6 Notre Dame women’s basketball players named to preseason award watch lists

Posted by author October 31, 2024 Basketball

Spread the love

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – It’s the last day of October, and that means that the college basketball season is right around the corner.

With the regular season tipping off around the country on Monday, the final preseason award watch lists have been announced… and the Notre Dame women have quite a few honorees.

This week, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association wrapped up their preseason award announcements, and the Irish placed six players on three different watch lists.

For the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award, both Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles were named to the watch list.

For the Ann Meyers-Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Award, Sonia Citron made the cut

And then for the Katrina McClain Power Forward of the Year Award, Maddy Westbeld, Liza Karlen, and Liatu King all made the watch list.

It shows how Notre Dame has some big expectations for this season — something head coach Niele Ivey touched on after last night’s exhibition win over Davenport.

“Just excited to start this new year. To see our pieces, to see our new faces, having Olivia back and having Cass back, it’s just amazing,” Ivey said. “It was just a lot of great basketball. Really good basketball, the pace was great. . . Got a lot of different contributions from a lot of different players. Had almost a triple-double from a couple different players, so really pleased with the effort and excited to get back to work and prepare for our home opener.”

And speaking of that regular season home opener, that’s in just a few days for the Irish, as they welcome in Mercyhurst to open their year next Monday with an early tip off at 5 p.m. at Purcell Pavilion. It’s one of just two home games in November for Notre Dame.