How Stanford basketball reached the 2021 women’s Final Four

Stanford head coach Tara VanDerVeer made history by surpassing Pat Summitt to become the winningest coach in women’s college basketball history. Leading the Cardinal to their 14th Final Four appearance in program history, the team will try to make some history of their own by gunning for their first national championship since 1992.

Here’s how they got here...

Regular season

Not venturing outside the west coast throughout the regular season, the 29-2 Cardinal steamrolled their Pac-12 competition with back-to-back midseason losses to Colorado and UCLA being the only blemishes on the slate. Stanford would then head to Las Vegas, where they crushed USC, Oregon State, and UCLA to claim the Pac-12 Tournament title.

NCAA Tournament

Their dominance carried over to San Antonio as the top-seed of the Alamo Region as they blasted Utah Valley, Oklahoma State, Missouri State, and Louisville to reach their 10th Final Four in 14 seasons. In their Elite Eight matchup against UL, Stanford came back from a 12-point halftime deficit to extend their stay in San Antonio to another weekend.

Key players

Leading Stanford on the offensive end is senior All-Pac-12 guard Kiana Williams, who averaged 14.1 points per game and has averaged 15.8 in her hometown of San Antonio throughout the tournament.

Haley Jones follows here with 12.7 points, 7.5 rebounds and three assists a game while junior Lexie Hull put up 11.4 and 4.6 a contest. Hull’s twin sister Lacie earned Pac-12 Sixth Player of the Year honors by averaging 43.4 shooting in her 17 minutes a game off the bench while senior Anna Wilson earned Co-Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors as well.