And more honors for the Irish basketball team
We still have the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament in front of us, but this has already been a big year for the Notre Dame women’s basketball team. On Tuesday, we saw some of the fruits of their labor with the ACC awards.
From the ND press release:
Hidalgo Named ACC Player and Defensive Player of the Year, Four Other Irish Notch ACC Honors
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo continues to make history in South Bend. On Tuesday, the sophomore was named ACC Player of the Year and ACC Defensive Player of the Year. She is the fourth Notre Dame player to earn the ACC’s top honor (Jewell Loyd, Kayla McBride [Coaches’ Poll] and Brianna Turner), and this is the second consecutive year Hidalgo has been named ACC Defensive Player of the Year.
Hidalgo is the fourth ever sophomore to be named ACC Player of the Year.
Hannah Hidalgo — Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year
Hidalgo is pacing the Irish this season on both ends of the court. She leads the team with 24.2 points and 3.7 steals per game, marks that rank second and fourth in the nation, respectively. Hidalgo ranks fifth in the ACC with a 40.1 success rate from beyond the arc and is averaging 2.1 triples per game.
The 5-6 guard has already re-written portions of the Irish record book, too. She is the only player in program history with 600 points in both her freshman and sophomore seasons in South Bend, and she has 100 steals this year, the sophomore record. It is just the fourth time in program history a Notre Dame player has had a 100-steal season. Hidalgo did it last year as well (160).
In addition to Hidalgo, Olivia Miles, Sonia Citron, Liatu King and Kate Koval earned ACC honors after standout performances during the regular season.
Olivia Miles — All-ACC First Team
For the third time in her storied career, Miles notched a spot on the All-ACC First Team. The floor general is averaging 16.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game. She is one of four players nationally averaging 16, 6 and 5. The New Jersey native leads the ACC in assists per game (14th nationally) and ranks ninth in the conference in scoring. She is shooting 50.9 percent from the floor (eighth in the ACC) and 41.6 percent from deep (third in the ACC). Miles is one of two ACC guards shooting 50 and 40 this season.
Additionally, Miles leads the nation with three triple-doubles this season and became the first player in ACC history with back-to-back triple-doubles (Loyola and Virginia). Her 20-point triple-double in Notre Dame’s opener against Mercyhurst came on the heels of a year off while rehabbing a torn ACL, making her the first player in NBA, WNBA or college basketball history to sit out for a year due to injury and post a 20-point triple-double in their first game back.
Sonia Citron — All-ACC First Team, All-ACC Defensive Team
Citron has been a constant on the ACC postseason honors list since coming to Notre Dame. The 2022 ACC Rookie of the Year was also on the First Team in 2023 and Second Team in 2024. This season, Citron is posting 14.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. She has gotten even hotter as of late, averaging 18.2 points and 7 rebounds while shooting 60.6 percent from the floor and 48 percent from deep over the last six games. After breaking the program’s free throw percentage record last season, Citron is 59-66 this year (89.4 percent).
While the stat sheet may not always show it, Citron is widely regarded as one of the best defenders in the nation. She is consistently tasked with guarding an opponent’s best player and has helped lock down All-Americans Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins this season to give Notre Dame multiple AP Top 5 opponents. Additionally, Citron is one of just four players in the ACC who ranks in the top 20 in the conference in both blocks and steals per game.
Liatu King — All-ACC Second Team
For the second consecutive season, King finds herself an All-ACC honoree. She was on the All-ACC First Team and was named the conference’s Most Improved Player last year.
To say King has been a welcomed addition down low for Notre Dame is an understatement. The 6-0 power forward is one of four players in the conference averaging a double-double (11.6/10.9). She is the only major conference player in the nation averaging at least 11 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals and a block per game.
King has a team-leading 12 double-doubles this year and has recorded double-figure boards in 22 of 28 games this year. In total, King already has 304 rebounds this year, becoming just the seventh player in program history with 300 or more rebounds in a single season. She notched 100 rebounds in just nine games this year, the fastest player to do so to start a season in program history.
Kate Koval — All-ACC Freshman Team
Koval burst onto the scene for Notre Dame in the fall. Through three games, Koval had 40 points, 33 rebounds, 8 assists and 15 blocks. According to OptaStats, the last Division I freshman (male or female) to reach those numbers in any three-game span is Kentucky’s Anthony Davis. She had 19 rebounds (a program record for a freshman) and 7 blocks at Lafayette and 16 and 6 against JMU. Additionally, she posted 5 blocks against Texas, becoming the fifth Irish player in the last 25 years with 5+ blocks against a top-5 team, joining Ruth Riley, Amanda Barksdale, Brianna Turner and Maya Dodson.
On the whole, she is averaging 5.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, one of three conference freshmen posting 5 and 5.