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When the Notre Dame women’s basketball team woke up on Feb. 23 to play at NC State, it couldn’t have been in better shape. The Irish held the No. 1 ranking in the country, a multi-game cushion for first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings and one of the sport’s most talented rosters. A memorable month of March seemed a given. Games in April, a likelihood.

Then the Wolfpack upset the Irish in double overtime. Four days later, Florida State stormed South Bend and outplayed Notre Dame on Senior Night. Suddenly, when the regular season ended on March 2, the 25-4 Irish had lost their shot at the ACC Tournament’s No. 1 seed and could only settle for a share of the conference’s regular season championship. Still a great outcome, but Notre Dame had the talent for a stronger finish.

That rang true again in the conference tournament, in which the Irish didn’t reach championship Sunday. The same Duke team that the Irish had soundly beaten while at No. 1 completely neutralized Notre Dame’s post play and sent it packing in the semifinal round.

At this point, as the Irish received a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, many wondered which Notre Dame team would show up to the big dance. Would it be the unstoppable dynamo that didn’t lose a game between Cyber Monday and Presidents’ Day? What about the clearly uncomfortable squad that entered the national tournament having lost three of five?

Hosting their First and Second Round NCAA Tournament games at Purcell Pavilion, the dominant Irish returned to the floor for a weekend. After burying Stephen F. Austin under a 106-54 score in round one, Notre Dame blew open a rivalry matchup with Michigan on March 23. In a game never close, the Irish marched to a fourth consecutive Sweet 16 by winning 76-55.

“I already knew this, but we're a bunch of fighters, and we respond when we're challenged,” senior guard Citron said after the Michigan game. “[Head] Coach [Niele] Ivey challenged us, and we responded. We got better, and I think we've shown that these past two games.”

Energized by a sellout crowd, the Irish overwhelmed Michigan with a 32-point first quarter in which they shot 75% from the floor.

“We just played well together, and then I saw my teammates’ shots going in, and so it just gives me the extra motivation to knock my shots down,” sophomore guard and leading scorer Hannah Hidalgo said.

As the game settled down, graduate forward Liatu King made sure the Irish remained in control. The Pittsburgh transfer recorded an 18-point, 15-rebound double-double, owning the paint.

“We saw mismatches, we saw how they were defending ball screens and they were just able to find me on the slips, on the rolls and things like that,” King described. “So I really give credit to the point guards and Soni as well for just finding me in open areas.”

The win turned out the lights on Purcell for the season and sent Notre Dame down to Birmingham, Alabama, for the Sweet 16. There, on March 29, the Irish opposed a TCU squad that had handed them their first loss in November.

As expected, the game remained tight throughout, but the Irish had a chance to close after riding an 11-2 run to a 46-37 lead with five minutes left in the third quarter. However, TCU showed no fear despite playing in its first Sweet 16, outscoring Notre Dame 20-10 in the fourth to wrap up a 71-62 victory.

“[It was] obviously a high game of runs,” Coach Ivey described. “We had a great stretch in that third quarter defensively that we went up, but unfortunately tables turned, [we] couldn't make the shots that we normally make, couldn't get the stops and just didn't finish the game the way we wanted to.”

The performance of TCU’s stars relative to Notre Dame’s made a large difference in the outcome. Top Horned Frog scorers Hailey Van Lith and Sedona Prince combined for 47 points and 15 rebounds, while Notre Dame’s loaded backcourt of Hidalgo, Citron and graduate guard Olivia Miles made only 10 of 44 field goal attempts.

After the game, with Miles, Citron and graduate forward Maddy Westbeld by her side at the presser, Coach Ivey expressed her gratitude for the commitment of her six-member senior class.

“These three believed in my vision, and they're so loyal, such amazing young women that have a lot of great basketball ahead of them,” Ivey said. “And I'm just really grateful for what they've done – for what they have done for me and what they've done for our program… They've left it better than what they came in with.”

“They know that I got them for life.”

Westbeld and Citron also shared their reflections on a memorable run in blue and gold.

“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,” Westbeld said.

“Now I'm not even thinking about the game,” Citron added. “I'm just thinking about the people that I've met here, the relationships that I've formed [and] the friendships that I've formed.”

Unfortunately for the Irish, the season’s end has not brought the resounding answer of a national championship, but instead serious questions about next year’s roster. Miles shocked the women’s basketball world by rejecting the WNBA Draft and instead entering the transfer portal on April 1. Five-star freshman forward Kate Koval followed her shortly after, leaving Hidalgo as Notre Dame’s lone returning starter.

Of course, the Irish can add through the portal and have interior help on the way with five-star incoming freshman Leah Macy. They’re also set to return two key rotation pieces in sophomore guard Cassandre Prosper and junior guard KK Bransford, assuming the latter is able to perform at full health. Still, it’s safe to say that the Irish just missed their best shot at the Final Four since the Ivey Era began five years ago, and it’s no guarantee at this moment that they’ll get any closer to that goal in 2025-26.