Men's Basketball: The Stanford men's basketball team (18-12, 10-8 Pac-10) will travel east to the NCAA South Region to face No. 6 seed Louisville (23-9) on Thursday, March 15, at 12:40 p.m ET in Lexington, Ky. at Rupp Arena. CBS will carry the game nationally.
Women's Basketball: Stanford Univeristy has been selected to be the host school for the 1st and 2nd rounds of the NCAA tournament. No. 5/5 Stanford (28-4, 17-1) opens NCAA Tournament play against Idaho State (17-13, 11-5 Big Sky) in a first round matchup on Saturday, Mar. 17, at 1:30 p.m.
Stanford is one of eight teams playing at Maples Pavilion this weekend.
Wrestling:
Five members of the Stanford wrestling team who qualified for nationals late last month will travel to Auburn Hills, Mich. this week to compete at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Palace of Auburn Hills, Mar. 15-17.
For the first time ever, the Championship Finals will be aired live on ESPN primetime, starting at 8 p.m. (ET) on Saturday night. The quarterfinals and the semifinals will be aired live on ESPNU.
With Kawika Shoji, Volleyball and Adam Sorgi, Baseball.
When the Freshman volleyball star, Kawika Shoji, isn't in the gym he's either at the beach or practicing his golf swing.
“If I wasn't playing volleyball, I'd probably be trying to become a professional golfer,” said Shoji.
It's safe to say that Kawika won't be changing careers in sports any time soon.
The impact he has on the court and with his team this year has been quite impressive.
After college, Shoji wants to play volleyball professionally, either in Europe or on the AVP Beach Tour in the U.S.
“I also want to play in the Olympic Games.”
Baseball is in Adam Sorgi's blood.
Even when he isn't competing, his passion for the game keeps him involved on the field somehow.
“I want to coach baseball.
I've always loved baseball more than anything else and even with a Stanford degree, I still believe that I would be coaching,”
Sorgi said.
After playing, Adam would like to give a shot at playing professional baseball…and he's heading in the right path.
As a Swedish citizen, Sorgi will be competing with the Swedish National Baseball Team this summer in Europe.
“If that doesn't work out, I'll try my luck as a coach somewhere.
I'd prefer to coach college baseball, but high school would be fun too.”
with Senior Christina Hewko
, Water Polo
It's very easy as a student athlete at Stanford, with all of the time commitments and responsibilities, to get caught up completely in your own life. However, Christina Hewko, on the women's water polo team, enjoys the time she can spend with others contributing to the community. "One of our team traditions that I really enjoy is tutoring at the East Palo Alto Charter School. We are each assigned a student at the beginning of the year and returning players and our coaches often request to tutor the same kid every year," explains Hewko. The Stanford Women's Water Polo team has been involved in this tutoring program for several years. "I was really excited my freshman year to be on a team that was service oriented."
To compliment their successes in the community, so far this season Christina and her teammates have done well in competition. Hewko's favorite game this year came early in the season back on February 17, when Stanford beat USC 10-8 at Avery Aquatic Center. "Five players on our team were majored from the game and by the second overtime period only three of our starters were still in the game," recalls Hewko. "Everyone that was playing in the second overtime period stepped up and played awesome and we ended up winning the game by two." Catch Christina and the Cardinal as they resume play at home on March 24 against Princeton at 10:00 am.
Elaine Breeden, Swimming,
on winning an NCAA Title
Champion's Chatter: As a freshman, what was it like preparing for your first NCAA event?
Elaine Breeden: I thought going into the meet that I knew what to expect, but I was wrong. It was completely different from every other National Championship I had competed in. I swam a lot more races than I would in any other meet at this level, which made it much more difficult but also more exciting.
Despite how challenging it was, NCAAs was a ton of fun. I can't wait to see what Stanford can do next year!
CC: What was the atmosphere like at NCAAs?
EB: The atmosphere at the meet was mostly one of tension and excitement.
The atmosphere was probably the thing that was hardest for the freshmen to adjust to because it was unlike that of any other competition. It was a great opportunity for our team to learn to rely on each other for support, and the pressure actually worked in my favor. I perform better when I know that teammates are depending on me to do well.
CC: Do you get nervous? If so, how do you deal with nerves?
EB: I do get nervous, but it's more of an excited kind of nervous energy.
If I don't get a bit nervous before a race, I don't usually do as well. The way I deal with the adrenaline is by going through with my usual pre-race routine of stretching and warming-up, and to be confident that I have done all I can in order to prepare for the event.
CC: What were your thoughts as you were swimming at NCAAs?
EB: During my races I was focused on executing the strategies I had been working on all year. I didn't want to let my adrenaline take over so I had to try and be relaxed at the beginning of my swims. My plan was to build speed throughout the races and not look at my competition until later in the race.
CC: Do you have swimming aspirations beyond college?
EB: I would love to continue swimming as long as possible. I have been swimming since I was four and I don't know what I will do with myself when I retire from the sport. I am planning on at least training for the 2012 Olympics, but after that I'm not sure. It's hard to know how my goals will change in the next four years. I guess it will depend on how I am swimming at the time!
