When the ninth-ranked Cardinal won its first Pac-10 tournament on March 10, the team was flying higher than a Nicole Powell three-pointer.
The 6-foot-2 All-American forward, a junior who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, led the 59-49 victory over No. 22 Arizona with 19 points, five assists and four rebounds, and the win gave Stanford a 26-4 record and a 16th consecutive trip to the NCAA championships. Coach Tara VanDerveer led the team to the NCAA title in 1990 and 1992, and to the Final Four in 1991, 1995, 1996 and 1997.
Stanford was hosting the subregional and the West Regional this year, and the players looked forward to the home-court advantage in Maples Pavilion, where they had a winning streak of 25 games.
In the opener against 14th-seeded Western Michigan, the third-seeded Cardinal got its first taste of postseason physical play. When sophomore guard Sebnem Kimyacioglu—elbowed in the head and bloodied by a Bronco—hit the floor with 12 minutes to go in the first half, the Cardinal retaliated with a 14-1 run. Stanford continued to dominate on inside and outside shooting, connecting on a season-high 60.8 percent of field goals to beat Western Michigan 82-66 and advance to the second round for the fourth consecutive season.
Playing against a taller, more aggressive Minnesota team, however, the Cardinal struggled on offense, suffered a lot of contact in the paint and exited the NCAAs in a 68-56 upset to the sixth-seeded Golden Gophers. “We lost to a very good team on a night when our very good team played really poorly,” a red-eyed VanDerveer said at the post-game press conference. Added scrappy sophomore guard Kelley Suminski, Stanford’s second-leading scorer, “We didn’t play tonight like we played all season. Tough way to go out.”
Kimyacioglu almost rallied the squad by scoring seven consecutive points in the second half, and Powell, who was sidelined much of the game due to foul trouble, finished with 19 points and seven rebounds. Without a consistent offense, however, the effort wasn’t enough. But the team graduates no players in June, and six sophomores—Kimyacioglu, Suminski, Susan King, Azella Perryman, T’Nae Thiel and Chelsea Trotter —will return with experience in the starting lineup. And, perhaps, with a vengeance.
