At the start of the NCAA Tournament, it seemed as if Stanford women’s basketball had come full circle. A No. 4 preseason ranking and expected Final Four run were nearly tossed aside by season slip-ups, but Stanford pulled off a 29-5, 17-1 Pacific-10 Conference record and reclaimed the Pac-10 Tournament title.

So with a No. 2 seed in the Fresno, Calif. region, where its first two games would be at Maples Pavilion, the Cardinal had come around and was back on track to the Final Four.

But the circle was never completed.

In the NCAA second round, Stanford lost 68-61 to 10-seed Florida State.

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

As senior center Brooke Smith put it, the Cardinal just didn’t get it done.

“We weren’t playing well [in the first half],” Smith said. “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.”

An 11-2 Seminoles run in the last 8:42 put to bed Stanford’s hopes of its first Final Four since 1997 and a chance at a fourth straight Elite Eight appearance.

There are claims that Stanford played “tight” on its home court — missed shots, foul problems and more — and one only need look back to start of the season for the obvious amount of pressure that has followed the talented and touted team.

In the WNIT second round, Stanford lost its high rank in a 55-52 upset loss to No. 24 Brigham Young. An 18-2 run by the Cougars in the final 7:23 left the Cardinal reeling as it couldn’t make a shot in the clutch.

“No one got it done,” VanDerveer said in a statement similar to the one she’d be making a little more than four months later. “We can’t make the mistakes we’re making and expect to win.”

The same held true as the Cardinal faced its top competition of the season. Tennessee (the future NCAA champion) assumed the No. 4 ranking and had its 11th straight win over No. 11 Stanford, 77-60. Only two days later on the road, the Cardinal lost 74-69 to then-No. 8 Georgia.

Stanford dropped to a 2-3 record, its lowest since the 1999-2000 season, when the Cardinal went on to a 21-9 final and lost in the NCAA second round to the Lady Bulldogs.

“We played against two top-10 teams, [and] we’re disappointed in what we did,” VanDerveer said. “I think that we have very competitive players, and [a loss] makes people even more competitive. It makes them more determined.”

That determination was needed soon with Pac-10 competition around the corner. Fortunately for Stanford, another good thing come out of its November road losses: the breakthrough of freshman forward Jayne Appel.

Appel, a McDonald’s All-American and 2006 Gatorade State Player of the Year, came off an injured left shoulder to play in the Nov. 13 BYU loss. But it was in the Tennessee game that she made her presence known when she posted 23 points, five rebounds and five blocks in 30 minutes of play. She followed up with 16 points and nine rebounds at Georgia.

More stellar performances followed, and after twice earning Pac-10 Player of the Week honors, Appel said she felt like she had “been able to piece it all together.”

“Hopefully, for the rest of the year, it’ll be like that,” she added.

And it was. As Appel stepped up for the Cardinal, the women returned to form with 17 straight wins. The freshman proved a force on the inside, along with Smith and senior center Kristen Newlin. And at the end of the season, Appel was named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and had averaged 13.2 points and 7.5 rebounds.

Another new face, freshman JJ Hones, also found her place as the Cardinal’s go-to point guard. With sophomore Rosalyn Gold-Onwude out on injury, Hones started 20 games and averaged 4.9 points, 3.9 assists and 24.3 minutes per game until Feb. 4.

That day, Stanford watched another point guard fall to injury. Just 39 seconds into the game, Hones came off a three-point attempt and tore her ACL; she was out for the season. Things only went downhill from there, though, as Stanford had its 17-game streak broken by then-No. 21 California, 72-57.

As for the point-guard void, at first it looked like it would be filled by junior guard Candice Wiggins. But the Cardinal was able to find a new star in Melanie Murphy; the freshman’s late-season efforts led her to average 14.6 minutes and 2.4 assists per game as she helped get the ball inside to Appel.

Wiggins would also encounter injury trouble. The two-time Pac-10 Player of the Year (a first-team All-Pac-10 honoree this season) had a more statistically subdued season, averaging a team-high 16.9 points (less than last year’s 21.8 points). But her presence was felt even more all around the court, with stellar ball-handling and team leadership.

It was no surprise then that Wiggins wasn’t the only one feeling the hurt when she sprained her ankle for a second time this season. (Wiggins also struggled with an injured hamstring during the season.)

Stanford was able to close out the conference season with six straight wins, securing the Pac-10 regular-season title for the seventh straight time. And when Wiggins did return, in the first game of the Pac-10 Tournament, it was with a vengeance. In the three games of the tourney, she averaged 21.7 points and had two huge defensive moves to pull out the championship win over the Cardinal’s top Pac-10 rival, Arizona State, 62-55.

“Candice gives everything she can give,” VanDerveer said after the championship match. “She’s the most competitive person in the room. She’s phenomenal.”

From there, the Cardinal found itself a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament and a No. 5 national rank. After steamrolling Idaho State, 95-58, Stanford’s season was cut short against Florida State.

With that, four members of the team ended their Cardinal careers: Smith, Newlin, Markisha Coleman and Clare Bodensteiner. Smith and Newlin will especially be missed in the Cardinal’s post. Smith averaged 13.9 points and 7.6 rebounds on the season, while Newlin averaged 7.9 rebounds.

Now, Stanford must move on without them. Although Wiggins has only one more year left with the Cardinal, the team’s rising talent — Appel, Hones, Murphy and Gold-Onwude — will likely ensure future successful seasons. As will Stanford’s No. 4 recruiting class for the coming year: Hannah Donaghe, Kayla Pedersen, Jeanette Pohlen and Ashley Cimino, a 6-foot-3 forward and Gatorade State Player of the Year.