Campaign Begins Against River Hawks

STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford field hockey is back in action for the 2026 season this week as the Cardinal begins the campaign with a three-game blitz, starting with a bout against UMass-Lowell on Friday, August 28. First strike is slated for 4 p.m. at Varsity Turf. 

FIRST STRIKE

Stanford is back in action having made its second-straight appearance in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Field Hockey Championship last season, falling in the quarterfinals to the No. 2-seeded Virginia Cavaliers, 4-3, in Louisville, Ky. In the match, UVA’s three, second-quarter goals seemed formidable to overcome, but Stanford’s grit and poise showed in the final 30 minutes, resulting in a second-half nail-biter that saw the No. 4 team in the country pushed to the brink. 

Stanford, which posted a strong season barring its results in 2025, returns 14 players from a season ago - including nine seniors - for 2026. The Cardinal, which graduated nine seniors in 2025, sees the return of Fifth-Year Ella Ganocy and Senior Star Horlock to the 2026 squad along with seven newcomers.

This weekend’s matchup against the River Hawks marks the first time the two squads have seen each other since Stanford’s departure from the America East Conference in 2023. The Cardinal currently leads the series 4-3 with its last win coming on Halloween in 2021 in what was a 3-0 win on the road. Friday’s matchup marks the first time Stanford will host the River Hawks on The Farm in the series’ eighth meeting.

Stanford returns 65% of its offensive production from the 2025 campaign including Natalie Hoppe (4 goals, 2 assists) and Summer Knight-Thompson (3 goals, 2 assists) who sat atop the team leaderboard as freshmen. The Cardinal also returns five players who recorded two assists from a season ago including Esther Pottebaum, Mia Clark and Liv Martin alongside Hoppe and Knight-Thompson. Defensively, Stanford returns seniors Mia Clark and Puja Nanjappa while bringing in sophomore transfer Caroline Richard (Liberty) and freshman Florien Van Tongeren to provide depth.

Sophomore Natalie Hoppe returns for her second season with the Cardinal having led the team in all three scoring categories including a team-high 10 points. Hoppe scored in four games during the campaign to tie for the team lead while posting two game-winning goals including the overtime winner against Boston College and her first collegiate goal in the 1-0 win against JMU.

Having appeared in a career-high 11 games last season and boasting a 3-4 record, Anya Jackson looks poised to have another strong season between the pipes. Jackson totaled 32 saves in her sophomore season while posting three wins including posting a penalty shootout win over No. 16 Louisville that saw her save three attempts. Jackson owns a 2.03 career goals-against average coupled with a .695 career save percentage in 14 games. 

Stanford welcomes seven players on The Farm including a mix of domestic and international talent. Jackie O’Donnell, Grace Essalih and Opal Sparling debut for the Cardinal as a trio of MAX Field Hockey Top 50 recruits including Sparling who ranked inside the Top 10. Also arriving on The Farm, Stanford welcomes highly-touted international recruits in Florien Van Tongeren (The Netherlands), Hannah Cutler (England), and Jula Proschel (Germany) that all have high-level playing experience overseas. 

Stanford squared off against 10 ranked opponents last season - including six in the top-five - across 14 games last season. The 10 ranked matchups are the most since the 2019 season when Stanford faced 11 Top 25 teams including four ranked inside the top five. Stanford posted a competitive record in its matches against ranked opponents that included four one-goal losses including to No. 7 Michigan, No. 6 Harvard and No. 4 Virginia.