The No. 7 Stanford women’s basketball team begins the new season in earnest this weekend, flying east to battle Yale tomorrow before meeting No. 3 Rutgers in one of the year’s marquee matchups in women’s college basketball.

Stanford is coming off of a 95-44 warm-up win over Division II Chico State but will quickly ramp up the competition. Yale may not prove to be too much of a challenge, but Rutgers made the NCAA title game last season, although the Scarlet Knights’ accomplishment was overshadowed by the national outcry over Don Imus’ comments about the team.

Stanford may be boosted by the return of sophomore center Jayne Appel, the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year last season. Appel sat out of the Cardinal’s exhibition game but is listed as a probable starter for the games this weekend. Her return would give Stanford the flexibility to trot out a big lineup when the situation calls for it, deploying 6-4 freshman Kayla Pedersen in the power forward slot, which would create a mismatch for 6-1 junior Jillian Harmon at forward or a third guard position.

Yale is particularly vulnerable to Stanford’s size. No one on the roster approaches the height of Appel or Pedersen, and only one of the Bulldogs’ guards stands as tall as 5-9, the height of Stanford’s shortest player.

The Cardinal has a 21-11 all-time record in season openers and has won its first game six years in a row. Stanford also sports a 4-1 all-time record against the Ivy League, including one win against Yale in the teams’ only meeting to date, a 75-61 Cardinal win in the 1978-79 season.

The Bulldogs were one of the NCAA’s most-improved teams last year, but only one of the team’s top three scorers returns to a young squad with only two seniors. Sophomore guard/forward Melissa Colborne will be asked to take her game to another level this year after averaging 11.0 points per game (but only on 36.4 percent shooting) in her rookie season. Senior point guard Stephanie Marciano led Yale with 4.1 assists per game last year and will also play a more central role to replace the offense the Bulldogs have lost.

Rutgers is undoubtedly the greater threat to the Cardinal. The Scarlet Knights went 27-9 last year, including an eight-game tear in March that lifted the team to the Big East title over powerhouse Connecticut and then carried them all the way to the NCAA final, where they lost to No. 1 Tennessee.

Rutgers achieved its success with four players scoring just over 12 points per game. Only two return — senior center Kia Vaughan (12.8 points per game) and sophomore guard Epiphanny Prince (12.2 points per game) — but every returning player except for one on the Scarlet Knights roster saw time in more than 30 games last season. That experience and depth should allow the team to make a smooth transition into the new season.

Sunday’s game against Rutgers will be televised live on ESPN on at 5 p.m PST.