Notre Dame Women's going dancing in the NCAA Tournament as the #2 seed

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Even with a shorthanded roster, the Irish won the ACC championship and are now hosting the first two rounds of the big dance for the second consecutive year.

Not that they needed help getting to the dance, but when you beat three top 25 teams in the regular season, then run through Louisville, Virginia Tech, and NC State in the conference tournament, you've made your point if you're Notre Dame. And the NCAA committee noticed the grit.

The Irish were a #3 seed last year. Eventually beating Southern Utah and Mississippi State in the opening rounds, in South Bend.

This year, the anticipation of where Notre Dame will land in the tournament is over. They're the #2 seed and will face Kent State in round one.

"I've heard so many scenarios and so I'm just blessed to be dancing and blessed to be at home. A two seed with the type of season we've had. It's just amazing and again I'm just so grateful I'm so excited," Head Coach Niele Ivey said.

The Irish have made 29 appearances to the NCAA Tournament and are 71-26 all-time. Including 24-4 in round one.

"Obviously, it's all new to me. So, I don't know anything about you know, seeding or anything like that. But I mean, I think it's big to have a two seed. So just kind of hearing the reaction of everybody especially hearing everybody talking about we might get a lower seed and just showing like how much we've gelled like throughout all these past games and how much better we've gotten as a team it really shows and obviously with the seeding it shows a lot," said Notre Dame guard ACC rookie of the year, Hannah Hidalgo.

"I mean, it's everything that you can think of playing at home. We have the familiar, you know, faces of our fans, we have our family here. Thankfully, we're playing a team from Ohio, so I'll probably have a lot of people with that too. But you know, it's just we have, we have our people here, we have everything about it. It's great. I'm excited," said Notre Dame Basketball Junior Maddy Westbeld.

It's win or go home for the Irish. The matchup versus Kent State will take place Saturday. The time is TBD.