The Stanford squash team is back on the courts with familiar goals: defend its Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference crown, make noise in March and keep building on one of the program’s best seasons in recent history. The No. 4 Cardinal opened the second portion of its schedule Tuesday afternoon with a 9-0 sweep of No. 23 Hamilton in its home opener, a clean restart after a three-match East Coast swing in November.
That November trip offered an early measuring stick for the team. Stanford opened the season Nov. 21 with an 8-1 win at No. 9 Drexel, then fell 8-1 to No. 3 Penn the next day before rebounding with a 6-3 victory at No. 2 Princeton on Nov. 23. The 2-1 weekend underscored both Stanford’s depth — freshmen contributed immediately — and the thin margins that will define a winter packed with ranked opponents and postseason events.
Even before that opening weekend, Stanford’s baseline for success was clear. The Cardinal went 10-5 a year ago, won the MASC title for a second straight season and placed sixth at the College Squash Association team national championships. Stanford’s 10 wins were its most in a season since 2017-18, and the team logged a handful of marquee victories, including a January home win over No. 6 Virginia that showcased the team’s ability to beat top-tier competition despite being a program with a majority of underclassmen.
With last year’s team being led by many freshmen and sophomores, the core of last season’s run returns, starting at the top of the order. Sophomore Riya Navani and junior Madison Ho, both All-Americans a season ago, are back after anchoring the lineup and collecting conference hardware — Navani was the 2025 MASC player and rookie of the year, while Ho has earned All-America honors in each of her first two collegiate seasons. Stanford head coach Mark Talbott, the two-time defending MASC coach of the year, again leads a roster that mixes proven veterans with young options.
That blend showed up right away in Philadelphia. Freshman Zhi-Xuan Goh and freshman Avery Park both won in their collegiate debuts against Drexel, helping Stanford jump out to an early-season road win in a difficult environment. Stanford then bounced back from the Penn loss by taking six courts against Princeton — with wins coming from multiple spots in the order — a promising sign for a team that will need to score points in a variety of ways against the nation’s best.
The roster has experience beyond its headliners, too. Senior Khushi Kukadia, junior Maeve Baker, junior Yuvna Gupta and senior Mariana Narvaez Dardon give Stanford veteran options throughout the ladder, while sophomores Valerie Huang, Amelie Haworth, Riya Navani and Tiana Parasrampuria add a young group that already has meaningful match experience at the college level. Freshmen Riya Shankaran and Gracia Chua are also part of the first-year class that could provide depth as the season progresses.
After Tuesday’s home sweep of Hamilton, Stanford’s next test comes quickly: a home match Wednesday against No. 5 Trinity (CT). From there, the calendar shifts toward the events that shape the postseason picture. Stanford will face Harvard on Jan. 22 in New York before heading into the CSA individual championships from Jan. 23-25, also in New York — an important stretch for players chasing individual runs and for the team to establish a steady lineup.
February brings a road-heavy gauntlet: matches at Columbia on Feb. 6, at Yale on Feb. 7 and at Cornell on Feb. 8. Those three dates funnel into the MASC championships in Charlottesville, Virginia, from Feb. 14-15, where Stanford will try to secure a third straight conference title.
Right after teams vie for the conference championship, the national title takes focus. The CSA national championships are set for March 5-8 in Philadelphia, the same city where Stanford opened its season in November and where the Cardinal will return, aiming to climb higher than last season’s sixth-place finish. The home opener was an excellent step towards the national title. The rest of the winter will decide how far the Cardinal can push the envelope this season.