Tag: Sonia Citron

Three Notre Dame players projected as 2025 WNBA first-round picks

You’ll definitely want to watch these players for the Irish next season.

The dust barely has cleared on the 2024 WNBA draft. But that hasn’t stopped people from looking ahead to the 2025 draft. And if you do that as a Notre Dame fan, you’ll realize why next season likely will be the best chance yet for the current group to go far.

Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic has put together a list of who she believes will make up the first round of next year’s WNBA draft. Merchant figures three current Notre Dame players will be taken in that round, beginning with [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] at No. 3:

“It’s hard to design a more prototypically perfect 2-guard than Citron. She is tall and strong, defends well and has a beautiful jumper that goes in 37 percent of the time from long range. Citron is overtaxed as a primary ballhandler, but let her run off screens or handoffs, and she can create her own shot. She is plug-and-play on any team, adding positive value on both ends of the floor.”

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag], who announced her return to the Irish for next season earlier this week, also made the list as the sixth overall pick:

“Another player who could have been a first-rounder in this year’s draft, Westbeld does everything well. She can shoot from distance (36 percent on 3s in her college career), and she also can drive to the basket. Westbeld is a load in the paint and dominates on the glass. She can body bigger players on defense; her effort to limit (Elizabeth) Kitley to 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting during the 2024 ACC season was an eye-opener. It’s unclear if she has All-Star upside, but Westbeld is the type of player winning teams find minutes for.”

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] rounds out this list at No. 8, but she has an asterisk next to her name since she still has a medical redshirt year:

“It’s been a long time since we watched Miles play basketball, so in case you forgot, she’s an elite passer who excels at creating offense in transition. She rebounds well for her position and is a defensive playmaker with 2.1 steals per game. The 3-point jumper was a work in progress during her sophomore season, but she started to fill it up from midrange at least. Without the jumper, she’d be a solid backup point guard in the WNBA, but she has a chance to be even more if that developed during her rehab year.”

So yeah, the 2024-25 Irish are going to be special. Get excited for it now because there’s no time like the present, but more importantly, all of these special players will be off to greener pastures before you know it.

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Niele Ivey, Sonia Citron, Maddy Westbeld speak after Notre Dame loss

Niele Ivey surely has to be bothered that she still can’t get over the Sweet 16 hump as a head coach. Yes, Notre Dame was ravaged of depth and height by season’s end, but that likely doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow. Still, she has no …

[autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] surely has to be bothered that she still can’t get over the Sweet 16 hump as a head coach. Yes, Notre Dame was ravaged of depth and height by season’s end, but that likely doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow. Still, she has no choice after the Irish lost to Oregon State in Albany Regional 1, 70-65. It’s the third straight season the Irish have been stopped short of the Elite Eight.

Among those returning next year will be guard [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag]. In three NCAA Tournament games this season, she averaged 22.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.0 assists while shooting 47.4% from the field. She will be key to the success of the 2024-25 Irish.

Unknown at this point is whether [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] will exercise her final year of eligibility and return to the Irish for a fifth season. She averaged 16.0 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks a game in March Madness. Hopefully for Irish fans, it won’t take much convincing for her to come back, especially with a healthy team sure to have high expectations.

Ivey, Citron and Westbeld all spoke to the media shortly after their season ended. Here’s what they had to say:

Notre Dame’s season ends after falling to Oregon State in Sweet 16

Another year, another elimination in the regional semifinals.

With injuries stripping Notre Dame of its depth, it seemed like only a matter of time before that caught up. It didn’t happen during the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but Albany Regional 1 posed tougher competition and thus increased the likelihood of the issue being exposed. Oregon State was the team to do it, beating the Irish in the Sweet 16, 70-65.

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A game that featured eight ties and 11 lead changes was destined to come down to the end. The Irish (27-7) were in front, 59-57, with less than three minutes to play when Donovyn Hunter hit a 3 to give the Beavers (28-7) the lead for good. One possession later, Lily Hansford made another 3 off an offensive rebound, putting the Beavers up four.

The teams continued to trade free throws and layups until the Irish called a timeout down, 67-63, with 26.1 seconds left. Their final hopes were snuffed when Talia von Oelhoffen blocked a [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] 3 and promptly made two free throws after being fouled. At that point, the deficit was too big with too little time left for the Irish.

The Irish scored 26 points off 27 Beavers turnovers, but that was canceled out by losing the rebounding battle, 42-24. The Beavers also exploited the Irish’s lack of available size by winning the battle for points in the paint, 40-28. Also, three Beavers scored 14 points off the bench while [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag], the Irish’s lone reserve in this game, was kept out of the scoring column.

As expected, Raegan Beers was a problem as she scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Beavers. Also a problem was Timea Gardiner, who also achieved a double-double with 21 points and 11 boards. Hunter scored 11 points, and van Oelhoffen dished out a game-high nine assists in addition to her clutch block of Citron.

Citron led all scorers with 22 points and also had the most rebounds for the Irish with seven. [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] scored 19 points but picked up three of her four fouls in the first half, possibly affecting what the Irish could do on defense in the middle. [autotag]Anna DeWolfe[/autotag] had 12 points in her final college game.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] tied her season low with 10 points on 4-of-17 shooting. She might have become disconcerted when she was ordered to have her nose ring removed before the start of the second quarter and missed the first four minutes of that quarter while having the issue taken care of.

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Sonia Citron, Maddy Westbeld talk ahead of Notre Dame in Sweet 16

sonia citron and Maddy Westbeld have spoken on behalf of Notre Dame’s players before each NCAA Tournament game so far. It’s not like they haven’t earned the opportunity either. Citron led all scorers with 29 points in the first-round win over Kent …

[autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] have spoken on behalf of Notre Dame’s players before each NCAA Tournament game so far. It’s not like they haven’t earned the opportunity either. Citron led all scorers with 29 points in the first-round win over Kent State. Westbeld followed suit with 20 points as well as the only two blocks to help beat Ole Miss in the second round. Citron scored 17 in that game.

The day before the Irish faced Oregon State in the Sweet 16 in Albany Regional 1, the obvious sentiment within the program was not to mess with a good thing. Call it good luck, earned by merit or whatever, but Citron and Westbeld continued their trend of speaking with the media a day ahead of their next tournament contest. By this time, it wouldn’t be surprising if they could finish each other’s sentences with how frequently they are together both on and off the court.

Here are the things the Irish’s two veteran leaders had to tell the assembled media:

Notre Dame goes back to Sweet 16 with second-round win over Ole Miss

Make your plans for Good Friday.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Never mind that it was a Monday afternoon. Notre Dame fans packed Purcell Pavilion in droves one final time this season to see the Irish play in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Ole Miss. The Irish didn’t want to let their fans down, and they accomplished that with a 71-56 win that placed them in their third straight Sweet 16. They next will play Oregon State in the semifinals of Albany Regional 1 on Good Friday.

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There never really was a moment in which the Irish (28-6) were seriously threatened by the Rebels (24-9). Once [autotag]Anna DeWolfe[/autotag] and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] hit back-to-back 3s to end the scoring in the first quarter, they never led by less than double digits. They had good looks both inside and out on offense, and their defense not only forced the Rebels to make mistakes but unnerved them into unforced errors. The result was a lead that grew by as much as 23.

In what could have been her final game in South Bend, Westbeld made it count with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting and the game’s only two blocks, both coming in the first quarter. [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] was just behind Westbeld with 19 points, and she also collected four steals.[autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] advanced her reputation as perhaps the Irish’s best all-around player, achieving a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to go with a game-high six assists.

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Sonia Citron, Maddy Westbeld speak day before next Notre Dame game

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — sonia citron and Maddy Westbeld spoke the day before Notre Dame played their first-round game for the NCAA Tournament. The next day, they went out and helped win that game. Citron got most of the attention by tying her career …

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] spoke the day before Notre Dame played their first-round game for the NCAA Tournament. The next day, they went out and helped win that game. Citron got most of the attention by tying her career high with 29 points. Westbeld finished one point short of a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds.

For those reasons as well as being the veteran leaders for the Irish, they were asked to speak with the media again the day before their second-round game against Ole Miss. While [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] is the one getting all the national attention, the Irish only will go as far as these two can take them because Hidalgo only can do so much. If they’re neutralized or foul out of a game, Hidalgo will have to do more, and a star player can’t be gassed when the next loss means your season is over.

Here are some of the things they had to say the day before facing the Rebels:

Notre Dame knocks out Kent State to begin NCAA Tournament

One down, five to go.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – A No. 2 seed never had lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Notre Dame had no intention of becoming the first team to do that as it battled Kent State at Purcell Pavilion. With most of the crowd backing them, the Irish held a comfortable lead almost the entire game and advanced to the second round with an 81-67 victory.

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Unlike last year’s first-round game against Southern Utah that pretty much was decided from the opening tip, the Irish (27-6) allowed the Golden Flashes (21-11) to score the first basket of this game and even keep the lead for the first three-and-a-half minutes. But the Irish were finished with generosity after that and proceeded to score 18 unanswered points with sound offense and forcing tough shots on defense.

The Irish mostly coasted from there, leading by as much as 21. There was a brief scare in the fourth quarter when the Flashes cut that lead to 12, but it was a passing threat at best. This wasn’t going to be anything but an Irish victory, especially with them scoring 23 points off 16 Flashes turnovers.

[autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] was by far the Irish’s best player with a game-high 29 points. Several of her buckets came on passes from [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag], who achieved a double-double in her first NCAA Tournament game of 14 points and 11 assists despite shooting only 5 of 14 from the field. She also had six steals, five of them coming in the third quarter.

[autotag]Anna DeWolfe[/autotag] scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half, providing an early offensive spark along with Citron. [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] flirted with her own double-double with nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

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Sonia Citron, Maddy Westbeld talk day before Notre Dame starts tourney

Everyone has been talking about Notre Dame All-American freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo. But every great basketball player needs a supporting cast in order to succeed on the team level. For Hidalgo, no supporting cast members have been greater this …

Everyone has been talking about Notre Dame All-American freshman guard [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag]. But every great basketball player needs a supporting cast in order to succeed on the team level. For Hidalgo, no supporting cast members have been greater this season than [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag].

Both players made Second Team All-ACC and First Team All-ACC Tournament. Someone need to step up in the absence of [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], and they’ve done just that and then some. More importantly, they’ve provided the veteran leadership needed for the Irish to excel, especially as the roster continued to be ravaged by injuries. Both of them were injured themselves at various points this season, but they’re fully healthy now.

All this and more are why they were selected to meet the media the day before the Irish opened the NCAA Tournament against Kent State. Here is some of what they had to say:

Ivey, Hidalgo, Citron, Westbeld speak after winning ACC tourney title

When the story about the 2023-24 Notre Dame women’s basketball season is written, Hannah Hidalgo’s name will be the first one to come up. But the reality is sonia citron and Maddy Westbeld were just as important, and all three showed it by being …

When the story about the 2023-24 Notre Dame women’s basketball season is written, [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag]’s name will be the first one to come up. But the reality is [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] were just as important, and all three showed it by being named to the ACC All-Tournament First Team with Hidalgo winning MVP honors. What else was there to do after the Irish beat NC State, 55-51, for the ACC Tournament title.

To the surprise of no one, all three players accompanied [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] to her postgame news conference that was long-awaited after the Irish spent a lot of time celebrating their latest honor. It’s amazing that they were able to gather their thoughts for the assembled media, but they know this is part of what they need to do after games. Of course, enough time had passed by then that had had time to assemble their thoughts.

Notre Dame wins ACC Tournament championship by beating NC State

They earned every bit of this one.

It didn’t matter that Notre Dame had only seven players available for the ACC Tournament championship against NC State. It hasn’t mattered all season how ravaged the Irish have been by injuries. They’ve proven time and again just how good they are. Now, they have hardware after beating the Wolfpack, 55-51, to win their sixth ACC Tournament title.

A game that featured seven ties and nine lead changes wasn’t decided until the fourth quarter. When the Irish (26-6) saw the Wolfpack (27-6) go up six with over seven minutes left, they cracked down with defensive pressure, and just enough offense took over from there. Over the final 6:44, they went on a 12-2 run, allowing the Wolfpack only one field goal over their final nine attempts.

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] tied the game with a pair of 3-pointers, and tournament MVP [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] made a couple of go-ahead shots in a 56-second span. A final defensive stop was book-ended by single free throws apiece from [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] and Hidalgo. The Irish huddled in celebration as the final seconds ticked down.

Hidalgo led all scorers with 22 points and dished out a game-high six assists. Westbeld scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half with eight of them coming in the fourth quarter. Citron had 11 points, eight rebounds and four steals. [autotag]Natalija Marshall[/autotag], starting for the injured [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag], blocked three shots.

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