STANFORD, Calif. – Mary Ashley Stevenson, the 2024 Big Ten Media Freshman of the Year at Purdue, has transferred to Stanford for the 2024-25 season and will have three years of eligibility remaining, Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women's Basketball Kate Paye announced Tuesday.
"Mary Ashley is another fantastic addition to our program, someone who is fiercely competitive and works incredibly hard to improve each day," Paye said. "She embraces everything that Stanford has to offer, is diligent in the classroom and a dedicated student of the game. She is mature for a young player and does not back down from a challenge. We are thrilled that she decided Stanford is the place for her and are excited to welcome her into the fold."
"What I admire about the Stanford community is its commitment to excellence in everything it does," Stevenson said. "That same commitment to excellence is what I seek to embody as a Stanford student-athlete. Plus, its women's basketball team loves to win and so do I!"
Stevenson started 33 games during her debut season in West Lafayette and averaged 9.7 points and 5.1 rebounds, one of nine major conference freshmen in the country with those numbers. She scored a career and game-high 25 in a 77-72 overtime victory over Illinois on Feb. 5, the highest-scoring performance by a Purdue freshman since 2010-11. Six days later, she went on the road at No. 14 Indiana and led the Boilermakers with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting. She was named USBWA Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week after those performances and, at the end of the season, landed on both the coaches' and media's Big Ten All-Freshman Teams and was voted All-Big Ten honorable mention by the league's media.
Stevenson led all Big Ten rookies with 11 games of at least seven points and seven rebounds and finished as one of two first-year players in Purdue history with more than 300 points (329) and 150 rebounds (174). The 6-foot-2 forward also shot 81.7 percent from the line (85-of-104), seventh in the country among qualifying freshmen.
As a prep standout for The Dalton School in New York City, Stevenson was rated as a four-star prospect and the No. 97 player in the nation by ESPN HoopGurlz.
Stevenson is the third undergraduate transfer in Stanford women's basketball history and second this cycle. Santa Clara's Tess Heal's transfer was announced yesterday. More than 20 years ago, Brooke Smith played at Duke as a freshman in 2002-03 before transferring to The Farm for her final three collegiate seasons.