Tag: acc women’s basketball

Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey speaks at ACC media day

Think the Irish have another deep tournament run in them?

Entering her third season as the legendary [autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag]’s successor, Notre Dame coach [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] has every reason for optimism. She went from .500 in her first year at the helm to 24-9 and an appearance in the Sweet 16. But for a late Irish collapse against NC State in their final game, the Final Four would have been within their reach. Alas, neither Ivey nor her team could be disappointed by how far they had come.

All of that is history now, and Ivey is ready to see what she can do with this year’s Irish. She answered questions about it during the ACC’s media day Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina:

Notre Dame’s Maya Dodson denied sixth year of eligibility by NCAA

Best wishes in her professional career.

Notre Dame forward Maya Dodson was in a no-lose situation. If the NCAA denied her request for a sixth year of eligibility, she could instead prepare for the upcoming WNBA draft. Well, it’s time for her to start thinking about her professional career because the NCAA denied her appeal. With her collegiate career officially over, she took to social media to profess her gratitude to the Irish:

Dodson came to the Irish for the 2021-22 season after transferring from Stanford. Injuries limited her to nine games in 2019-20, and she opted out of the COVID-19-hampered 2020-21 season. By doing so, she was not eligible for the extra year of eligibility that the NCAA gave those who played that season. That made the appeal process necessary.

In her lone season with the Irish, Dodson was named to the All-ACC First Team and All-Defensive Team. She led the team in rebounds (7.3) and blocks (2.8) a game while also placing second in scoring (12.6).

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Twitter reacts to Notre Dame’s embarrassing first half vs. Louisville

The Irish have been fed a jumbo slice of humble pie.

Notre Dame’s quest for perfection at home this season ended with an 86-64 loss to Louisville. However, the final score made the game seem much closer than it was. What if you were told that the Irish trailed, 31-3, after the first quarter and 54-15 at halftime? As crazy as it sounds for a game against two top-15 teams, that’s exactly what happened.

Twitter users soon caught wind of what was happening in South Bend and weighed in:

 

As if this wasn’t enough, it all happened on a day the Irish welcomed back Skylar Diggins-Smith:

Oh, and Notre Dame student Jerome Bettis was in attendance, too:

But through it all, the Irish fans somehow didn’t let Purcell Pavilion get quiet:

This game showed once and for all that while the Irish are back to being one of the better teams in the country, they haven’t returned to the elite status they enjoyed under Muffet McGraw. While that day might come soon enough, it hasn’t happened yet. Of course, a deep run in the NCAA Tournament might cause that thought to be revisited. Is anyone counting on that though?

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Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron is ACC Freshman of the Week for sixth time

This young lady can play some basketball.

Grass is green, water is wet, and Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron is the ACC Freshman of the Week. That’s how routine this honor has become for Citron, who has earned the honor for a program-tying sixth time. Brianna Turner was the last to reach that mark in 2014-15. If you go back to the Irish’s Big East days, it happened to Jacqueline Batteast (2001-02) and Alicia Ratay (1999-2000).

With one more ACC Freshman of the Week honor, Citron would do more than set program history. It would tie the seven times North Carolina’s Janelle Bailey won it during the 2017-18 season.

Citron stood out during the past week as the Irish split games against Miami and third-ranked Louisville. In a win over the Hurricanes, she scored eight of her 15 points in the fourth quarter while also grabbing eight rebounds. As the Irish were losing to the Cardinals, nine of her team-leading 13 points came in the third quarter. She had eight boards in that game, too.

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Watch: Notre Dame celebrates its upsets win over NC State

Think they’re happy?

Unlike their male counterparts the night before, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team scored an upset at Purcell Pavilion. The Irish defeated No. 3 NC State, 69-66, to give Niele Ivey her first win over a top-five opponent. What do you do when you earn such a big victory? Celebrate, of course.

Naturally, the first celebration began on the court as soon as the clock hit zero, much to the delight of the fans who turned out:

When Ivey reached the locker room, a water celebration with her players was waiting for her:

With everybody gathered, it was time to break into their victory song (no, not the fight song):

When Ivey addressed her players, she said pretty much everything she could say:

Just for good measure, Sam Brunelle tweeted out her feelings:

So did Ivey:

If you didn’t believe it before, you definitely can now. Notre Dame is back among the best in women’s basketball, and it’s time to acknowledge it.

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Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles, Sonia Citron win ACC awards

Congrats, ladies!

There are a lot of reasons Notre Dame is 16-4. Two of them are Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron. These particular two were impressive enough recently that they were named the ACC Player of the Week and ACC Freshman of the Week, respectively. It’s the fifth time in program history the Irish have swept a conference’s weekly awards, and Niele Ivey was happy to bask in her players’ honors:

In the Irish’s home wins over Syracuse and Boston College, Miles had averages of 23.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 7.5 assists. The latter of those games saw her score 30 points and dish out six assists.

Citron has won the conference’s weekly freshman honor five times now, more than anyone else this season. Her averages were 13.5 points and 8.0 rebounds, and she had a shooting line of .625/.667/.714.

The only other time the Irish have swept these weekly awards since joining the ACC came in December 2015 when the honors went to Madison Cable and Arike Ogunbowale.

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Watch: Niele Ivey addresses team after Notre Dame beats North Carolina

Who wouldn’t run through a wall after hearing this?

Once a powerhouse, Notre Dame has fallen off over the past few years. However, a 70-65 win over North Carolina convinced a lot of people that this program is on its way back up. Both teams are ranked in the Top 25, but this victory put the Irish (13-3, 4-1) ahead of the Tar Heels (14-2, 4-2) in the ACC standings and into a tie for third with Virginia Tech. Coach Niele Ivey told her team exactly what this meant in the locker room afterward:

With the victory, the Irish have won six of their past seven games. They have yet to play NC State or Louisville, the two teams that are undefeated in conference play and also rank in the top five nationally. Barring a collapse over the next month-and-a-half, the Irish should get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years. It’s only a matter of how good they’ll be when that time comes.

Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron wins third ACC Freshman of the Week

What more can Citron accomplish this season?

Notre Dame might have its next legend in the making in Sonia Citron. How else to explain the hardware she already has earned during her short time in South Bend. For the third time out of a possible four weeks, Citron has been named the ACC Freshman of the Week. The Irish record for this award since the program entered the conference is six, set by Brianna Turner during the 2014-15 season.

Citron earned the award after a 29-point performance against Michigan State, followed by 19 points against UConn, which was ranked second at the time the game was played. Through five games, she is third on the Irish with 6.2 rebounds a game and fifth with 10.2 points a game. She also is shooting 48.8 percent from the field.

Obviously, it’s way too soon to add Citron to the Purcell Pavilion Ring of Honor, but the path to that honor is becoming clearer with each game.

Notre Dame Women’s Basketball: Irish Down Yellow Jackets

Notre Dame showed it was ready for Georgia Tech and its second-ranked defense with a 59-51 road win Sunday. The Yellow Jackets (14-8, 5-6) entered the contest allowing only 50.6 points a game, but in this case, it was the Irish (8-14, 3-7) allowing …

Notre Dame showed it was ready for Georgia Tech and its second-ranked defense with a 59-51 road win Sunday. The Yellow Jackets (14-8, 5-6) entered the contest allowing only 50.6 points a game, but in this case, it was the Irish (8-14, 3-7) allowing that many points.

Midway through the third quarter, the Irish broke a 33-all tie and went a 9-2 run to provide the game’s first lead of larger than four points. Notre Dame then began the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run. It allowed only one field goal over the previous 10 minutes before a media timeout at the 4:52 mark. Jasmine Carson got Georgia Tech within seven by scoring eight consecutive points, but the Irish held off the rally with a few clutch plays and were home free for the win.

Mikki Vaughn scored a career-high 20 points while shooting 10 of 15 from the field and bringing down seven rebounds. Destinee Walker scored 15, and Katlyn Gilbert had 11 points and five assists.