Stanford women’s golf won the 2024 Nanea Invitational. (Photo: Stanford Athletics)
In the last 18 months, Stanford has lost Rose Zhang, Rachel Heck and Sadie Englemann. But don’t blink, the Cardinal remain the team to beat.
Last season, Stanford won its final three tournaments, claiming its third national championship. To begin this season, the Cardinal have done the same, winning three straight tournaments and winning three events of match play at the NB3 Match Play at Twin Warriors.
The six straight wins is the longest in program history. Stanford’s previous longest winning streak was five, which it did around its 2022 national championship and into the start of the 2022-23 season. It is also the longest active streak in the country.
Last week, Stanford capped its fall with a win at the Nanea Invitational in Hawaii, where Megha Ganne earned the second win of her college career.
The strength of this Stanford team is its depth. The Cardinal have six players in the top 76 of the NCAA golf rankings, four of those being freshmen. One of them, Meja Ortengren, leads the way at No. 13 while sophomore standout Paula Martin Sampedro is No. 18. Freshmen Leigh Chen (No. 30) and Nora Sundberg (No. 40) are also in the top 50.
Ganne wasn’t even ranked in the latest update, though that will change Wednesday when new rankings drop.
Depth is a good problem to have for Stanford coach Anne Walker, who will head into the spring looking to build on a record win streak while chasing title No. 4.
Aside from Stanford, Arkansas had won three of its four tournaments and is ranked second. South Carolina, USC and Texas round out the top five.
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