No. 1 Stanford will compete against No. 6 Long Beach State at the Brigitte Donner Daws Memorial Invitational in Berkeley on Saturday, January 24, at 9:30 a.m. The Cardinal will also play exhibition matches against UCLA and California during the tournament weekend, but those results and individual statistics will not be recorded.
Stanford began its 2026 season with a 20-7 win over UC Davis on January 18 at Avery Aquatic Center. Jenna Flynn led the team with five goals, contributing to an offense that saw scoring from eleven different players. At halftime, Stanford led 9-4 and then scored nine unanswered goals in the third quarter, including three by Flynn within three minutes. Juliette Dhalluin added three goals while Kamryn Barone and Sienna Green each scored twice.
Stanford is the only program to have participated in every NCAA Championship since it began. In 2025, the team achieved one of just four 15-0 starts in school history and secured three wins each against USC and UCLA while holding the nation’s top ranking for most of the season. The Cardinal won both the NCAA and MPSF titles in 2025, marking the fourth time it has done so (2025, 2023, 2022, 2014).
The team is aiming for another NCAA title repeat this year after defeating USC 11-7 to win the championship in 2024. Throughout that season, Stanford averaged nearly sixteen goals per game and allowed only 168 goals—the fewest nationally—while getting contributions from nine different players who each scored at least twenty goals.
A key challenge for Stanford this season is replacing Ryann Neushul, a four-time All-American who was named Stanford’s eighth recipient of the Peter J. Cutino Award as national player of the year last year. Neushul ended her seven-year career as Stanford’s first four-time NCAA champion (2019, 2022-23, 2025) and ranks fifth all-time at Stanford with 228 career goals.
Despite Neushul’s departure, Stanford retains strong depth with returning All-Americans Jenna Flynn (68 goals last season), Juliette Dhalluin (41), Serena Browne (32), Maggie Hawkins (32), Kamryn Barone (23), and Ella Woodhead (23). Three of these players—Flynn (USA), Dhalluin (France), and Browne (Canada)—competed at the Paris Olympics in summer 2024. The roster now includes Sienna Green from Australia, a silver medalist at those Olympics who transferred from UCLA after scoring fifty goals over two seasons there.
All-American goalkeeper Christine Carpenter returns after making 165 saves last season; she was named MVP of both MPSF and NCAA All-Tournament teams.
During fall competition at the Legacy Crown tournament—which celebrated twenty-five years since women’s water polo became an Olympic sport—Stanford defeated Long Beach State and USC before finishing second to New York Athletic Club.
This summer brought changes to coaching staff as Brenda Villa joined as associate head coach. “Joining the staff as associate head coach is Brenda Villa, one of only two four-time Olympic medalists (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012) who won twenty medals overall in her playing career representing Team USA,” according to Stanford’s announcement. “A three-time All-American and Hall of Famer who led the Cardinal to its first NCAA title in 2002, Villa became Stanford’s first Peter J. Cutino Award recipient and was later named the Female Water Polo Player of the Decade (2000-09) by FINA Aquatics World Magazine.”
