Final Four

 I don't know what will happen in the next game or two but what a great contest in the Elite Eight between Stanford and Notre Dame.  Notre Dame took a 16 point lead into the third quarter when the Cardinal mounted a comeback with a tense fourth quarter of trading baskets with stellar defensive play on both sides. The game between two great programs went down to the last second with a great block by Erica McCall to save the victory for Stanford,76 -75.  A very balanced if inconsistent but incredibly resilient team led by one of the greatest coaches in basketball, Tara Vanderveer.
Articles:
The Strength Of A Team leads to lucky 13
Stanford overcomes deficit to overcome Notre Dame to advance to the Final Four

                                                                   Go Stanford!

Postscript: Stanford loses to South Carolina (and Old Mississippi topples UConn- UConn's first loss in 4 years, which was to Stanford, this was an exciting OT game). Close and good teams do not make excuses but when Karlie Samuelson went down in the first half with a sprained ankle, the Cardinal lost it's biggest outside threat (and a good defender) which makes us much easier to defend. This, and credit to South Carolina, and the Cardinal had difficulty putting up points in the second half.  Of note; coach Dawn Staley, a great point guard in her day was mentored by Tara when she was coached by possibly the best basketball TEAM ever, the 1996 Olympics team.  Additionally Staley's teams were knocked out by Stanford in Dawn's last years playing in college. Her senior team, her Virginia team was ranked #1 and lost a tight game to Stanford in the Final 4 (Stanford went on to win the championship). 25 years later, Dawn can say to Tara, "Finally-Got Ya!"