From: ESPN.com —

Jayne Appel and her Stanford teammates cruised into Haas Pavilion on Friday morning after a picturesque 45-minute drive across the Bay Bridge. The arena will be packed with Cardinal fans when Stanford takes on Ohio State in perhaps the NCAA regional semifinals’ most intriguing matchup.

But this is hardly home sweet home for Stanford — and familiarity isn’t necessarily a good thing for Appel and the second-seeded Cardinal (31-4).

Stanford has lost enough big games in friendly confines over the past few years to make the Cardinal positively allergic to any notions of a homecourt advantage when they meet the third-seeded Buckeyes on Saturday night in the Berkeley Regional, which fields three schools from the upper Midwest and the not-so-comfortable Cardinal.

“I don’t think we’re counting on any points or any extra advantage because we’re so close to home,” said Appel, the Pac-10 player of the year preparing for a matchup with Big Ten player of the year Jantel Lavender. “I would love to say that it’s an advantage, offshore pharmacies but my freshman year, we lost (an NCAA tournament game) at home, on our own court.”

And it’s also happened several times before. Stanford lost a first-round NCAA game at Maples Pavilion in 1998 to Harvard, still the only 16th seed to win; a second-round game in 2003 to Minnesota, when the Cardinal wasted the chance to make a Final Four run without ever leaving their campus; and another second-round game in 2007, when Florida State upset them 68-61 to end Appel’s freshman season.

One other thing, Appel says: “This was the last place we lost.”

At Haas Pavilion on Jan. 18, California handed the Cardinal their first loss in Berkeley since 1993. Stanford is perfect in its 18 games since, rolling to another Pac-10 title and the tournament crown before routing UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State last weekend.

The Cardinal’s meeting with the Buckeyes carries heavy stakes, with the winner becoming a strong favorite to advance to the Final Four in St. Louis. These top-10 programs are the two highest seeds remaining in the Berkeley Regional, which already has lost top-seeded Duke, defending national champion Tennessee and always-dangerous Texas.

“There’s no Monday night game unless you’re successful Saturday,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We’re absolutely thrilled to be here, though. When we played here back in January, I said to our team that this was our goal, to come back to play here at Cal. I think we’ve really improved a lot.”

Stanford hasn’t faced many opponents with the combination of energy, overall talent and momentum possessed by the Buckeyes (29-5), who also won the Big Ten’s regular-season and tournament titles. With 10 straight wins for the inside-out combination of versatile …..

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