DATE: Friday, March 28, 1997                TAG: 9703280819

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CINCINNATI                        LENGTH:   81 lines

LADY MONARCHS 7-POINT UNDERDOGS TO CARDINAL

Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry says her team's run to the Final Four is like eating an elephant.

How have the Lady Monarchs done it? ``One bite at a time,'' said Larry, who has been spotted holding a small, stuffed elephant during the NCAA tournament.

But tonight Mideast Regional champ ODU runs into a bear of a Stanford team that has rolled through the West Regional, capping it off with an 82-47 rout of Georgia in the final.

In the tournament, the Cardinal has five players averaging double figures, with Olympia Scott getting 16 points per game and Naismith Award winner Kate Starbird 14. A semifinalist a year ago, Stanford (34-1) is making its sixth Final Four appearance in eight years.

``We had a taste of the semifinals last year,'' said Cardinal point guard Jamila Wideman, ``and since we lost that game there's nothing I've wanted more than to get back in it.''

ODU hasn't enjoyed the recent success of Stanford in the postseason, but the Lady Monarchs (33-1) have returned to the Final Four for the first time in 12 years and first time ever for Larry as a head coach.

``It's been 12 years since Old Dominion had a chance to represent their school and their city in the Final Four,'' Larry said. ``And we're baaack.''

Also what's back: A matchup with Stanford. It was Dec. 17 when Stanford entered the ODU field house the top team in the nation only to be upset by the Lady Monarchs 83-66.

Stanford hasn't exactly gone away. The Cardinal hasn't lost since falling of ODU, and coach Tara VanDerveer and the players point to that game as the crucial turning point in the season.

``Maybe it shouldn't have been, but that was the first time we had a chance to sit down and decide what kind of season we wanted to have,'' Wideman said. ``I learned how important the mental approach is to the game.''

Since then, Stanford has added a player, 6-foot-2 sophomore Kristin Folkl, who signed with the school for basketball and volleyball. Folkl played both sports as a freshman, but chose volleyball this year, starting on the national championship team. After talking it over with her squad, VanDerveer called Folkl in February after a series of injuries thinned out the Cardinal depth. Shooting 66 percent from the field, Folkl averages 9.9 points and 8.0 rebounds.

``In the world of the Kate Starbirds, Kristin Folkl may well be the best player on that basketball team,'' Larry said. ``She's rebounding with reckless abandon, she's running the floor, she's shooting the ball with a great deal of confidence, and she knows the patterns. She's taken them to a different level.''

So the question begs, what can ODU do to stop them? When asked if ODU would follow Georgia coach Andy Landers' plan to run with the Cardinal for 40 minutes, Larry tersely replied, ``We're going to contain them for 40 minutes.''

Containing Stanford transition's game is key for the Lady Monarchs, as it was in ODU's early-season win. Starbird and Wideman were largely held in check as the ODU offense clicked on all cylinders from Clarisse Machanguana and Nyree Roberts dominating the paint to Aubrey Eblin nailing clutch 3-pointers.

But despite that score, ODU, having not played its bast basketball in the tournament, comes into tonight's game a 7-point underdog.

``Our team has not been finishing well,'' said point guard Ticha Penicheiro. ``We've been missing easy shots and we cannot do that against Stanford.''

And although the Lady Monarchs are not displaying the sharpness they had in the regular season - they had two close calls in wins over Purdue and Florida - they survived, Larry stressed, against good teams. LSU was ranked seventh in the AP poll, Florida ninth.

``An ugly win is a heck of a lot better than a pretty loss,'' she said.

Being an underdog appears to be a welcome respite from the pressures of a No. 1 seed.

``We're going to go in with nothing to lose,'' said ODU senior guard Stacy Himes. ``That's how we're going to play.'' ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN/file photo

Ticha Penicheiro led ODU to an 83-66 win over Kate Starbird and

Stanford in December. But the Cardinal has been impressive in the

tourney, while ODU has struggled.

[Color photo]

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer saw the Dec. 17 loss to ODU as the

season's turning point.

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