Norman, Okla. ? In one game, All-American Nicole Powell has the chance to achieve two goals she has held for years — beating Tennessee and getting to the Final Four.

The Stanford standout has wanted to beat the Vols since she was a little girl.

She’ll get her opportunity tonight, when sixth-seeded Stanford (27-6) takes on the top-seeded Vols (29-3) in the Midwest Regional final. The winner will play LSU in the Final Four.

“They have a good program, and they have so much history,” Powell said. “They are the ultimate powerhouse, and you can join them or you can beat them.”

Powell is a three-time Naismith Award finalist and a two-time Pac-10 player of the year. She ranks in the top four in career points, rebounds, assists, three-pointers and free throws at Stanford, a program with some impressive history of its own. Stanford has put 18 players in the WNBA.

With six career triple-doubles, she’s the only player in Pac-10 history to accomplish the feat more than once.

But she’s never beaten Tennessee, although she came close earlier this season.

She had 32 points and 16 rebounds in the Cardinal’s 70-66 overtime loss to Tennessee on Dec. 14 at Maples Pavilion. She missed her final 10 field-goal attempts in that game, including shots that would have won the game in regulation and tied it with 11 seconds left in overtime.

“I think in the end she could just as easily have made a couple of shots,” Vols coach Pat Summitt said.

A win would lift Stanford to its first Final Four since its string of three straight was broken with a loss to 16th-seeded Harvard in 1998.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said Powell didn’t need to reach the Final Four to validate her greatness as a player.

“In the locker room yesterday, she was hugging people with a fierceness,” VanDerveer said. “This is not as far as she wants to go, but she doesn’t have to hang her head.”