What do you say when a season is cut short? When an upset brings hopes crashing to the floor with the elated dog pile of your opponents? When seniors’ jerseys catch a layer of tears before 40 minutes of sweat has dried?

“We just didn’t get it done,” senior center Brooke Smith offered as her wet face turned from the media. “We weren’t playing well [in the first half]. I thought that we were lucky to be up at halftime. We just didn’t do as well as we could have done, and we really tried to improve on that, but we just didn’t get it done.”

The second-seeded Stanford Cardinal (29-5), then ranked fifth in the nation, lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Mar. 19 to the tenth-seeded Florida State Seminoles (24-9) who won 68-61. The Seminoles ended what some thought might be a Stanford run to the Final Four in Cleveland two games before that opportunity even arrived.

“We’re just really, really, really disappointed,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “This will rank up with all the opportunities that we’ve wasted, but I think this is a very unfortunate wasted opportunity.”

Stanford got off to a rocky start against the Seminoles. Less than three minutes into the game, Florida State had established a six-point lead, and the margin hovered around there for the next 10 minutes.

Although the Seminoles quickly got into foul trouble, putting Stanford in the bonus within seven minutes, the Cardinal was unable to convert from the stripe. Stanford hit three of eight free throw attempts and continued to trail with a sub-par defensive effort.

The Card climbed within four at 8:24, and, after a four-minute scoring drought for both teams, Smith rallied her teammates with a jumper. Senior center Kristen Newlin followed to tie the score at 23, and Smith’s signature hook shot gave Stanford its first lead with 2:51 to play in the first period.

Despite missing all nine of its three-point attempts, Stanford went into the break with a 29-25 lead.

“Our free throws really hurt us a lot, especially in the first half, [as did] going 0-for-9 from [the three-point line],” VanDerveer said. “But, we were not taking good shots. We needed to be more patient. I didn’t think we were playing well in the first half [even though] we had the lead.”

The start of the second period appeared to bring much of the same: two quick fouls by the Seminoles put them deeper into foul trouble. Things started to look as if they would swing in the Cardinal’s favor when junior guard Candice Wiggins sunk a long three to give Stanford its biggest lead of the night at seven points.

Instead, Florida State capitalized on an ill-advised Stanford possession and subsequent turnover by the Cardinal and and rallied to tie the game at 32 with 17:44 to play. The next five minutes were marked by back-and-forth play, as there were six lead changes and four ties.

After Wiggins’ final field goal of the night — a three-pointer that put the Cardinal up by one at 8:42 — the Noles took off on an 11-2 run from which Stanford never recovered.

VanDerveer credited Florida State with aggressiveness and athleticism but also noted that the Cardinal players did not look relaxed.

“At halftime I actually talked to Candice [and the team] and said, ‘You’re playing too hard,’” VanDerveer said. “[I told them to] just relax and play. I just felt like people played with a burden on them. They were just playing tight, and it’s hard to calm people down.”

VanDerveer went on to note that playing at home sometimes “puts extra pressure on the team,” and this led to the deterioration of the shared offense that characterized Stanford’s play throughout the season.

“We had to be able to play through things,” she said. “We needed people to knock down shots. We needed more offense than just [freshman forward Jayne Appel] on the block and just Candice from three.”

While Wiggins led all scorers with 19 points and five assists, only five other Stanford players added points to the scoreboard, highlighted by 12 points from Smith and 14 from Appel.

Meanwhile, all eight Florida State players contributed. Guard Shante Williams was the Seminoles’ leading scorer with 16, closely followed by guard Mara Freshour with 15. The smaller Florida State squad also found a way to out-rebound the Cardinal 37-35, an area in which Stanford usually dominates opponents by nearly seven boards per game.

Regardless of the team’s struggles in the post and Appel’s foul trouble (she fouled out with four minutes remaining), VanDerveer praised the freshman forward for her consistency in her first NCAA appearance. Appel became the school’s single-season leader in blocks, posting 60 on the year.

“I thought Jayne was really steady out there, except for the fouls,” VanDerveer said. “We could go to her inside, and she had a really good poise. I thought she did a really good job.”

In the end, though, Wiggins thought it came down to what shots fell, likening it to the teams’ meeting in last year’s tournament, when Stanford defeated the Seminoles 88-70 in the second round.

“It seemed like a similar team,” she said. “[This time,] they just hit big shots. We obviously could’ve done better. It’s a big disappointment.”

Florida State went on to the Sweet 16, where they lost 55-43 to LSU, the team which beat the Cardinal in last year’s Elite Eight in a heartbreaking, 62-59 buzzer-beater. Stanford failed to advance to the Final Four for the 10th consecutive year.

That comes as an especially big disappointment for the Cardinal’s four seniors: Smith, Newlin, Clare Bodensteiner and Markisha Coleman.

“I was thanking her for a great three years,” Wiggins said of her post-game embrace with Smith. “I’ve learned so much and [have become] a better person getting to know her. I was so honored to have played with her, and so grateful. Her career is not anywhere near over.”

But the 2006-2007 season is over, and Stanford will have to bide its time for another year, waiting for the opportunity to prove itself again.

“It is hard,” VanDerveer said. “It’s hard when it’s over.”

The Card dominates Idaho State, 96-58 in first round

Just two days before its second-round loss, Stanford was riding a team high. In a show of all-around strength, the Cardinal dominated Idaho State, 96-58, on Mar. 17. Smith and Wiggins weren’t the only ones who found the spotlight as Stanford trounced the 15-seed Bengals, ending their season at 17-14 record (11-5 Big Sky).

VanDerveer set the tone for the game by starting her experienced players, and the decision paid off immediately. In the first ten minutes of play, Smith and junior Cissy Pierce combined for all of the Cardinal’s 22 points, including Pierce’s 10-point run in the opening five minutes.

Wiggins recognized Pierce’s contribution (a game-total 14 points) as a momentum boost for her teammates.

“[She showed] that she’s a great shooter and people can’t just sag off of her,” Wiggins said. “We have great perimeter shooters on our team, and it just builds our confidence when she is hitting her outside shots.”

VanDerveer agreed, noting especially that Pierce’s play gave other Stanford players opportunities by diverting the focus of Idaho State’s defense.

“Cissy is a really good shooter and they left her open, which gave her a rhythm, and she hit her shots today,” VanDerveer said. “It felt like it took some pressure off Candice, and it also gave Brooke a lot of good looks.”

Pierce was one of four Cardinal women to register in the double digits: Smith tallied a season-high 20 points, Wiggins added another 16 and freshman guard Melanie Murphy had 10. Smith said that much of her success came from finding holes in the defense.

“My shots were falling, so that’s always fun and exciting. Just trying to take what the defense gave me,” she said. “With most zones, you just have to find the openings because there are going to be gaps in zone play. You just have to find openings and make reads [to] get open looks.”

Stanford first tore the game open at 11:27 in the first half, beginning a 27-7 spurt that lasted nearly until the break. In the second half, the Bengals never got closer than 18, despite the efforts of Natalie Doma. The junior center led Idaho State with 32 points and nine rebounds. Her performance made her the Bengals’ all-time leading scorer with 1,554 points.

Stanford did not allow any other Idaho State player to break the double-digit barrier in scoring. In fact, while the Bengals are usually bolstered by junior guard Andrea Lightfoot, who averages 18.5 points and five rebounds per game, the Cardinal defense held her to only four points.

“In order for us to get going offensively [that day], I think we had to play well defensively,” VanDerveer said.

Stanford’s frontcourt made it happen, out-rebounding Idaho State 53-20. Additionally, Appel’s three blocks matched the school’s single-season record of 58.

Once the Card got going, there was no stopping its offensive momentum. Whenever the starters got to rest, the bench picked up exactly where their teammates had left off: Murphy offered 10 points in 19 minutes, freshman Michelle Harrison added eight points and five rebounds and sophomore forward Morgan Clyburn hit two quick threes in the final four minutes.