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Stanford will be going the right direction in 2000-01 with four returning starters—1999-2000 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Jamie Carey , 1999-2000 Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 selections Lauren St. Clair and Carolyn Moos , and Bethany Donaphin , who ranked among the conference leaders in rebounds. Add in four other key contributors in Cori Enghusen , Sarah Dimson , Enjoli Izidor and Lindsey Yamasak i, and the Cardinal has eight players familiar with the rigors of both Pac-10 and NCAA Tournament competition.

But those eight players will not be alone, as VanDerveer and her staff has brought to The Farm a five-player recruiting class that was ranked among the top five in the nation. First Team Parade Magazine Prep All-American Nicole Powell (Phoenix, AZ), who led the U.S. Junior World Championship Qualifying Team in rebounding this summer, leads the way in a class that figures to make an immediate impact. Point guard Susan King (Richfield, MN) was a USA Today First Team All-American, and like Powell , was invited to participate in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association High School All-America game. Forwards Becky Bonner (Concord, NH) and Chelsea Trotter (San Dimas, CA) were also Parade All-Americans, while Katie Denny (Pacific Grove, CA) finished her prep career as one of the most prolific scorers in Northern California history.

VanDerveer will also look to her returners to continue the proficient shooting from the outside that rewrote both the Stanford and Pac-10 record books a year ago. Stanford made a conference and school record 213 3-pointers in 1999-2000—an average of 7.10 per game—to shatter the old mark set by the 1996-97 Cardinal of 205 in 36 contests (5.69 pg). Stanford also owned the second best 3-point percentage in Division I women’s basketball at .408 (213-of-522), which was better than the overall field goal percentage of five schools in the Pac-10. The leaders of the charge were Jamie Carey, who set a Stanford record for 3-pointers in a season with 81, and Lauren St. Clair, who finished first in the Pac-10 and ninth in the country by shooting .466 (61-of-131) from behind the arc.

"We’re a great offensive team with outstanding 3-point shooters. There’s nothing better for a post player than having great 3-point shooters like Jamie and Lauren , because the outside game really opens up things on the inside. We have a lot of other great 3-point shooters, but to be successful this season we also need to have a great inside game. We need to go out, get people on the block and be more physical in the paint."

As always, the Cardinal, which was picked to finish first in the conference in the annual Preseason Coaches Poll, will be challenged night in and night out in the rugged Pac-10. The conference race came down to the final weekend last March, with Stanford finishing one game behind conference champion Oregon, and a total of six teams finishing within four games of the top spot.

"I think the positive thing last year was that we were in the conference race right up to the end," said VanDerveer . "But we weren’t as consistent as we needed to be. We’re going to have to use our experience to our advantage this season, which is something we maybe didn’t use as well as we needed to last year.

"If we want to win the conference, we will have to win it every single day in practice. We all learned good things from our close games last year, including the wins over Michigan and at USC and Oregon State, and we’ll have to keep that going. We beat every team in the conference last year, so it’s not like there was a team that was head and shoulders above us. We’re not intimidated by anybody, but we’re also respectful of every team we’ll play."

A challenging non-conference schedule will also earn the Cardinal’s respect, including road games at national powers Tennessee and Purdue. Stanford also faces NCAA Tournament qualifiers Oklahoma, St. Joseph’s and Utah as well as Bay Area rivals Saint Mary’s, San Francisco and Santa Clara.