Familiar Rivalry on Court : Volleyball: Perennial powers UCLA and Stanford meet today in Texas with an NCAA championship on the line.

Of course, it had to end this way. The UCLA and Stanford women’s volleyball teams are the sport’s heavyweights, capturing the attention of the volleyball community whenever they meet, as, inevitably, they do at some point each year in the NCAA playoffs.

This season is no different, and the stakes could be no higher when UCLA (32-3) plays Stanford (31-1) in the championship game tonight at 5:30 p.m. PST in a highly anticipated match between the powerful Pacific 10 Conference’s two best teams.

Whenever and wherever these teams meet, crowds swell to three times their normal size. More than 7,000 tickets have been sold for tonight’s final in the 16,300-seat Frank Erwin Center on the University of Texas campus.

“It’s a perfect setup,” Stanford junior Cary Wendell said.

Wendell was a freshman when Stanford won its only championship, defeating UCLA in 1992. That year, the Bruins, led by Natalie Williams, were undefeated and considered the favorite to win their third consecutive national championship before Stanford, led by Bev Oden, beat them in the final.

That match was a pay-back for the 1991 season, when Stanford lost only one regular-season match before UCLA swept the Cardinal in the West Regional final at Maples Pavilion.

“I think it is the rivalry in collegiate women’s volleyball,” Stanford Coach Don Shaw said.

For the last four years, either UCLA has ended Stanford’s season in the playoffs or vice versa. Last season, UCLA defeated Stanford in the West Regional semifinals before losing to Brigham Young in the regional final.

Overall, UCLA leads the series, 31-13. UCLA also has won most of the two teams’ playoff matches, 5-1. The Bruins have won three NCAA titles, in 1984, ’90 and ’91.

But the Bruins say they will be concentrating only on today’s match, not history.

“I think everybody knows what the rivalry is and what it means to the school,” UCLA outside hitter Jenny Johnson said. “But right now, the rivalry is not what’s important. The championship is what’s important.”

The Cardinal won the conference title with a 17-1 record, UCLA second at 16-2. They split their two regular-season matches, each winning at home.

Stanford has the sport’s most dominating player in Kristin Folkl, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter from St. Louis who will also play basketball.

But USC Coach Lisa Love, whose team was swept by Stanford in the West Regional final, was impressed with the other players too.

“Although Kristin gets a lot of the publicity, and she is a wonderful player, it’s not just about her,” she said. “They are very well-balanced. They can attack you very effectively from a lot of positions.”

Another thing about the Cardinal players: They’re big. In addition to Folkl, Stanford’s starting lineup includes middle blockers Barbara Ifejika, a 6-2 freshman, and Anne Wicks, a 6-2 senior.

“I think it’s kind of intimidating for us to walk in the gym and have them see this front line that just goes on and on and on,” said Marnie Triefenbach, a 6-0 outside hitter.

But if any team can give second-ranked Stanford a close match, it’s third-ranked UCLA.

Johnson, a starting outside hitter for UCLA, said she and her teammates will not be in awe when Cardinal players walk into the gym.

“They are probably a bigger team than we are, but that’s not intimidating at all,” said Johnson, who led UCLA with a team-high 18 kills in its five-game semifinal victory over Penn State on Thursday. Johnson raised her level of play to compensate for Annett Buckner, UCLA’s leading hitter, who struggled in that match.

UCLA barely survived its semifinal match, but Stanford gained momentum with an easy sweep over Ohio State. Stanford has not lost a game since Nov. 19.

Although Stanford looks like the team to beat, the rivals are so familiar with each other that neither might have an edge.

“The last time we played, they were calling out our plays before we ran them,” Shaw said.