Short Trip to Santa Clara

THE GAME: Stanford plays at Santa Clara on Friday, November 13 at 7 p.m. Joe Ritzo and Thomas Dunn have the call on ESPN+ and Nico Horning will handle radio on GoStanford.com, the Stanford Athletics app and Learfield’s Varsity Network.

THE RUNDOWN: During the nonconference, Stanford will play five Power 4 opponents and five true road games, the only Power 4 school to hit both of those marks ... The Cardinal is tied with Louisville and Tennessee for the most nonconference true road games among Power 4 schools ... Stanford's 12-person roster includes four freshmen, four sophomores and four juniors ... The Cardinal is one of three Power 4 programs without a senior or fifth-year on its roster along with Boston College and BYU ... Stanford returns 25.8 percent of its scoring, 22.4 percent of its rebounding and 29.9 percent of its minutes from a season ago ... Hailee Swain scored 21 against Arizona, 22 against Saint Mary's and a career-high 26 against UC Davis, and is the first Stanford guard with back-to-back-to-back 20-point games since Kiana Williams in March 2021 ... Seven newcomers are on the roster in 2026-27, including transfers Ilse de Vries, Inés Sotelo Míguez and Charlotte Tuhy ... de Vries (Netherlands) and Sotelo Míguez (Spain) are the first Dutch and Spanish players in program history ... On Halloween night, Ashten Prechtel won a WNBA championship with the Golden State Valkyries, becoming Stanford’s eighth WNBA champion all-time and first since Nneka Ogwumike with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2016 ... Prechtel, a 2021 NCAA champion with the Cardinal, joins Sonja Henning, a 1990 national champion, as Stanford alumnae to win both NCAA and WNBA titles.

VS. SANTA CLARA: Stanford and Santa Clara have met 36 times, and the Cardinal holds a 31-5 advantage all-time, including a 13-2 mark on the road. The last four meetings in the series have all come in Maples Pavilion and Friday will be Stanford's first game at Santa Clara since a 92-57 win on Nov. 11, 2012, in which Chiney Ogwumike had 22 points. In last season's game at Stanford, the Cardinal won 79-58 on Nov. 6 behind an 11-point, 12-rebound double-double from Alexandra Eschmeyer. Stanford has won 15 of its last 17 against Santa Clara, while the Broncos have scored over 70 points only once against the Cardinal in their last 10 meetings.

SWAIN HAS BEEN SPECTACULAR »

• Leading Stanford's attack has been sophomore point guard Hailee Swain, who has upped her career high in scoring in each game this season, scoring 21 against Arizona, 22 against Saint Mary's and 26 against UC Davis.
• She's averaging 23.0 points on 57.8 percent shooting (26-of-45) and is one of only four guards in the country with those numbers along with Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo (27.3 ppg, .580 FG%), Maryland's Addi Mack (25.0 ppg, .625 FG%) and American's Molly Driscoll (23.0 ppg, .667 FG%).
• Swain is the first Stanford guard with back-to-back-to-back 20-point games since Kiana Williams scored that many in three straight against Oregon State (20), UCLA (26) and Utah Valley (20) in March 2021, and the first Stanford guard to start a season with 20+ in each of the first three games of a season since Lili Thompson scored 26, 24 and 28 in the first three in 2014-15 against Boston College, UConn and Texas.
• Candice Wiggins is the last Stanford guard to average more than 20.0 ppg in a season when she put up 20.2 in her senior campaign of 2007-08.
• An ACC All-Freshman Team selection last season, Swain scored in double figures 23 times, the most for a Stanford freshman since Chiney Ogwumike in 2010-11 (also 23).
• She scored 357 total points, the most for a Stanford freshman since Kiana Williams in 2017-18 (363) and her 37 steals were the most for a Stanford freshman since Lacie Hull in 2018-19 (53).
• Swain was tied for second in the country in starts by a freshman and matched Chiney Ogwumike for the second-most starts by a freshman in program history (35).
• She played the third most minutes by a freshman at Stanford (1,050), trailing only Virginia Sourlis in 1982-83 (1,191) and Kayla Pedersen in 2007-08 (1,185). 

EARLY OPPORTUNITIES »

• During the nonconference, Stanford will play five Power 4 opponents and five true road games, the only Power 4 school to hit both of those marks.
• The Cardinal is tied with Louisville and Tennessee for the most nonconference true road games among Power 4 schools (5) and its five Power 4 opponents in the nonconference trails only South Carolina (8), Oklahoma (6), USC (6) and UCLA (6).
• The average Power 4 program plays just 1.87 true road games and 3.01 Power 4 opponents during the nonconference portion of its schedule.

YOUNG & HUNGRY »

• Hailee Swain’s one word to describe the upcoming season when asked at ACC Tipoff: ‘hungry.’
• Stanford's 12-person roster includes four freshmen, four sophomores and four juniors.
• The Cardinal is one of three Power 4 programs without a senior or fifth year on its roster along with Boston College and BYU.

EZIKE'S EMERGENCE »

• Another sophomore, Nora Ezike has been a revelation through three games, averaging 12.3 points on 61.5 percent shooting (16-of-26).
• She's sixth in the ACC in field goal percentage (62nd nationally) and was 3-of-4 from behind the arc in the win over UC Davis. She had made one 3-pointer in her career prior to Sunday.
• In very limited action last season, Ezike averaged 1.7 points and played a total of 36:54 in Stanford's 35 games.
• Against Saint Mary's on Nov. 4, she had career highs in points (18), rebounds (7) and steals (4) and was 8-of-10 from the floor. Ezike is the first Stanford player with 18 points, seven rebounds and four steals in a game since Cameron Brink at Washington State on February 11, 2024 (21 points, 11 rebounds, five steals) and is the 19th Cardinal player with that line in records dating back to 2002-03. Others on the list are Brink, Lexie Hull, Alanna Smith (2x), Brittany McPhee, Erica McCall (2x), Chiney Ogwumike (4x), Nneka Ogwumike, Jayne Appel, Candice Wiggins and Nicole Powell (4x).

BIG IMPACT BY IJIWOYE »

• Junior Shay Ijiwoye has been Swain's running mate in the backcourt and is averaging 10.3 points and team highs of 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game.
• She had six of Stanford's 16 steals in the win over Saint Mary's, the program's most in a game since Lexie Hull also had six in the NCAA Tournament against Kansas on March 20, 2022.
• Ijiwoye sets the tone for Stanford's defense and leads the team in fouls drawn by a wide margin with 18, many those by beating the player she is guarding to a spot and drawing a charge. Nora Ezike is second in fouls drawn this season with nine. 

NIGERIA BASKETBALL »

• Shay Ijiwoye and Nora Ezike had high-level international experience this summer playing with Nigeria’s senior national team for two months in its preparations for the FIBA World Cup.
• Ijiwoye earned a spot on Nigeria's 12-person roster for the 2026 FIBA World Cup in Berlin following camp in Chicago and games in China and Spain throughout August but was unable to compete due to a roster eligibility technicality.
• They were also with Nigeria for its WNBA preseason tour against the Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx and Indiana Fever in April and May 2026. Against the Fever on May 2, Ijiwoye scored a team-high 10 points and added three steals and three rebounds.