Nov. 17, 2010

STANFORD, Calif. -

This week's live Stanford TV, radio and webcast schedule listed below.

Football
A quick look at the polls shows Stanford ranked No. 7 by AP, No. 8 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and holding down the sixth spot in this week’s BCS standings. It marks Stanford’s highest ranking since the 1970 season, when the Cardinal also was ranked sixth. The Cardinal will bring its highest AP ranking into the Big Game since 1951, when the third-ranked Indians were upset by 19th-ranked Cal, 20-7.

Stanford will bring a five-game winning streak into the 113th Big Game on Saturday, it’s longest streak since the 1996 season, when the Cardinal won its last four regular season games prior to shutting out Michigan State in the Sun Bowl. A win over Cal would give Stanford its first six-game winning streak since 1991.

Stanford will be looking to reverse its Big Game fortunes. Cal has won the past two and seven out of the past eight Big Games, including four straight in Berkeley. Prior to Cal’s latest run, Stanford held a 14-3-1 advantage in the series from 1984-2001.

One of many mantras that run through the Stanford program is, “It’s about the team, the team, the team.” Flash back to the final minutes of Stanford’s game with Arizona State, when Anthony Wilkerson ran 19 yards on a second-and-six play from the ASU 23. Wilkerson seemingly had a clear path to the end zone, but elected to take a dive on the 4-yard line in order to keep the clock rolling. Wilkerson got the directive from the sideline prior to the play and obliged, ending the game for all intents and purposes right there. Some asked wouldn’t a touchdown and a PAT achieved the same objective? Possibly so, but it also would have given the Sun Devils the opportunity to pull off a miracle finish, such as returning the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown and then recovering an on-side kick. After Wilkerson took a knee instead of carrying the ball into the end zone, secondary coach Derek Mason exclaimed, “That’s Stanford Football right there.”

Congratulations to Chase Beeler, Ryan Whalen, Owen Marecic and Taylor Skaufel on earning spots in the Pac-10’s All-Academic first team. A total of 19 Stanford players were represented on the squad. Rankings: No. 7 (AP), No. 8 (Coaches), No. 6 (BCS).

Men's Basketball
Stanford defeated San Diego, 64-48, in its season opener on Monday night, receiving contributions from two surprise sources off the bench. Andrew Zimmermann led all scorers with 14 points, matching his career-high total achieved twice last year. Gabriel Harris added 12 points on 5-6 shooting with two three-pointers. Harris had not scored more than five points in any game last season and finished with three triples for the entire year. The Cardinal hosts Virginia on Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m. Ranking: Unranked.

Women’s Basketball
It takes a lot of smarts to get into Stanford, and senior forward Kayla Pedersen is no exception. Her intelligence and quick retention abilities allow Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer to use Pedersen in four different positions on the court. Sunday, Pedersen started the season-opening victory over Rutgers as the Cardinal's shooting guard, and as the game went on spent time at each forward position. By game's end, she had again proved herself the team's Swiss Army knife due to her skills at scoring (13 points), rebounding (six), passing (four assists) and defense (one steal). On another note, Pedersen enters Friday's game just eight rebounds away from becoming only the fourth player in Stanford history to amass 1,000 career rebounds, and 10 points away from entering the top 10 on Stanford's career scoring list. Rankings: No. 3 (AP), No. 3 (Coaches).

Cross Country
Stanford teams did enough at regionals to get through to the NCAA Championships, this Monday in Terre Haute, Ind. The Cardinal men had five runners named all-region: Chris Derrick, Elliott Heath, Jacob Riley, Andrew Berberick and Miles Unterreiner. The women had four: Kathy Kroeger, Stephanie Marcy, Alex Dunne and Georgia Griffin. Men's Ranking: No. 1 (USTFCCCA); Women's Ranking: No. 7 (USTFCCCA).

Field Hockey
Junior goalie Alessandra Moss had an outstanding game in Stanford’s 3-1 loss to defending champion North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The New York City native made a career-high 17 saves off 25 North Carolina shot attempts in an outstanding performance that prevented the Tar Heels for putting the game completely out of reach. Final ranking: No. 19.

Sailing
Stanford closed out the fall schedule with a second place finish at the Pacific Coast Conference two-day Dinghy Championships, falling to host UC Santa Barbara for the conference title. The Cardinal, which had won the first three conference championships fought back from an early fifth-place showing midway through Day One to finish second after Day Two. Oliver Toole, who was named to the U.S. youth national team prior to the start of competition, won the laser division by winning the last race. Coed rankings: No. 13 (Sailing World); Women's Rankings: No. 11 (Sailing World).

Men’s Soccer
Jason Dodson was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com list of the top 100 freshmen in the nation. Ranking: Unranked.

Women’s Soccer
National scoring leader Christen Press has been the focus of the Stanford offense, scoring 23 goals this season. At one point, she had a 10-match goal-scoring streak. However, Press hasn’t scored for three games. Cause for alarm? Hardly, all eight Stanford goals in that span have been scored by different players. In fact, all five goals over the first two rounds of NCAA Tournament play have been scored by different players – all freshmen or sophomores. Also, four of those five were by players who have spent most of the season as reserves. Ranking: No. 1 (NSCAA).

Men's Swimming
The Stanford men won two events and tied another, while Cal won another three and tied one as well at last week's tri-distance meet between the Bay Area rivals. One of the world's top distance swimmers, Stanford's Chad La Tourette, won the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyles to win the meet’s longest event for the second consecutive year. Eirik Ravnan tied with Martin Liivamagi in the three individual medleys of 100, 200 and 400 yards. Stanford captain John Criste also was a winner, taking home the title in the breaststroke, winning the 100 and 200-yard events. Ranking: No. 3 (collegeswimming.com).

Women’s Volleyball
Stanford libero Gabi Ailes made history last weekend as she became the first Stanford player ever to record 2,000 career digs. The senior, currently ranked seventh all-time in Pac-10 history, is on pace to finish her career in the top-5 on the conference list. This weekend, the Cardinal battles rival California for sole possession of first place in the Pac-10. The teams will meet Friday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. Ranking: No. 2 (AVCA).

Men’s Water Polo
The Big Splash between Stanford and California has a history of being a hard-fought contest that comes down to the final minutes. Entering the final Big Splash of this opening decade of the new millennium, Stanford has won seven of the past nine events, including five straight. Yet of the past nine Big Splashes, only one has been decided by more than two goals, and that came in 2005 when Stanford won 7-4. Five of the past nine have been decided by one goal, with the 2007 edition going to sudden-death overtime, when Stanford scored the deciding goal in a 10-9 win. This year’s Big Splash is Friday in Berkeley, at 6 p.m. Ranking: No. 3 (CWPA).

Wrestling
For the first time in school history, Stanford will have two representatives at the NWCA All-Star Classic. The event, to be held Sunday, Nov. 21 in Fresno, Calif., dates back to 1967. This year, senior Zack Giesen will wrestle in an exhibition match at 184 pounds, and junior Nick Amuchastegui will wrestle in the featured bout at 174. Ranking: No. 33 (InterMat).

This week's media listings for live Cardinal sports: