The walls of Stanford’s basketball practice facility bear a singular quote: “Stanford, not a four-year decision but a lifetime decision”. The freshmen, exhausted but in high spirits, feel the impact of these words as they prepare for the start of their season — a season that will undoubtedly become an inflection point for the team.
Stanford women’s basketball is one of the most storied and successful programs in Division I history. Throughout the course of a 38-year career, former head coach Tara VanDerveer accumulated three national championships, 26 regular season Pac-12 Conference championships and the brief title of the winningest coach in NCAA history. Under her leadership, Stanford women’s basketball became synonymous with winning.
Last season was characterized by change. The Cardinal joined the ACC, lost two of its star players in Cameron Brink ‘24 and Kiki Iriafen ‘24 and welcomed a new head coach, Kate Paye. Paye, a longtime assistant coach and former player under VanDerveer, assumed her new role in the midst of a program rebuild. Despite an underwhelming end to the season, finishing with a 16-15 record and missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988, Paye maintained and reinforced the culture that has made Stanford a perennially dominant force.
“There are two really powerful motivators: pain and love,” said Paye. “And we experienced a lot of pain last year, and there’s a tremendous amount of love in our team and our program, for Stanford, for each other.”
In addition to pain and love, the Cardinal have a third motivator going into this season: one of the best freshmen classes in program history. Ranked by ESPN as the third strongest recruiting class nationwide, Hailee Swain, Nora Ezike, Lara Somfai, Carly Amborn and Alexandra Eschmeyer are the future of Stanford women’s basketball.
What Stanford fans can be most excited about, however, is not just individual highlight reels (though they are certainly capable of those too). It is the synergy of five new players who will fit seamlessly into a system built on teamwork.
Stanford’s system, built and fine-tuned by VanDerveer, values players who are versatile and unselfish. Eschmeyer, ranked No. 21 in her recruiting class, sees the value of VanDerveer’s Princeton offensive strategy: “I think Tara’s influence is definitely still here. We definitely love that style of play. We work on a very free flowing offense, which is great for someone like me and a lot of the girls on the team who play multiple positions,” said Eschmeyer.
At six-foot-five, Eschmeyer can play both the forward and center positions. What makes her — as well as fellow forward Somfai — unique from most post players is the ability to space the floor with three-point shooting and court vision. Ezike supplements strong paint work with beautiful fadeaways or floaters in the midrange.
The guards in this class bring a similar degree of versatility. Swain can combine her strength and incredible speed to drive to the basket for a layup, entirely unfazed when larger interior defenders help onto her. Amborn, at six-foot-two, has length and reach in addition to being a highly skilled sharpshooter from deep.
Despite such a wide arsenal of individual skills, a new and dynamic offensive style inevitably comes with growing pains.
“I’ve never run Princeton offense, so it was definitely hard at the beginning,” said Swain, a two-time gold medalist with Team USA and the No. 8 ranked recruit in her class. “But everyone is here to help me and help other people as well. I think I can bring a little bit of everything to this team, driving into the rim or a catch and shoot for a three, or finding my teammates for an open shot.”
Swain further details how the unwavering support she has received helped her adjust. She praises the bond of the freshmen group in particular.
“I love my freshmen. We all get along so well. We had our huge official visit together, and we were able to go through the summer together with our upperclassmen,” said Swain.
Ezike echoes her refrain. Ezike, the No. 85 ranked recruit in her class, exemplifies being a Stanford student-athlete as she graduated valedictorian of her high school and broke the schools’ single season scoring record.
“Yeah, I feel like we [the freshmen] are really close, and it’s been fun,” said Ezike. “But also the fact that there’s so many people on the team that are going through the exact same thing makes everything more enjoyable.”
This support system is more than a group of players who happen to get along well. It is the result of an intentional culture of uplifting others and acknowledging that a team is far more than the five players on the court at a given moment. Such emphasis is tangible in everything from Stanford’s unselfish ball movement to their practices, where coaches, managers and practice players are involved in team huddles and post-scrimmage push-ups alike. The team has a word for it: sisterhood.
“Sisterhood is how we define our culture at Stanford,” said Paye. “I met Tara when I was 11 years old, so I watched her build a program here, and the strength of our program has always been our chemistry, our culture.”
Paye even recalls when the term was first coined. Former members of the Cardinal, Nneka Ogwumike ‘12 and Chiney Ogwumike ‘14, helped establish the saying. The sisters were both first overall picks in the WNBA Draft and have been equally as successful off the court, with Nneka serving as the president of the WNBA Players Association and Chiney becoming an ESPN broadcaster.
“We saw the way that Nneka took care of Chiney and it was like, wow, like that is the definition of being a great teammate,” said Paye. “You look out for your teammate as if she were your sister. And since then, we’ve kind of adopted that phrase sisterhood.”
Somfai has felt the impact of this sisterhood almost immediately. Somfai, ranked No. 12 in her class, is a versatile forward who made the transcontinental move from Australia to IMG Academy in Florida last year.
“I’ve never been in a place like this with the whole sisterhood,” said Somfai. “It’s super cool to be a part of something bigger. I don’t have siblings, but I love how I can be part of this team and truly be a part of a family.”
And true to the words plastered across the practice facility, the sisterhood extends beyond a player’s four years in college. Like any other family, players may leave the nest (or The Farm in this instance) but always come back to open arms.
Lexie Hull ‘22, whose standout play has helped her Stanford team to a national championship in 2021 and the Indiana Fever to a deep playoff run in this past WNBA season, visited practice during Stanford’s Reunion Homecoming.
Amborn, who grew up nearby, has spent years looking up to players like Hull.
“I grew up coming to the games, and just always loved Stanford and Stanford basketball,” said Amborn. “I’ve always wanted to come here, so seeing players that I was really big fans of and knowing that we have those connections for life is just incredible.”
The freshmen, in just the few months since joining the Cardinal, have taken inspiration and advice from former players. Several players spoke to the outstanding character of Stanford alums, in addition to the on-court moves they hope to implement into their own games.
Eschmeyer and Somfai shared their admiration of Cameron Brink, who they share a similar height and offensive versatility with. They emphasized Brink’s strengths as a leader and a teammate.
Ezike was inspired by the aforementioned Nneka Ogwumike, a fellow forward, whose performance on-court and leadership off-court resulted in an MVP award and the moniker of “Madame President”.
The former player that Somfai found sisterhood in? Her head coach.
“Stanford was probably one of the first schools that actually started recruiting me when I was really young,” said Somfai. “I’ve really enjoyed forming that connection with Coach Kate. I’ve known her literally my whole life.”
Though Paye graduated 20 years prior to the start of Somfai’s Stanford career, her insight as a former player allows her to double as a coach and a member of the sisterhood.
When a player’s role models are all one and the same with their coaches, upperclassmen and alumni, it is easy to be confident that Stanford women’s basketball will once again find themselves as dominant as they have ever been. And the freshmen are certainly not lacking in confidence.
When asked about their goals for this season, the freshmen gave a wide array of responses. The common theme, however, was an eagerness to put in the work and compete.
“One goal as a team would just be to do our best to go the farthest in the tournament as we can, and hopefully end the season with no regrets,” said Ezike.
Eschmeyer didn’t hesitate when she gave her response.
“I want to help my team win,” said Eschmeyer.
Luckily, Eschmeyer and her freshmen teammates will not have to wait long. The Cardinal will kick off their season this week in Maples Pavilion against Cal State LA on Wednesday.