Women’s basketball players find new homes through the portal

Last week, the Daily reported that six Stanford women’s basketball players had entered the transfer portal after the season ended in March. Since then, another key Cardinal, junior Chloe Cardy, has announced her intentions to leave Stanford. Most of the players in the portal have announced their commitments to new schools.

The Cardinal (21-14, 8-10 ACC) struggled to keep up in their second year in the ACC, as well as their second year in transition after the legendary Tara Vanderveer’s departure from the university. Beginning in early April, the majority of the team’s roster took to Instagram to announce their entrances into the transfer portal – among those names are juniors Nunu Agara, Courtney Ogden and Mary Ashley Stevenson, as well as sophomore Harper Peterson and freshmen Lara Stomfai and Carly Amborn. Most recently, junior guard Chloe Clardy also announced that she would be moving on from the Farm. 

Star freshman Stomfai was the first to commit elsewhere, announcing on Instagram that she’d be joining the TCU Horned Frogs, the top-ranked team in the Big 12 conference. The ACC All-Freshman team selectionee averaged 10.8 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 32 games played last year, and will join a stacked transfer class in Texas that includes LSU’s Bella Hines and Oklahoma State’s Jadyn Wooten. Star TCU guard Olivia Miles was just picked No. 2 in the 2026 WNBA Draft, and coach Mark Campbell will undoubtedly be looking to replace her impact on the court.

The rest of the commitments followed in rapid succession. Clardy, who announced she would be leaving Stanford on April 11, committed to UNC the following day. Last year, Clardy averaged 12.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, shooting the three at a high clip and leading many of Stanford’s defensive efforts with two steals per game. The Tar Heels finished third in the ACC last season, losing to UConn in the Sweet 16 to end their season. The junior is one of four players transferring to Chapel Hill next season.

Ogden announced her commitment to Michigan soon after. The Wolverines were the second-ranked team in the Big Ten and made it to the Elite Eight this year, losing to one-seed Texas in a blowout. Ogden averaged 12.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game for the Cardinal during the 2025-26 season, taking on a much larger role than previous years. She will join forces with rising junior Olivia Olson in hopes of an even deeper playoff run for the Wolverines in 2027.

On Wednesday, Agara posted that she would play for the Maryland Terrapins next season, a legacy program that has produced star WNBA bigs such as Alyssa Thomas and Brionna Jones. Agara will play for coach Brenda Frese, who led the Terrapins to an NCAA Championship in 2006 and has reached multiple Final Fours. Frese was named AP National Coach of the Year as recently as 2021. 

Maryland will be looking to bounce back from an early exit in the NCAA tournament this year, and Agara’s offensive and defensive production will certainly help. The forward averaged 15.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 29 games for the Cardinal this season, missing some time during the season due to a concussion suffered against Cal in late January.

Stevenson announced that she would be joining the Columbia Lions next season, heading back home to New York City. The junior was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year for Purdue in 2024, yet struggled to see the floor for Stanford in her two years here. Columbia beat BYU 81-64 in the WBIT this year to clinch the program’s first WBIT Championship title. Stevenson will join junior guard Riley Weiss in Columbia’s pursuit for continued success in the Ivy League and beyond.

Peterson announced that she would be playing in Knoxville next year for the Tennessee Lady Volunteers. The legendary program is facing an exodus of its own, entering the off season with no returning players after a controversial year under young coach Kim Caldwell. Peterson is most likely looking to play a bigger role with the Lady Vols after averaging less than four minutes and one point a game across her two years with Stanford.

Amborn has yet to announce where she will be playing next year.

Stanford women’s basketball’s sudden surge of transfers has caught the attention of national news outlets like Sports Illustrated, as well as fans across social media platforms, with some speculating that coaching staff was not prepared to continue where Vanderveer left off. As of right now, the Cardinal have five returning players on its roster and three incoming freshmen. Coach Kate Paye will have to rely on the portal to create a viable roster for the 2026-27 season, despite previous claims that she would never do so.

Sophomore Hailee Swain and junior Kennedy Umeh, former five and four star recruits respectively, will provide some value for the Cardinal on the floor next season, but without a serious recruiting push and structural changes to improve player retention, the future of Stanford women’s basketball is in flux. 

These past two years mark a dark period in Stanford women’s basketball history, a disappointing follow-up to a national championship campaign in 2021 and the development of WNBA talent like Cameron Brink and Haley Jones.

The post Women’s basketball players find new homes through the portal appeared first on The Stanford Daily.