KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Michigan State women's basketball team is following in the footsteps of its male counterparts in more ways than one.

The Spartans beat top-ranked Stanford 76-69 in the Kansas City Regional Tuesday to advance to the Final Four. They will play Tennessee on Sunday in the RCA Dome in Indianapolis - the same building in which Tom Izzo's men's team won it all five years ago.

Never before in the 32-year history of the program had the women gotten as far as the round of 16. Now, the Spartans are in the Final Four, one win from the title game - just as the men are. The men's team will play North Carolina in St. Louis on Saturday.

"Here we are with a berth to the Final Four and it is a bit overwhelming for our family," Michigan State coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "It's a program thing and a family thing and it's a great thing for Michigan State."

Kristin Haynie, the 5-foot-8 senior guard who had a triple-double in the semifinal victory over Vanderbilt, was voted regional MVP. Besides expert floor leadership, she had 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for a Michigan State team (32-3) that's rolling into Indy on a school-record 16-game winning streak. Liz Shimek had 24 points and 10 rebounds.

"The leadership of Kristin was unbelievable," McCallie said. "I'm thrilled for her and the way she directed the team ... the courage in which she led."

Not every shot she made was textbook-perfect. A running, hurried 3-pointer a few seconds into the second half brought a grimace to the face of her coach.

"I sometimes questioned her shot selection," McCallie deadpanned. "But not for more than half a second."

Haynie got another quick bucket and then rebounded a miss by Stanford that led to Victoria Lucas-Perry's bucket and a 34-28 lead.

Candice Wiggins, Stanford's 5-foot-11 freshman standout, momentarily stopped the surge with a 3. But Shimek, the 6-1 junior who struggled in the semifinal over Vanderbilt, then hit two buckets as the Spartans launched the second half with a 17-5 run, turning a 28-28 halftime tie into a 45-33 lead.

Stanford (32-3) came back to tie it three times, but never could get the lead.

"You dream about this moment and you dream about going to the NCAA Final Four and it hurts so much and you're so close," said Wiggins, who led the Cardinal with 19 points. "It's really hard, especially when you have a team like this. This is a special team."

In the final seconds, Wiggins' three-point play made it 70-69.

But then the Cardinal's 23-game winning streak and dream of a seventh trip to the Final Four ended when Haynie passed to Lindsay Bowen, who was 0-for-7 but then made a 15-footer with 22.8 seconds left.

Stanford's Kelley Suminski missed a long 3 with 22 seconds left.

"I wanted it. I know I hadn't been shooting well the whole game and I thought that was my chance to redeem myself," Suminski said tearfully.

Michigan State wound up with a nine-rebound advantage after getting outrebounded by one in the first half.

"We all decided right then and there it's not going to happen, we're not going to get outrebounded again," Shimek said. "It was just that mentality. We were getting better shot selection, so we were rebounding better, being in a better position."

Michigan State is the sixth school to send teams to both the men's and women's Final Four. Connecticut did it last year and each team won the national title, the only time that has happened.

"We always looked across the hall and saw on the men's side all the hardware they've got," Haynie said. "Then we looked at ours and we didn't have any - till this year."

Kelli Roehrig had 10 points and eight rebounds for Michigan State, and Rene Haynes had 14 points.

Brooke Smith had 16 for Stanford, and Suminski had 11.

"There's a lot invested emotionally with the players and how hard they worked and all the things they sacrificed to be in this situation," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "It will probably hit me at 4 in the morning. And it will hit hard."