Pac-10 bragging rights and a pair of top 10 national rankings will both be at stake Saturday at 2 p.m. when the No. 8 California women’s basketball team visits the Farm to face No. 7 Stanford.

EnlargeEnlarge
Senior guard Cissy Pierce and her Stanford teammates have their work cut out for them Saturday against arch-rival Cal. The Bears bring their best record in recent memory to bear against the Card in Maples Pavilion on Saturday afternoon. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/8408
Alex Oppenheimer

Senior guard Cissy Pierce and her Stanford teammates have their work cut out for them Saturday against arch-rival Cal. The Bears bring their best record in recent memory to bear against the Card in Maples Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Bears (17-2, 8-0 Pac-10) may be the last team in the league still undefeated in conference play, but the Cardinal (16-3, 6-2 Pac-10) has bounced back from its consecutive losses to USC and UCLA in January, eager to prove that the road to the Pac-10 title still runs through Palo Alto.

“It’s like a tournament atmosphere,” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. “There is a certain excitement when something is on the line.”

The Cardinal squad certainly proved that it could win its rivalry games this past weekend. Down 30-20 at halftime to Arizona State, Stanford righted itself as soon as the second half began and left as 60-56 victors.

The confidence and momentum gathered from that win is very important to VanDerveer and her players coming into this weekend’s key matchup.

“We know that to have a shot at the Pac-10 regular season title, we need to win this game,” VanDerveer said. “You’ve got to come out and do something special.”

Stanford’s three-headed monster of a senior guard Candice Wiggins (17.6 points per game), sophomore center Jayne Appel (15.6 points per game) and freshman forward Kayla Pedersen (12.4 points per game) will continue to drive the offense. The trio has scored just under 60 percent of the Cardinal’s points this season.

That number climbs when the Cardinal’s blowout victories — in which Stanford’s stars took more rest — are discounted. In the Cardinal’s close games — contests decided by 10 points or fewer — Wiggins, Appel and Pedersen are scoring almost 72 percent of the team’s points.

Wiggins and Appel went off in Stanford’s last meeting with the Bears in Berkeley in 2007. Wiggins scorched the Bears from outside, hitting six three-pointers for 18 points, while Appel rode 8-for-15 shooting to 19 points in 25 minutes of playing time.

California presents an interesting matchup for Stanford, as one of the only teams in the country that can throw two premier post players at the Cardinal’s elite inside duo of Appel and Pedersen.

Junior center Ashley Walker leads the Bears in both scoring and rebounding, with 16.6 points per game and 9.6 rebounds per game. Walker’s rebounding average is the best in the Pac-10. Fellow junior post Devanei Hampton — last year’s Pac-10 Player of the Year — missed part of the season with an injury but has returned to average 13.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.

The two, along with point guard Alexis Gray-Lawson, are primarily responsible for California’s highest-ever ranking in the latest national polls. Gray-Lawson missed last year’s game against Stanford after injuring her knee.

Last season, California came to Maples Pavilion and spoiled Stanford’s then-perfect Pac-10 record. There is no talk of revenge coming out of the Stanford camp, but the role reversal this time around is apparent to the Cardinal.

“In some ways it’s more fun chasing,” VanDerveer said. “It’s going to be a challenging game.”