By Jeff Faraudo
West Coast Conference columnist
The Santa Clara women’s basketball team was something of a mystery entering the season. A new coach and 13 new players, including seven transfers. West Coast Conference coaches didn’t have a good feel for this team, picking the Broncos fifth in their preseason poll.
But here we are at the start of 2026, and the Broncos are 12-3 with five road wins on their resume. They are No. 55 in the NET, have won six in a row and they are 2-0 in conference play.
There is a long way to go, starting with a 6 p.m. Friday game at LMU (7-6, 1-1) and at home Sunday at noon vs. perennial West Coast Conference heavyweight Gonzaga (10-5, 2-0), which resides at No. 71 in the NET and is 4-0 on the road.
But if there was uncertainty about Santa Clara from the outside, the Broncos did not share that view. First-year coach Loree Payne, who won 73 games in her final three seasons at Northern Arizona, was a believer. So was graduate student Sophie Glancey, one of three Lumberjacks players to follow their coach from Flagstaff, Ariz.
Glancey, the hub of the past two NAU squads, wasn’t available to work out with her new team last summer, rehabbing after undergoing reconstructive surgery on her ankle in July. But watching her new teammates in the gym, she got very excited to join them.
“I knew we were going to be good from the beginning. It was hard because I was out with my injury,” said Glancey, who didn’t begin practicing until just before the start of the season. “Watching practices, I could tell we’re a good team. But it’s also a new conference so I didn’t know how this would translate.”
Payne also had an optimistic sense about her team’s potential.
“I think we envisioned this. We knew the players we brought in,” Payne said. “We’ve really put things together. The team is working hard and I feel like they’ve really made an intentional effort with our chemistry on and off the court to get that where it needs to be to put us in a position to be successful.”
It starts with Payne, a standout player at Washington, who won 141 games in eight seasons at Northern Arizona while playing an up-tempo style. That approach was at the heart of why Glancey chose NAU out of high school in Boise, Idaho.
“She does have a style. She plays fast,” said Glancey, who was a two-time All-Big Sky selection at NAU and on the preseason watch list this year for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year. “There’s not really such thing as a bad shot — if you’re open, shoot it. Green light for everybody. It was exactly what I thought it would be. It is awesome.”
When it came time for Glancey to decide for a second time whether to go with Payne to Santa Clara, she had insights she couldn’t have seen from afar.
“At a lot of places I feel like the coaches and players have no relationship at all. You can mess around with her, joke around with her. It helps people feel more comfortable with her,” Glancey said.
Even so, when Payne announced her move to Santa Clara, Glancey figured she owed it to herself to at least check out the transfer portal.
Ultimately, after making visits to Gonzaga, Cal and Arizona State, Glancey knew what she needed to do. “I obviously love Loree and I have so much respect for her,” Glancey said. “I was pretty sure that was (always) my plan.”
There still was the unknown of how long it would take Glancey to become fully healthy. And how quickly a batch of new players would mesh.
Glancey has been limited in practice and sat out one game. But the 6-foot-2 forward has hardly skipped a beat, leading the Broncos in scoring (15.5 points), rebounding (7.6) and blocked shots (32). She has three double-doubles, scored a season-high 29 points in a win at Grand Canyon and put up 23 on Tuesday, when the Broncos scored 39 fastbreak points in a 94-65 home victory vs. Seattle U.
“She’s been phenomenal,” Payne said. “Even without getting those practice reps, she is going out and performing at a pretty high level.”
But the Broncos are far from a one-player team. The five starters — all transfers — are scoring double digits. Seven players are averaging at least 4 rebounds per game.
Beyond that, the Broncos boast a remarkable statistical combination, averaging a conference-best 82.0 points while turning the ball over just 10.5 times per game, also tops in the league. That efficiency has added to them generating an average scoring margin of 20.8 points.
“I attribute a majority of that to Ashley Hawkins,” Glancey said of the graduate transfer point guard from Gardner-Webb, who was the Big South Player of the Year a season ago. She provides the Broncos 11.5 points and 5.9 assists while carrying a conference-best 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio. “I’ve never played with a point guard quite like Ashley. She is so smart. She understands the game better I think than anybody I’ve met. It’s great to play with her.”
Asked how her team has scored so well while also protecting the ball, Payne said the answer is simple. “Because Ashley Hawkins is our point guard. She’s killing it,” said Payne, noting that Hawkins had seven assists and zero turnovers vs. Seattle U.
The Broncos are fourth nationally in total blocks (97) and eighth in blocks per game (6.47). Glancey ranks 15th nationally in blocks per game (2.29) and Hawkins is 16th nationally in assists per game (5.9).
Payne said Hawkins combines fierce competitiveness with elite skill. "She’s a personality who really brings the team together,” her coach said. “She has a ton of fun playing basketball and it’s great to see that joy when she’s out there playing.”
Junior guard Maia Jones, a native of New Zealand and transfer from Saint Mary’s, is averaging 13.9 points and 4.3 rebounds. Jones comes from a basketball family and because of that, Payne said, “she’s next level when it comes to basketball IQ so she’s like an extension of us out there.”
Rounding out the starting five are Ava Schmidt, a 6-2 junior forward from NAU, who gives the Broncos 10.4 points and 4.9 rebounds, and junior forward Kylee Fox Jr., a Fresno State transfer who is averaging 10.1 points and 4.2 rebounds.
Siena transfer Aniya Hooker, a sophomore guard, leads the team with 23 steals off the bench. Freshmen Delainey Miller and Tyler Gildersleeve-Stiles combine to provide 10.1 points and 10.4 rebounds.
The Broncos’ big-picture goal is to reach the NCAA Tournament. No one on the roster has done it and Santa Clara’s most recent bid game in 2005.
“It’s a huge goal for me. I’ve dreamed of that since I was about eight years old,” Glancey said. “The end goal is we want to get to March Madness. I’ve been so close at Northern Arizona. I just want to get there. That’s been a huge goal for everyone.”
Payne, who averaged 17 points in four games while helping Washington reach the Elite 8 in the 2001 NCAAs, said the Broncos are more about the here and now during daily practices. But there’s no denying what they hope to achieve in March.
“Having been a player in the NCAA Tournament, I want our players to experience that,” she said. “That’s why you play the game. You want to win championships. You want to play in the Big Dance. That’s every player’s dream to do that.”
But first things first, and the next steps are on the road vs. LMU and at home vs. Gonzaga.
“Those are both huge games,” Glancey said. “LMU beat Washington State and went double-overtime with Gonzaga.”