The irony of it all is frightening.

Early Tuesday afternoon, Stanford junior Kristin Folkl didn't have a care in the world. Her team had just been given a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament, and there was the junior Folkl fielding questions, not so much about her team's first-round opponent, but rather about her potential professional basketball career.

"Would you rather play in St. Louis if they open up a professional team since it is near your home town?"

The lightheartedness was apparent until one question darkened the mood and drew a noticeable pause from the Stanford star.

"I can't even imagine it at all," said Folkl about teammate Vanessa Nygaard's torn ACL. "The extremely mild ankle sprain that I got I thought was hard to deal with. I can't begin to understand what it would be like to have a major part of your knee torn apart."

Two hours later, Kristin Folkl began to understand.

In the midst of a routine fast-break drill during practice, Folkl drove to the basket for a right-handed layup and began screaming in pain. Initially Coach Tara VanDerveer thought, or more likely hoped, that her sixth-man had merely reaggravated her broken hand, but then she realized the severity of the situation.

"I went over there and I'm like, `It's her knee,"' said VanDerveer to reporters after practice. "I couldn't believe it. I still don't know what to think about it."

VanDerveer has endured every coach's nightmare throughout the past week. On Saturday, during her team's final regular season game against Oregon Sate, Nygaard, a fifth-year senior, went down in a heap and a subsequent MRI test revealed a ruptured ACL.

Thus, with her small forward out of the rotation, VanDerveer needed to make a quick change before facing Harvard on Saturday. It was a no brainer; everyone knew what would happen. Folkl, the team's leading scorer, rebounder and blocker would be given the starting nod. Nygaard's loss would be hard, but Folkl would soften the blow.

"This is a challenge for our team, but I think that we have enough ammunition to stay in the battle," said VanDeveer on Tuesday afternoon. "I am going to practice Kristin at the three [guard spot], and if she does play at the three then maybe I'll move some the freshmen into the post. I'm not going to throw up my hands because we still have Olympia Scott; we have Kristin Folkl."

Then to VanDerveer's horror, Folkl followed suit. An MRI test taken yesterday confirmed that she had torn not only her ACL, but also suffered bone bruises and structural damage to her meniscus.

Thus, the Stanford coach is now left with another starting void and no Kristin Folkl to play the role of the savior.

Stanford has played without Folkl in its lineup. For three straight seasons, while her teammates were battling through the first half of the season, Folkl's energies were focused on volleyball. Folkl, the 1997 NCAA Player of the Year, guided the Cardinal to its second straight NCAA Volleyball Championship this past fall.

Her decision to miss the first three months of the basketball season has caused a tug-of-war between the two programs, and Folkl has been caught in the middle.