay. It's different this way, but that's just kind of the way it is." Just not the way it used to be; VanDerveer's teams have made the Final Four six times since 1990, more than any other school this decade.
Still, there was some good news for the Cardinal, who started out with a dismal 4-7 record but finished the season 18-12 overall and 14-4 in the Pac-10. The team earned the distinction of being the only school in the country this year to beat national champ Purdue.
Next season could continue the upward arc: the team's two top scorers, freshman Lindsey Yamasaki and sophomore Carolyn Moos, will be back, as will junior point guard Milena Flores, who was named to the all Pac-10 team this year.
