The Notre Dame women’s basketball team came into Saturday’s Sweet 16 matchup looking for their first Elite 8 appearance since 2019. Now in her fifth season at the helm, head coach Niele Ivey’s Irish teams have made three Sweet 16 appearances, failing to advance in each one. Led by a backcourt of graduate Olivia Miles, senior Sonia Citron and sophomore Hannah Hidalgo, this year’s group appeared to have the best chance to change that. Standing in their way, however, was a No. 2 seed TCU team in the midst of a historic season. In year two under Naismith Coach of the Year finalist Mark Campbell, the Horned Frogs finished 2025 as both Big 12 regular season and tournament champions with a program record 33 wins. Key transfers headlined by Big 12 Player of the Year Hailey Van Lith and Sedona Prince were the catalyst for this TCU turnaround. They are part of a starting lineup that plays nearly the entire game, one that also features elite 3-point marksman Madison Conner and Agnes Emma-Nnopu, who came off of a 23-point outing against Louisville in the Second Round. The regular season rematch, which TCU won 76-68 in the Cayman Islands, had everything on the line for two veteran teams with several All-Americans playing in their final collegiate seasons.
Early in the first quarter, TCU got whatever they wanted on the offensive end. The Horned Frogs jumped out to a 16-9 start with all five starters tallying points. But coming out of Ivey’s timeout, Notre Dame upped the intensity. After a 7-8 start, the Irish forced TCU to go 2-6 to finish the quarter. They forced five Horned Frog turnovers leading directly to eight points, accentuated by a Citron steal and run-out layup to cut the deficit to one heading into the second quarter. A Citron layup and step-back three from Miles extended an 11-0 Notre Dame run to start the second and gave the Irish their first lead since back at 4-2. The Irish continued to capitalize in transition throughout the quarter, winning the fast-break point battle 7-2 and scoring 13 points off of eight TCU turnovers for the half. However, their 2-11 mark from three kept the Horned Frogs in the game. They were made to settle for tough looks beyond the arc, particularly Hidalgo, who was held to 1-8 from the field through the first 20 minutes. The big three of Prince, Van Lith and Conner led the way for TCU on offense, combining for 26 of the team’s 33 points.
The Irish went on a 9-0 run early in the third quarter behind strong defensive plays by senior forward Maddy Westbeld. She stood her ground against the 6-foot-7 Prince in the post, drawing a charge to go with a steal and a block leading to more Notre Dame transition points. In the post-game press conference, she described her approach to guarding and how it was impacted by battling foul trouble.
“Definitely the game plan was to be as physical as possible with her,” Westbeld said. On the topic of managing the fouls, she added the importance of “Staying present, not focusing on it, and just trying to play as aggressive as possible but as clean as possible.”
After a strong start from the Irish, TCU would respond with an 8-0 run of their own. Prince drew a third foul on Westbeld and, set up in the two-man game by Van Lith, got to the line at will. The teams traded buckets down the final stretch of the quarter, which ended with Miles setting up graduate forward Liatu King for the go-ahead layup before the buzzer. The Irish would take a 52-51 lead into the final frame despite their continued shooting struggles. King’s brilliant performance was the biggest reason why. Averaging a double-double on the season, she continued to impact the game on the glass, finishing the game with 10 rebounds, five of them offensive. She added a team-high 17 points on 8-9 shooting to keep Notre Dame in the game all afternoon.
However, the fourth quarter belonged to Van Lith and the Horned Frogs. Her layup and three led a 7-0 TCU run that set the tone for the remainder of the game. Reflecting on the game, Ivey referenced the team’s struggles down the stretch.
“Unfortunately, tables turned, we couldn’t make the shots we normally make, couldn’t get the stops, and just didn’t finish the game the way we wanted to,” Ivey said.
Van Lith continued to take over, hitting a mid-range jumper and canning another clutch three to extend the lead to seven at 65-57 with a little over four minutes remaining. At that point, TCU had outscored the Irish 14-5 in the quarter. She would later drop in a left-handed layup to put the exclamation mark on a 71-62 victory.
Van Lith finished the fourth with 12 points and scored 18 of her game-high 26 in the second half. She and the TCU big three tallied a whopping 60 of the team’s 71 points, with Conner and Prince adding 13 and 21, respectively. The best 3-point shooting team in women’s college basketball chose a bad day for their worst shooting performance of the season, going 3-15 from behind the long line. Entering the day, it had been a 5-15 mark against none other than TCU back on November 29, 2024. While the defense played a role, Miles emphasized the self-inflicted nature of her team’s shooting slump.
“We literally were just missing shots that we normally make, and that’s going to happen at times,” Miles said. “Shots that we should make that are on us at the end of the day.”
Hidalgo headlined Notre Dame’s struggles in one of her worst games of the season, the ACC Player of the Year finishing with 15 points on 3-19 shooting. The Horned Frogs corralled the rest of the Irish backcourt as well, holding Miles and Citron to a combined 19 points on 7-25 from the field.
Despite a season of extremely high highs, 2025 ultimately ended as another disappointing year for Ivey’s Irish. After bowing out in the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight season, Notre Dame has yet to recapture the magic of the Muffet McGraw era and will have to continue their wait for a return to the Elite 8 and beyond. When asked about what it might take to overcome the hurdle, Ivey cited the importance of “Having the sustainability on this type of stage … knowing that you have to sustain that for 40 minutes because of this stage and how big this stage is.”
The game is the last for Citron and Westbeld in a Notre Dame jersey. Though she has yet to declare for the draft, it very well could be the last for Miles as well. Speaking about her departing seniors, Ivey expressed her appreciation for their contributions.
“I’m just really grateful for what they have done for me and what they’ve done for our program,” Ivey said. “They’ve left it better than what they came in with.”
The trio, Miles, Citron and Westbeld, who played together for their entire collegiate careers, spoke to the closeness of the group and what they hoped to leave behind. Fighting back tears, Westbeld said, “There’s truly no place on earth, there’s no people that I would want to play with, other than these two, other than play for Coach Niele, other than play for this university.”
“I love all my teammates in that locker room,” Miles added. “We’ve grown so much through this entire season, so just very proud of the work we’ve done.” Citron reinforced the messages of her teammates, and concluded by saying, “We’re just so blessed to be able to play the sport that we love with the people that we love, for the coaches and a university that we love … we are all truly blessed.”
Losing those three along with King and graduate forward Liza Karlen, Ivey will have several questions to answer in the offseason. Her cornerstone of Hidalgo coming back should ensure that the Irish will remain competitive, but there are plenty of gaps to fill elsewhere on the roster. In the end, despite losing to the higher seed in TCU, the season will feel like a missed opportunity for Notre Dame. Nonetheless, the legacy left behind by this group will live on.
