Greatest of all-time? Stanford stakes its claim after latest NCAA Women's Golf title
· Yahoo Sports
CARLSBAD, Calif. — Throughout the dozens of individual wins and team trophies, the bad taste lingered.
Stanford is no stranger to success. The Cardinal are arguably the greatest dynasty in women's college golf history, in the midst of a historic run that has seen the team win more titles than teams lost to since the 2020-21 season. Yet a loss to Northwestern in last year's championship match never went away.
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Paula Martin Sampedro and Andrea Revuelta were frustrated with how the team performed in that championship match. They knew how good their team was. They felt the Cardinal not only should've won but dominated. Anything less was unacceptable.
That's why the junior and sophomore duo from Spain called a team meeting after the Augusta National Women's Amateur. It was before Stanford began its postseason run. Martin Sampedro and Revuelta didn't mince words with their coach and teammates. They wanted excellence.
"There was like no reason why we shouldn't be winning every match play event," Martin Sampedro said. "So we kind of thought and dived deep into what are thoughts were and like how things played out in the past and how we could have gotten better."
Added Revuelta: "We're clearly pretty good at stroke play. So that was a thought that was just building up within the players. We just talked about the little things that could be better."
Those little things are what has separated Stanford from the rest of college golf in recent years, and it's a big reason the Cardinal are back on the mountaintop.
No. 1 Stanford knocked off second-ranked USC 4-1 in the 2026 NCAA Women's Golf Championship match Wednesday at Omni La Costa in a match that was never really in doubt. A string of early USC errors took away any chance the Trojans had, as Stanford capitalized on nearly every shortfall and took advantage of nearly every opportunity.
Martin Sampedro earned the first point, topping USC star senior Catherine Park 3 and 2. Seconds later, sophomore Meja Ortengren polished off a 6-and-5 triumph. Then, fittingly, senior Megha Ganne capped an incredible career with a 4-and-3 win over Bailey Shoemaker, ending the match on the 15th green, the same hole former Stanford standout Rachel Heck clinched the championship match two years ago.
The championship is Stanford's third in the past five years. The Cardinal have also won the stroke-play portion of the NCAA Championship six straight years. It's the fourth title in school history, with the latest coming 11 years to the day since the first one.
And this team may have been coach Anne Walker's best.
"I don't know what other people will be saying, but they're going to live on in Stanford golf as the greatest of all-time, and you know, I feel like there's a strong possibility that it's the greatest team I ever coached," Walker said. "So really, really lucky to be in this position, be around these type of people."
Walker mentioned how her team never felt the need to avenge last year's upset loss against Northwestern. But the team knew it needed to be better in match play this year. In the 2025-26 season, Stanford lost to more teams in match play (2) than stroke play (1).
hence the player-led conversation after ANWA.
"Truly made me emotional because it was so impressive, it was so heartfelt, so just the love for the program and the love for each other," Walker said. "They wanted to be at their best this week, and so just that it was motivation.
"We've talked a lot all season about being brilliant at the basics, and that's what they anchored in, and that's what they did."
All five Stanford players also competed in last year's championship match. The two seniors, Ganne and Kelly Xu – the latter who celebrated a birthday Wednesday – were dominant in match play in their careers and leave with two championships, but it was Sampedro and Revuelta who took initiative to push Stanford to get uncomfortable because that's where the most growth comes from.
The cruised through the ACC Championship, winning their first title, and finished first at the NCAA Stanford Regional and then again in stroke play this week. The Cardinal didn't lose a match during Tuesday's longest day of college golf.
Wednesday figured to be a battle. The top-two seeds and highest-ranked teams in the country facing off, but even with star power on both sides, Stanford's focus was set weeks ago.
"Last year here at La Costa was a lot to swallow personally," Revuelta said. "But you know that was fuel the second I left here. We were really disappointed, but we knew we had done our everything that we left our heart and souls in this golf course last year. We didn't leave this with the trophy, but we were ready to come back. It was fuel, and just like being humble and acknowledging the fact that there is room for improvement."
Although stroke play doesn't determine the champion in college golf, no men's or women's team has ever done what Stanford has accomplished in the NCAA era: win six straight stroke-play titles.
One thing's for certain: in the deepest era of women's college golf, Stanford remains ahead of the competition, and it's leadership from players like Martin Sampedro and Revuelta that has been passed down through the years.
"You don't get to Stanford by not working hard and knowing how to be disciplined and knowing how to put in long days," Walker said. "I'm just very fortunate that these players, the character that they have it carries over once they get to Stanford, and I think that's allowed us to have sustained success over the last, you know, 10 or 11 years."
Greatest team Walker has ever coached? It may be the greatest team of all-time.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Stanford wins 2026 NCAA Women's Golf Championship at Omni La Costa