Women's soccer 2026 - Printable Version
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Women's soccer 2026 - Spiny_Norman - 06-24-2026
Time for a new thread for a new season.
Last week Stanford released its schedule. It includes a terrific lineup of home matches. Non-conference opponents Georgetown, USC and UCLA and conference opponents Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Cal all come to Stanford. On the road, Stanford will travel to Santa Clara, Duke and North Carolina.
Interestingly, the trips to Durham and Chapel Hill are not on the same weekend. They will be about 6 weeks apart.
https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-soccer/schedule
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Papa John - 06-24-2026
Thanks for starting the thread, Spiny Norman. I noticed that gostanford.com still has the "Spring 2026" roster, which includes early enrollees Aniya Williams and London Young and UCLA transfer Bella Winn. But the remaining incoming freshmen are missing.
I'm a more-or-less casual soccer observer, so I would be interested to hear what folks expect from Winn, who was Big Ten Freshman of the Year--and scored the winning goal against Stanford last September :(
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Spiny_Norman - 06-24-2026
I see placeholders for the frosh on the Roster page. Bios and photos to come.
This is a very young team. Only 2 seniors listed, Bhuta and Grilione. And one grad student, goalie (and Harvard transfer) Stewart.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Papa John - 06-24-2026
(06-24-2026, 04:27 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: I see placeholders for the frosh on the Roster page. Bios and photos to come.
<snip>
I stand corrected!
Hieronymus - Hieronymus - 06-25-2026
(06-24-2026, 04:27 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: I see placeholders for the frosh on the Roster page. Bios and photos to come.And Grilione is likely going to play a few minutes here and there at most. It’s really one senior who will have meaningful minutes.
This is a very young team. Only 2 seniors listed, Bhuta and Grilione. And one grad student, goalie (and Harvard transfer) Stewart.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Nobadeer - 07-30-2026
I was at PayPal Park last night for the Bay FC v Gotham FC match. Kitahata got to play ~ 10 minutes at the end, when Gotham subbed her in for the Australian legend Sam Kerr, who didn't look fully recovered from her ACL injury.
Kitahata promptly had one of the best passes of the game, and a shot on goal. She had 9 touches in those ~ 10 minutes. Kerr is a legend but not on her best form, and Gotham's other forward Jaedyn Shaw was not great either. Hope Kitahata gets more playing time - she hadn't gotten on the field since April. And fellow LSJU alum Tierna Davidson was excellent on defense for Gotham and had the shot of the match, a rocket volley from near the edge of the penalty box
Oh and Gotham won 1-0. Bay FC's third straight shutout loss and they are third from last in the NWSL standings.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - 82lsju - 08-04-2026
we're #1
UNITED SOCCER COACHES TOP 25
NCAA DI WOMEN — NATIONAL
pre-season poll
https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-women/?fbclid=IwY2xjawTfWfxwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMWExejZzMVJxczNBbXlQVVpzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEekgPT16KydBDrWsP7he9R9CIoe0PY_wDU1vV0iwzS8b3xiXjYPhomOACRHMc_aem_WPTfJQutXqs5TWvCVNFjqQ
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Spiny_Norman - 08-05-2026
(08-04-2026, 04:52 PM)82lsju Wrote: we're #1
UNITED SOCCER COACHES TOP 25
NCAA DI WOMEN — NATIONAL
pre-season poll
https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-women/?fbclid=IwY2xjawTfWfxwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMWExejZzMVJxczNBbXlQVVpzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEekgPT16KydBDrWsP7he9R9CIoe0PY_wDU1vV0iwzS8b3xiXjYPhomOACRHMc_aem_WPTfJQutXqs5TWvCVNFjqQ
Ranked #1 with no 1st place votes? That seems odd.
ACC is ranked 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 11.
Stanford will play #2 (Notre Dame), #9 (UCLA), #14 (Georgetown) and #18 (Wake Forest) at home.
Stanford will play #3 (Duke) and #8 (North Carolina) on the road.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - BostonCard - 08-05-2026
(08-05-2026, 08:55 AM)Spiny_Norman Wrote:(08-04-2026, 04:52 PM)82lsju Wrote: we're #1
UNITED SOCCER COACHES TOP 25
NCAA DI WOMEN — NATIONAL
pre-season poll
https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-women/?fbclid=IwY2xjawTfWfxwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMWExejZzMVJxczNBbXlQVVpzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEekgPT16KydBDrWsP7he9R9CIoe0PY_wDU1vV0iwzS8b3xiXjYPhomOACRHMc_aem_WPTfJQutXqs5TWvCVNFjqQ
Ranked #1 with no 1st place votes? That seems odd.
ACC is ranked 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 and 11.
Stanford will play #2 (Notre Dame), #9 (UCLA), #14 (Georgetown) and #18 (Wake Forest) at home.
Stanford will play #3 (Duke) and #8 (North Carolina) on the road.
Especially with ND getting 6 out of the 8 first place votes. Assuming that its 25 points for each first place vote, then they would have had to have had a 5th (20 pts) and 6th (19 pts) place vote for the other two voters (or 4th & 7th, 3rd/8th, or 2nd/9th). To get to 191 points without a first place vote, Stanford would have had to have had 7/8 second place votes and 1 third place vote. With only 8 voters, one or two "haters" was enough to tank UND.
BC
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Spiny_Norman - 08-10-2026
Stanford won its exhibition match this weekend, 3-0 over Pacific.
https://gostanford.com/news/2026/08/8/balanced-effort-in-exhibition-win
Season opener is this Sunday vs Cal Poly.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - rogpodge - 08-13-2026
(08-10-2026, 12:16 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: Stanford won its exhibition match this weekend, 3-0 over Pacific.
https://gostanford.com/news/2026/08/8/balanced-effort-in-exhibition-win
Season opener is this Sunday vs Cal Poly.
https://x.com/i/status/2087926600989831262
Nifty UVa goal.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - 82lsju - 08-13-2026
(08-13-2026, 08:12 PM)rogpodge Wrote:(08-10-2026, 12:16 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: Stanford won its exhibition match this weekend, 3-0 over Pacific.
https://gostanford.com/news/2026/08/8/balanced-effort-in-exhibition-win
Season opener is this Sunday vs Cal Poly.
https://x.com/i/status/2087926600989831262
Nifty UVa goal.
this reminds me of a PE soccer class I took, the instructor was Tony Igwe, he would periodically move the ball through the entire class without much effort.....
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Spike - 08-16-2026
Beat cal Poly today 1-0
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Papa John - 08-16-2026
FWIW, that was Cal Poly SLO's first loss at home since 2024.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 08-16-2026
Lineup as best as I could tell was:
Thomas Holden Kral
Kohler Nguyen Johnson
Freer Boamah Young Smith
Birkel
No Emri or Bhuta. Injured? National teams - U20 active but they are both too old. Other?
Also no Murdock. Though she is on the Canada U20 roster when I look.
Klinger and Winn not starting is interesting.
And Boamah as a CB is new. But the team appears to be very short on CBs right now.
But as always expect lineup tweaking for the first half of the season.
Really nice Kohler finish for the only goal off a bad GK in the 33rd minute.
Overall, pretty ragged though Cal Poly was a tournament opponent last year.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - cardfan77 - 08-17-2026
not much to take away from the game. Really interesting starting 11. I expect Winn and Klinger to be in the starting lineup before ACC starts. If Bhuta is healthy then I want to see her either LB or RB
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - OCcardinal - 08-18-2026
(08-17-2026, 12:55 AM)cardfan77 Wrote: not much to take away from the game. Really interesting starting 11. I expect Winn and Klinger to be in the starting lineup before ACC starts. If Bhuta is healthy then I want to see her either LB or RB- Klinger was injured in the recent U20 camp with England and missed a couple of games. It apparently wasn't anything too serious, but after she missed the entire exhibition, I was just happy to see her play Sunday. My guess is they're building up her minutes and she'll be starting soon. Winn missed the exhibition as well, so it was encouraging to see her back too. Neither had quite the impact I was hoping for, but both may still be working their way back to 100% (assuming Winn was injured too).
- Boamah at center back is no surprise. She's been playing center back — and captaining — the U.S. U20 team. It reminds me a little of Kennedy Wesley's transition to CB, where she now plays for club and country. Boamah and London Young were both outstanding Sunday. Young even earned ACC Freshman of the Week, which is pretty impressive for a defender whose team played only one game. I suspect Boamah and Young will be Stanford's starting CB pairing for much of the season. The complication is that Boamah will very likely miss several games in September for the U20 World Cup. That's why I was surprised not to see Emri at all Sunday after she played 45 minutes in the exhibition. Stanford is going to need her when Boamah is gone. Maybe Ratcliffe didn't want to change the back line in such a close game, or perhaps Emri was dealing with a knock.
- Personally, I'd rather not see Bhuta back on the defensive line. Her best season was 2024, when she played in midfield and earned TopDrawerSoccer Best XI second-team honors. Her strengths — receiving under pressure, reading space, winning the ball, progressing possession and connecting lines — are simply more valuable centrally. That's not to say she isn't a good outside back. She is, particularly as an inverted right back who can move inside and essentially become another midfielder in possession, and Stanford used her primarily on the back line when she was available in 2025. But to me, that role takes advantage of her versatility rather than maximizing what she does best. The fact that she is especially effective as an inverted fullback says something: even when Ratcliffe plays her as a defender, he wants her midfield qualities. And I thought a lot of Stanford's offensive problems Sunday began in midfield. They really missed Shae Harvey's work rate and productivity. A healthy Bhuta in midfield may be the best answer. The defense was fine — more than fine — without her.
- Charlotte Kohler's goal was brilliant. Yes, Cal Poly's goal kick wasn't good, but Kohler still had to recognize it immediately, make the run and execute the finish. She did all three beautifully. It looks like she can pick up right where she left off last season, which is especially important because she isn't surrounded by all of the scoring threats Stanford had a year ago. Beyond that, though, there wasn't much to celebrate offensively. Stanford had 17 shots, but only 5 were on goal. That's not good enough. Cal Poly deserves some credit — it has a relatively experienced defensive group and allowed only 2 shots on goal against UNLV earlier in the week — but Stanford needs to create more dangerous chances.
- Ella Kral had a rough first official college game. She made several freshman-type decision-making errors, which was disappointing after she had a goal and an assist in the exhibition. But that's also what being a freshman in D1 soccer can look like. The speed of the game and the pressure on every decision are a big step up, and there are going to be growing pains. I still think she's going to be an important part of Stanford's offense this season. Ratcliffe clearly does too — he played her 82 minutes.
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Spiny_Norman - 08-19-2026
Boamah, Birkel and Nguyen all named to the US team that will play in the U20 World Cup Sept 5-27.
https://gostanford.com/news/2026/08/19/trio-to-represent-us-at-under-20-womens-world-cup
If they miss all of the Stanford matches during that stretch, that will include:
Sept 6 at Santa Clara
Sept 13 at Duke
Sept 17 vs. Louisville
Sept 20 vs. Wake Forest
Sept 25 at SMU
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - Hieronymus - 08-19-2026
I thought Thomas was less effective than Kral. Kral was up and down, but Thomas just wasn’t much of anything. I think though we all expect Klinger and Winn to be starting sooner not later.
My view on Bhuta has been very clear - I very much prefer her in MF. She was great as a 6 but with Nguyen playing well RM/8 would be my preference now. We will see.
Interesting on Boamah - I haven’t watched the U20s this cycle yet, and Boamah doesn’t have a classic CB
Play style or build. I agree the CBs were good vs. Cal Poly; so I will watch with an open mind.
Yes Kohler is going to have to carry a lot of the load on offense this year. I do hope that the forwards manage to be effective this season. Winn - Holden - Klinger should manage a decent offensive punch.
(08-19-2026, 12:11 PM)Spiny_Norman Wrote: Boamah, Birkel and Nguyen all named to the US team that will play in the U20 World Cup Sept 5-27.And Murdock is on Canada’s roster
https://gostanford.com/news/2026/08/19/trio-to-represent-us-at-under-20-womens-world-cup
If they miss all of the Stanford matches during that stretch, that will include:
Sept 6 at Santa Clara
Sept 13 at Duke
Sept 17 vs. Louisville
Sept 20 vs. Wake Forest
Sept 25 at SMU
RE: Women's soccer 2026 - OCcardinal - 08-20-2026
(08-19-2026, 03:02 PM)Hieronymus Wrote: I thought Thomas was less effective than Kral. Kral was up and down, but Thomas just wasn’t much of anything.
I'm still waiting for Thomas to have her big break through. She was a TX Gatorade Player of the Year and a top 10 recruit. She has impressive moments on the field but it is just not translating into goals. Hope we see it happen this season.