They have a lot of good players
Notre Dame is going to be an absolute force this season in women’s college basketball. On Tuesday, the ACC agreed with that statement.
From the ND press release via Ashton Pollard:
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On Tuesday, the ACC announced its 2024-25 preseason slate of awards, and five Notre Dame players made the cut. The Irish are the only team with five players, and just one other ACC school has more than two players.
Preseason ACC Player of the Year — Hannah Hidalgo
Last season’s ACC Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year is this year’s favorite to take home the conference’s top individual honor.
Hidalgo rewrote the record books last season after posting 22.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 4.6 steals per game. She broke the ACC freshman scoring record, led the country in steals, was named an AP All-American, and won the Dawn Staley Award for nation’s best point guard, among other honors.
Hidalgo is just the third player in ACC history to win ACC Rookie of the Year and be the preseason Player of the Year the following season, joining Duke’s Alana Beard and Notre Dame’s Brianna Turner.
Preseason All-ACC — Sonia Citron and Olivia Miles
The duo that committed to Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach Niele Ivey just after she was announced as the new head coach will be back on the floor together for another year.
Citron averaged 17.3 points per game last season and is considered by Ivey to be the team’s “glue.” She also played 35.8 minutes per game, which is tied for fourth in school history. Citron was named to the All-ACC Second Team last season and was First Team All-ACC Tournament.
Arguably the nation’s best floor general, Miles returns to the court this season after missing last year while rehabbing a torn ACL. She was the 2023 ACC Player of the Year runner-up and was named to the AP All-America Second Team for the 2022-23 season.
ACC Newcomer Watch List — Liza Karlen and Kate Koval
An All-BIG EAST First Team unanimous selection last year, Karlen joins the Irish after four years at Marquette. She has improved her game each season so far, culminating in 17.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last season. Karlen was a Katrina McClain Award Top 10 finalist, three-time BIG EAST Player of the Week and one-time AP Player of the Week as a senior. She posted 12 20-point games.
Koval joins the Irish with an already lengthy list of accolades. The No. 5 recruit in the 2024 class (and No. 1 post player), Koval is originally from Kyiv, Ukraine but played high school basketball at Long Island Lutheran in New York. The 6-5 forward was a 2024 McDonald’s All-American, 2024 SLAM All-American and 2022-23 New York Gatorade Player of the Year.
Of note, for the last four years, one of the freshmen on the Newcomer Watch List has ultimately been named the ACC Rookie of the Year, including Maddy Westbeld (2020-21) and Citron (2021-22).
In addition to the individual honors, Notre Dame was picked as the preseason winner of the ACC, receiving 70 of 79 first place votes from the Blue Ribbon Panel. It is the first time since 2018 that the Irish have been the preseason favorite.
Notre Dame opens the season with an Oct. 30 exhibition against Davenport and a home opener on Nov. 4 against Mercyhurst.