Stanford women’s basketball adds sharpshooter from Santa Clara in transfer portal

STANFORD – Tess Heal, a two-time all-conference guard at Santa Clara, has transferred up the road to Stanford, as announced Monday by Cardinal coach Kate Paye.

“I want to excel both on the court and in the classroom. For that, there is no better place than Stanford,” Heal said in a statement.

“She’s a dynamic guard and a phenomenal student, intensely competitive, and gives maximum effort in all that she does,” said Paye, who last month was named as Tara VanDerveer’s successor.

Heal, a native of Melbourne, Australia, averaged 18.6 points, four rebounds and 4.5 assists per game in her two seasons at Santa Clara. With her 47.2 field-goal percentage, she joined Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Wofford’s Rachel Rose as the country’s only players to shoot over 45 percent while averaging over 18 points, four rebounds and four assists the past two years.

“Her production during her first two collegiate seasons speaks for itself and I can’t wait to see the impact she makes on our team,” Paye added.

Heal (5-foot-10) ranked 29th in the country by averaging 19.5 points per game last season, including a 40-point effort at Pacific in March. She attempted and made the nation’s fourth-most free throws (191-of-219).

Heal is only the second undergraduate transfer in Stanford’s program history, the other being Brooke Smith a decade ago.

Stanford not only is transitioning from VanDerveer to Paye (a longtime assistant), it also lost its top two scorers from last year’s team: Cameron Brink, the Pac-12 player of the Year, was the No. 2 overall pick behind Clark in the WNBA Draft and Kiki Iriafen, the Pac-12’s most improved player, is transferring to USC. Stanford went 30-6 last season and bowed out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16, losing to North Carolina State.