It’s often hard to tell when a comeback trail will finish, but Serena Williams is certainly well on her way.

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For many student-athletes heading off to school, moving across the country is a necessary process. But for incoming defensive lineman Kevin Anderson, that’s not the case — Anderson is an alumnus of nearby Palo Alto High School and the only Bay Area recruit in Stanford’s 2015 football class.

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School may be out for the Cardinal faithful, but the team’s usual home of Stanford Stadium was buzzing with activity last Saturday. It wasn’t for a football game, the venue’s main event, and there were no national teams or popular European squads in sight. Instead, fans in the Stanford area came out in droves to see the San Jose Earthquakes (5-5-6) play the New York Red Bulls (5-3-10) in a nationally televised Major League Soccer contest over Independence Day weekend. San Jose squandered a late lead and settled for a 2-2 tie.

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Last weekend’s USA Track and Field Championships at the historic Hayward Field featured current and past Stanford athletes. The national competition in Eugene, Ore., had implications for qualifying for the World Championships later this summer.

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Four Cardinal athletes received the Pac-10 2011 Spring Scholar-Athlete Award, the conference announced Monday. For an individual to be eligible for the award, he or she must be a senior, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher and participate in at least half of the scheduled athletic competitions.

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Stanford’s No. 1 women’s water polo team went into Sunday with thirty straight victories against Cal, going undefeated against the cross-bay rival since 2000. The Cardinal (28-1) continued that streak when it mattered most yesterday, earning an emphatic 9-5 win over the No. 2 Bears (24-4) in the National Collegiate Championship final.

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The top-ranked Stanford women’s water polo team travels to the National Collegiate Championship in Ann Arbor this weekend with a couple of lofty goals: a successful tournament would give the Cardinal its first national championship since 2002 and earn a 101st team title for Stanford athletics as a whole.

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Playing three games in three days, the squad went 2-1, upset by No. 4 UCLA, 9-8, in the semifinal match on Saturday

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With a dominant 17-5 victory over San Jose State Saturday night, the Stanford women’s water polo team racked its 23rd straight victory to finish the regular season undefeated.

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The undefeated Stanford women’s water polo team captured its final regular season road match last weekend against Cal with an 8-5 win in the annual Big Splash.

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It was the second time that Stanford (21-0, 5-0 MPSF) matched up with Hawaii (13-7, 3-3) this season, as the two teams met back in late February during the UCI Invitational in which the Card doubled up the Rainbow Wahine, 10-5.

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The top-ranked Stanford women’s water polo team finished its Southern California road trip unscathed, taking two tough contests over No. 13 UC-Irvine and No. 3 USC. Stanford (20-0, 5-0 MPSF) won 13-4 and 9-8, respectively.

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The top-ranked Stanford women’s water polo team continued its undefeated season with victories against No. 8 Arizona State, No. 4 UCLA and No. 15 UC-Davis in recent weeks.

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The No. 1 Stanford women’s water polo team continued its impressive season last weekend, winning its first two games over No. 9 San Diego State and No. 11 Long Beach State. The Cardinal (15-0, 1-0 MPSF) beat the Aztecs 12-4 and defeated Long Beach State 11-3

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Last weekend’s UCI Invitational culminated with another matchup between the two giants of women’s collegiate water polo, Stanford and USC. For the second time this season, No. 1 played No. 2 for a tournament crown, and for the second straight time, Stanford came out on top against the defending national champions.

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The No. 1 Stanford women’s water polo team notched another win against a ranked opponent with a 15-4 victory over No. 19 Pacific Sunday in Stockton. Junior two-meter Melissa Seidemann tallied four goals, all in the first half, to lead the Cardinal (9-0). Pacific dropped to 7-4 on the seaso

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The Cardinal (8-0) swept its four games with a diversified attack, defeating USC in a rematch of last year’s national championship game. The final score looked familiar, but this time with the Cardinal on top, 10-9, in a sudden-death thriller that went to triple overtime.

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After a dominant tournament performance in Ann Arbor, Mich., last month to begin its 2011 campaign, the No. 1 Stanford women’s water polo team (4-0) goes into the two-day Stanford Invitational looking to continue its strong start at home

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There is no doubt that Palo Alto is rich, or as Palo Alto teens might say, hella rich. The affluence of Stanford’s next-neighbor highlights the ways, both major and minor, in which the University maintains economic ties to surrounding cities and the region as a whole.

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It seemed highly unlikely that a Stanford graduate student and first-time marathoner could win the San Francisco Marathon on July 25, but Keith Bechtol, a 25-year-old astrophysics student on the Farm, didn’t just win the marathon -- he beat the 26.2 mile course record by two minutes...

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Jeremy Lin’s basketball career began just a few miles away from Stanford in a Palo Alto YMCA gym. Now Lin's star is rising as a new signee to the Golden State Warriors--but he hasn't made it yet, he says...

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The national champion Cardinal men’s volleyball team has added another accolade to its historic season...

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Each year during football season, it is the cheerleaders--not the players themselves--who are putting themselves in more danger. According to a 2008 report by the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, cheerleading made up 65.1 percent of all catastrophic sports injuries among high school females over the past 25 years...

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For the 2009-2010 season, seven Stanford gymnasts were named to the Scholastic All-America team by the National Association of Collegiate Coaches/Women. The seven consisted of three seniors--Carly Janiga (fourth honor), Blair Ryland (second honor) and Tenaya West (second honor). Shelley Alexander and Danielle Ikoma, two juniors, were selected for the first time while sophomores Nicole Pechanec and Jenny Peter also received the honor...

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