The Pitt women's basketball team is enjoying its role as NCAA tournament upstart after unexpectedly knocking off third-seeded Baylor Monday night to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history.

The sixth-seeded Panthers will continue in their role as underdogs when they play No. 2 seed Stanford in an NCAA third-round game at 11:30 p.m. Saturday in Spokane, Wash.

It is a role that has its advantages.

The pressure in the game is clearly on Stanford, which hasn't always flourished as the favorite in the NCAA tournament.

Stanford is one of the elite women's basketball programs in the country. Coach Tara VanDerveer led the Cardinal to five trips to the Final Four in an eight-year span from 1990-97. She won NCAA championships in 1990 and '92.

But the past 10 years have been filled with NCAA disappointments. In 1998, Stanford became the first team in the history of the women's or men's tournament to lose to a No. 16 seed when the top-seeded Cardinal fell to Harvard. That was the first of six times the Cardinal did not make it out of the second round of the tournament in the past decade.

---

Saturday

• Game: No. 6 Pitt women (24-10) vs. No. 1 Stanford (32-3), 11:30 p.m.
• Where: Spokane, Wash.
• TV: ESPN2

---

Last season, Stanford lost a home game in the second round to Florida State as a No. 2 seed.

VanDerveer said the expectations in years past could be burdensome to her and her players.

"Sometimes I think it would be," she said. "We've been to the Elite Eight three times in the past four years, but we haven't been back to the Final Four or won a national championship. I try to look at what we are doing, not what we haven't done. Whether it is media or fans, people tend to focus on the negative. We've had great players and great teams, but sometimes you run into injuries or bad matchups. The NCAA is full of surprises."

Stanford is on a mission to break the mold this weekend and advance to another Final Four. The Cardinal easily dispatched its first two NCAA tournament opponents, beating Cleveland State, 85-47, in the first round and UTEP, 88-54, in the second round.

Senior Candice Wiggins scored a school-record 44 points against UTEP, the most scored in a women's NCAA tournament game since Sheryl Swoopes scored 47 for Texas Tech in the 1993 championship game.

Stanford has won 20 consecutive games entering Saturday's game against Pitt. The Cardinal has not lost since Jan. 6.

"There are expectations for us to be successful, but I look at this year as different from years past," Wiggins said. "This year, we don't talk about those things. We just deal with them on the court. I'm really excited about this team. We've done things that other teams haven't in the past."

Wiggins was speaking mainly of beating Tennessee in December. The 73-69 overtime victory snapped an 11-game losing streak in the rivalry series with the Volunteers. That triumph continues to fuel the confidence level of the players.

"We're playing as the hunter," freshman Kalya Pedersen said. "I don't feel like we're facing any pressure. And I think that's going to help us."

Wiggins said the youth on the team helps diffuse the talk of pressure. Nine of the 13 players on the roster are freshmen or sophomores, and they're oblivious to the history of past NCAA disappointments.

"They're not afraid," Wiggins said.

VanDerveer senses something else about this team. It's a quality that she has seen before.

"What I like about this team is what I liked about the national championship teams," she said.

"This team is committed to doing the very best they can do. We're going out there every day, and like Candice says, 'We're putting it on the floor.' We're not worried about what people are saying. We're just saying, 'Let's energize each other and give our best effort.' "