The NCAA women’s tournament saw one of its biggest upsets in years on Sunday as Stanford, the 1 seed in the Seattle 4 Region, lost 54-49 to 8-seed Ole Miss, ending an otherwise-successful season on a bitter note.
The Cardinal had hopes of achieving a Final Four run after a 28-5 season that saw them win the Pac-12 regular-season championship. Tara VanDerveer’s team lost in the semifinal of the Pac-12 women’s tournament to No. 19 UCLA, but quickly rebounded with a 92-49 thrashing of 16-seed Sacred Heart in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Cardinal’s season came to a crashing halt on Sunday against the Rebels who never trailed in the victory. Stanford is the first 1 seed to miss the Sweet 16 since 2009, and only the fifth such team to exit the women’s tournament before the second weekend.
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But VanDerveer refused to categorize the season as a failure:
“I’m not going to fall into the trap of saying, ‘Wow, we had a horrible season,’” VanDerveer told reporters after the game. “I know that our men’s team would be ecstatic to be playing two games in the NCAA Tournament, and (Stanford athletics director Bernard Muir) would be happy about that, too.”
It’s uncertain why VanDerveer made her…
