No. 4 Stanford women’s basketball (26-2, 15-1 Pac-12) heads to Seattle tonight for its first of two trips to Washington. Tonight’s game kicks off the Card’s final regular season road trip, but the team will return to Seattle next weekend for the Pac-12 Tournament.
The Stanford women’s basketball team faces USC on the road tonight to start a crucial away trip to Los Angeles. After playing the Trojans, the team will then square off against UCLA on Sunday.
With a road trip to visit Oregon and Oregon State looming, the No. 4 Stanford women’s basketball team reentered the top five in both the AP and Coaches’ polls this week after wins over Utah and No. 20 Colorado last weekend. The Card (18-2, 7-1) had been left out of the top five spot the past two weeks for the first time since the 2008-2009 season.
The Stanford women’s basketball team heads into weekend play ranked third in the Pac-12, the first time in seven seasons that the Card fail to lead the conference, after Cal broke its 81-game conference winning streak on Tuesday. A lot of weight is being placed on these two upcoming games as the Card (14-2, 3-1 Pac-12) looks to redeem itself against the only teams left undefeated in the conference — UCLA (13-2, 4-0) and USC (7-8, 4-0).
![Junior Chiney Ogwumike notched her 12th double-double of the season, but said she needs to avoid putting "a lot on [her] shoulders" after Stanford lost to No. 7 Cal on Sunday. (NHAT V. MEYER/MCT)](http://57vje3fqw032jqgx93yq531jak.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SPO.011413.wbb_1-200x100.jpg)
It is a commonly held belief in sports that it is very challenging to beat the same team twice in a row. Stanford’s football team was able to pull off the difficult double against UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship. The women’s basketball team was not so fortunate; after beating rival California on Tuesday, the Cardinal (14-2, 3-1 Pac-12) came up short on Sunday, 67-55.
Neither team dominated the other until Stanford (14-1, 3-0 Pac-12) took charge in the remaining six minutes of play to capture the win over the rivaled Golden Bears (12-2, 2-1 Pac-12). In the past Stanford has beaten Cal by an average of 19.2 points, but this game went down to the wire, with numerous ties and lead changes as both teams came out hungry for a win.
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