March 2, 2002

By YVONNE LEWIS
AP MegaSports Writer

No conference team had a chance with Lindsey Yamasaki in Stanford's lineup this season.

Now the top-seeded and second-ranked Cardinal have to continue their dominance without their top scorer as they meet UCLA in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament on Saturday.

Yamasaki, who averages a team-best 17.4 points, will miss the tournament after undergoing an appendectomy on Tuesday. The 6-foot-1 senior is expected to be back by the time Stanford begins NCAA tournament play on March 15.

The Cardinal (28-1) won their conference games by at least 20 points and became the only Pac-10 squad - men's or women's - to finish with an unbeaten league record. Stanford has actually accomplished the feat four times.

Stanford enter the inaugural Pac-10 tournament with 20 straight wins, the fourth longest in school history. The Cardinal's lone loss this season came on Dec. 16 to No. 3 Tennessee.

Saturday's game mark the first time Stanford has played in a conference tournament since the 1975-76 season, when it went 0-3 at the Northern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament at San Jose State.

The Cardinal, though, are facing the eighth-seeded Bruins (9-19) for the second straight game. Stanford had a 98-80 win at UCLA on Sunday as it wrapped up the regular season.

The Cardinal shot 51 percent (34-for-69) from the field, getting 33 points from Yamasaki, who made seven of 10 3-pointers to help the Cardinal beat the Bruins for the 25th time in 28 games.

"We have really good shooters on our team," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "They're open, they're knocking down shots."

The Cardinal, who lead the league in field goal percentage allowed (35) allowed the Bruins to shoot 40 percent (29-for-72). The 80 points were the most allowed by the Cardinal this year.

"Defensively, we didn't play with the intensity we had been or want to," VanDerveer said.

The Bruins advanced to this round with a 46-42 win over California in the first round on Friday. Gennifer Arranaga scored 17 points as UCLA held Golden Bears scoreless for more than seven minutes in the second half.

The Bruins lost both games to Stanford this season by a combined 46 points.