SAN BRUNO, Calif. - For the first time since at least 1999, Santa Clara women's basketball has been picked to win the West Coast Conference in a preseason poll of the league's head coaches. In addition, Maia Jones and Ava Schmidt have been named Preseason All-WCC.
The Broncos, under second-year head coach Loree Payne and her staff, finished last season tied for third in the league with a program-record-tying 13 conference wins. They also set program marks for most wins (24) and nonconference wins (10) under a first-year head coach while also setting single-season marks for points (2,728), scoring average (80.2), 3-pointers (319), 3-point attempts (1,030), rebounds (1,442), and blocks (183).
Santa Clara returns over 80-percent of its scoring from last season, highlighted by Jones, Schmidt, Sophie Glancey, Kylee Fox, Delainey Miller, and Aniya Hooker to a team that went to the 2026 WBIT.
New to the team are New Mexico transfers Joana Magalhaes and Emma Najjuma as well as freshmen Brooke Blachly and Quinsey Bryan.
Jones was named First Team All-WCC last year after starting all 34 games and leading Santa Clara in scoring with 15.0 ppg while knocking down 67 3-pointers and adding 4.6 rpg to go with 1.6 spg. She was named the WCC Player of the Week on January 12.
Schmidt was named Second Team All-WCC and scored 13.4 ppg while leading the team with 73 3-pointers made. She chipped in 5.0 rpg and finished 12th in the country with 2.2 bpg and 14th with 73 total blocks.
The season begins November 2 at Wyoming. The home-opener is November 13 against Bay Area rival Stanford. Tickets can be purchased here.
