The football team is headed to a bowl game for the first time since 2001 and boasts a star running back in contention for the Heisman Trophy.The women's soccer team has reached the national semifinals of the NCAA Women's College Cup.
The women's volleyball team won its fourth straight Pac-10 title and earned the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which begins this weekend.
The No. 2-ranked Stanford women's basketball team is just keeping up.
The Cardinal are 6-0. They've beaten Old Dominion and Rutgers, Utah and Gonzaga. They are winning by an average margin of 28.7 points a game. Two players -- forwards Kayla Pedersen and Nneka Ogwumike are averaging around 20 points a game -- Pedersen at 20.5 and Ogwumike at 19.5.
It's going pretty well. So now it's time for a break. Stanford begins its two-week hiatus for final exams. But the Cardinal will not rest. Instead they will begin to lay the groundwork for the toughest stretch of the season. It begins Dec. 13 when Stanford puts its ranking and its standing as the consensus second-best team in the nation on the line against No. 21 DePaul and then No. 11 Duke and then No. 6 Tennessee and then top-ranked Connecticut on Dec. 23.
"We're glad we had a good game today to go into the break," said senior center Jayne Appel. "I think it is coming out and focusing each day, every play in practice instead of saying we have these four games in front of us like a looming cloud above us. We need to come out every day and prepare ourselves mentally for that practice. As long as do that, we'll come in strong and ready to go."
Ogwumike said the atmosphere on campus and in the athletic department has been motivating. Coach Tara VanDerveer said that before Sunday's game against Gonzaga she prodded her team to match the excitement of the football team's win over Notre Dame.
"The whole Stanford community is excited. It's just a feeling of being happy all the time and you want to be a part of it," Ogwumike said. "And to be a part of it you need to engage yourself in what you need to do to succeed."Pedersen, probably the biggest small forward in the country, and Ogwumike, showing more and more athleticism every day, have stood out while senior center Jayne Appel plays her way back into top form. Appel is the team's leading rebounder at 9.5 a game and needs just one board to become the third player in Stanford history to collect 1,000 career rebounds.
But in addition to her continued recovery from offseason knee surgery, she spent the weekend fighting the flu. She got sick at home before Thanksgiving dinner and needed four IV bags on Friday to get through the Cardinal's win over Utah.
"I'm not 100 percent yet, but the two-week break will be good for that," Appel said.
It was a good week for ...
Notre Dame. For the second time in school history, the Irish dispatched three ranked opponents in a span of six games -- Michigan State, San Diego State and Oklahoma. Notre Dame won its first regular-season tournament title since 2005. It gets easier for the Irish from here. The next ranked opponent will be Vanderbilt on New Year's Eve. Oh, and by the way, coach Muffet McGraw (pictured, right) won her 500th game as the Irish head coach.Connecticut. The top-ranked Huskies celebrated coach Geno Auriemma's 700th victory on Friday night against Hofstra. He got there quicker than anyone else in the history of the game, in 822 games. Wondering out loud here...while top-ranked teams are going head-to-head in tropical climes, while teams like Stanford and Tennessee are playing brutal, defining schedules, the Huskies are taking on Northeastern and Holy Cross, Hofstra and Vermont. There's little doubt UConn is the best team in the country. Just would be nice to see the Huskies take that ranking out for a ride a little more often this time of year.
USC. Under new head coach Michael Cooper, the Women of Troy haven't quite figured themselves out. But they learned that they have the potential to play with the top teams in the country, knocking off both Texas and Mississippi State in the Virgin Islands. Next up, another big game at Duke on Dec. 6.
Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights didn't sweep three games in the Paradise Jam, but they won two of three and lost to Texas on a last-second shot. So, there are signs that things are headed in the right direction in Piscataway after a 2-2 start.
Kentucky. The Wildcats are the team with the top record in the SEC at 6-0. Of course, they really haven't played anybody yet. The schedule gets stronger in December with games against Louisville and Middle Tennessee State.
Nebraska. The Huskers are 6-0, the program's first such start since 1996-97. Not a ranked team among the opponents. That will change very soon. LSU on Dec. 20 and then the Big 12 schedule.
A bad week for ...
Mississippi State. The Lady Bulldogs stumbled badly at the Paradise Jam, going 0-3 after opening the season in impressive fashion at 4-0. MSU did not take its offense to the Virgin Islands, averaging 56.3 points and shot 32 percent from the field for the tournament.
San Diego State. The Aztecs reveled in their inclusion in the Paradise Jam, a sign that their program is making headway. And then they went and lost straight games and their national ranking.
Oklahoma. The Sooners are waiting to hear about the fate of Whitney Hand, the sophomore guard who appeared to sustain a serious knee injury over the weekend in the Virgin Islands. Results of an MRI are still pending.
Kansas. The team that's been picked to finish second in the Big 12 is still rounding into form after losing to tenth-ranked Xavier and TCU. They play six of their next eight at home.
Washington. Huskies' coach Tia Jackson is "on notice" this season, according to her athletic director and she couldn't have helped her cause when Washington was beaten by Sacramento State -- which had never before beaten a Pac-10 opponent -- in the title game of their tournament in Seattle. Now the Huskies play seven straight games on the road and don't play again on their home floor until January 7.
Randoms:
The Big East is the only conference left in which each one of its teams has a winning record ...Tennessee center Kelley Cain will be out for this week's game against George Washington after sustaining a concussion against UCLA on Saturday ... Pitt's Agnus Berenato won her 400th career game last Tuesday against St. Francis.
Best matchups of the week:
Dec. 3, No. 3 Ohio State (8-0) at No. 11 Duke (5-1)
Dec. 3, No. 4 North Carolina (5-0) at No. 25 Michigan State (4-2)
Dec. 3. UCLA (4-2) at No. 23 Kansas (3-2)
Dec. 5, Louisiana Tech (3-0) at No. 8 Baylor (6-1)
Dec. 6, No. 17 Texas (4-2) at No. 6 Tennessee (5-0)
