STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford has its first game action of the 2025-26 season when it hosts Cal State LA in an exhibition on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.
FOLLOW » Live stats will be available on GoStanford.com via StatBroadcast and Tim Swartz will have the radio call on GoStanford.com, the Stanford Athletics app and Learfield's Varsity Network.
RUN IT BACK » Stanford beat Cal State LA in last season's exhibition, 91-70. Nunu Agara had game highs of 25 points, 13 rebounds and five assists to lead the Cardinal. She was one of six in double figures as Stanford shot 46.9 percent from the floor (30-of-64) and 91.3 percent at the free throw line (21-of-23).
PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS » The Cardinal was picked to finish sixth in the ACC in a vote of the league's 18 head coaches and Blue Ribbon Panel. Nunu Agara was named Preseason All-ACC and Hailee Swain and Lara Somfai landed on the six-person Preseason All-Freshman Team. Stanford received three votes in the Preseason AP Top 25.
RETURNING PRODUCTION » Stanford is near the top of the ACC in returning production, welcoming back 54.2 percent of its scoring (1,221 of 2,255 points), 49.7 percent of its rebounding (583 of 1,172 rebounds), 57.4 percent of its assists (251 of 437 assists) and 56.9 percent of its minutes played (3,585 of 6,300 minutes) from a season ago. The Cardinal is third in the ACC in returning points (Duke - 67.7%, Virginia 61.6%, Virginia Tech 54.7%), second in returning rebounds (Duke - 64.1%), third in returning assists (Virginia - 70.7%, Virginia Tech - 68.5%, Duke - 63.0%), and third in returning minutes (Duke - 68.1%, Virginia Tech - 57.6%).
CARDINAL CONTINUITY » The Cardinal only has one transfer on its roster in junior Mary Ashley Stevenson, who is in her second year on The Farm after playing one season at Purdue. Stanford has the fewest transfers on its roster among all 68 Power 4 programs. NC State, Washington and Oklahoma each have two. Among Power 4 schools, Stanford and Washington tied for the least amount of portal movement this offseason (total number of transfers in + transfers out).
FIRST CLASS » In addition to Stanford's returning core, the team added the nation's No. 3 recruiting class according to espnW HoopGurlz. Kate Paye’s first signing class as head coach includes three five-star talents (Swain, Somfai, Alexandra Eschmeyer) and two four-stars (Nora Ezike, Carly Amborn) according to espnW HoopGurlz, and four ranked in that publication’s top 100. Stanford’s three five-star signees tied for the national lead with Tennessee and LSU and the program’s most since it had four in the Class of 2019 (Haley Jones, Ashten Prechtel, Fran Belibi, Hannah Jump). Of the 24 women selected to be McDonald’s All Americans, Stanford (Eschmeyer, Somfai, Swain) and Tennessee had the most players suiting up next fall with three commits each. Stanford’s three McDonald’s All Americans were almost as many as the rest of the ACC combined (4).