BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Breanna Stewart said when she was a freshman that her goal at UConn was to win four national championships.

The Huskies' star senior stands two victories away from backing up that statement as the Huskies are back in the Final Four for a ninth straight season.

That's no surprise the way they've run through the season, winning all 36 of their games by double digits. Two more wins will give UConn an unprecedented feat with a fourth consecutive title.

“We're really excited to go to the Final Four,” Stewart said.

“I think that anytime you go, it's a lot of fun. There's a lot going on. This is our last trip with this team; last time to be with this team. And I think we're just going to enjoy it. Especially as seniors. Last time it's going to be like this.”

While it seems that making the national semifinals is an annual rite of spring for UConn, Oregon State, Washington and Syracuse are doing so for the first time.

It's the first time since 1994 that three women's teams will make their first Final Four appearance in the same season. That was the year before UConn won the first of its 10 national championships.

So much for there being no parity in women's basketball.

“Maybe it's taken awhile, but there are a lot of good players out there and there's a lot of really good coaches out there, and I'm glad that everybody in the country got to see two teams that maybe you don't get to see much at all,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “So I'm thrilled for them.”

Oregon State, which will face UConn on Sunday night, isn't a major surprise after winning the Pac-12 and earning a No. 2 seed in the NCAAs. Still, Oregon State hadn't won more than one game in the NCAAs before this season. Coach Scott Rueck has rebuilt this program.

“I'm just the happiest, proudest coach that you could possibly imagine right now, and I could go on forever about this group,” Rueck said after his team knocked off No. 1 seed Baylor.

“So this is a great, great day, and I think that this day signifies just anything is possible. People who know our story and have been following this group, there is no other words to describe it.

“It's a great sports story. It has nothing to do with women's basketball. It has to do with sports and the human spirit and that might be kind of deep, but that's what this is, a group that believed when there was no reason to. To see themselves through a Final Four, it's mind-blowing. I'm just super happy!”

Syracuse and Washington shocked nearly everyone, pulling off major upsets to advance. The Washington Huskies became the first No. 7 seed to go this far since Minnesota pulled it off in 2004.

“We're not done yet,” Washington coach Mike Neighbors said. “?‘What's Next?' has been our motto. It's going to continue to be all the way through Indy.”

The Orange had never made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Now the No. 4 seed in the Sioux Falls regional is two victories away from a title.

It was a good weekend for Syracuse as the men's team also advanced to the Final Four, marking the 12th time a school has had two teams playing the final weekend of the season.

“It's not easy. There's no question about it,” Syracuse men's coach Jim Boeheim said Monday. “It's a tremendous accomplishment.

“Besides the fact just to have two from the same school, for these two particular teams the odds were pretty steep to get to the Final Four. I'm happy for the school. I think it's good for the soul of the school that we have good programs.”

NOTES: Since 2005, no team has beaten UConn if they didn't play the Huskies that season or the year before. Only three teams have done it (Duke, North Carolina and Michigan State) since the Huskies won their third national championship in 2002. None of the three teams left have played UConn the past two seasons. The Pac-12, which has had an outstanding NCAA tournament, has two teams in the national semifinals for the first time. It's the 11th time since 2004 that a conference has had at least two teams in the Final Four. For the first time in Final Four history, all four coaches are men.