Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Niele Ivey added more size and more depth Wednesday to the 2025-26 Irish roster by securing the commitment from Kansas State grad transfer Gisela Sanchez.
The 6-foot-4 Spain native, expected to sign soon, is the second transfer portal pickup in less than a week for the Irish (28-6 in 2025), who lost five players after last season to expired eligibility and four more to the transfer portal shortly after ND’s NCAA Tournament exit in the Sweet 16 round on March 29.
The Irish added 6-3 Wake Forest grad transfer forward Malaya Cowles (8.8, 5.1) on Friday.
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Sanchez averaged 4.2 points and 3.1 rebounds a game in 2025, while averaging roughly 15 minutes of game in playing time for the Wildcats (28-8), who — like the Irish — bowed out in the NCAA’s Sweet 16.
Her career bests of 5.5 points and 3.1 rebounds a game came in 2024. Sanchez missed all of the 2023 season with a knee injury, and played her freshman season at Arizona. Like Cowles, she’ll have one season of eligibility at Notre Dame.
In her final season with K-State, Sanchez shot .348 from the field, .250 from the 3-point arc, and .529 from the free-throw line.
Her addition brings the number of scholarship players on the 2025-26 Irish roster to six, though incoming freshmen forward Leah Macy’s availability for the coming season is in doubt because of a senior-year knee injury.
Notre Dame’s confirmed returnees are two-time, first-team All-American Hannah Hidalgo, Canadian Olympian Cass Prosper and 2024-25 redshirt KK Bransford — all guards.
The deadline to enter the women’s college basketball players is April 23. Players can select schools after the portal window closes, but that is the deadline to submit their names.
All four of Notre Dame’s outgoing transfers have found landing spots — second-team All-America guard Olivia Miles to TCU, freshman center Kate Koval to LSU, sophomore guard Emma Risch to Florida State and grad senior forward Kylee Watson to Villanova.
The Irish lost starters Maddy Westbeld, Sonia Citron and Liatu King to expired eligibility, as well as key reserve Liza Karlen and former walk-on Sarah Cernugel.
Citron was selected in the first round of Monday’s WNBA Draft by Washington as the third overall pick. Westbeld went in the second round to Chicago, and King in the third to Los Angeles.
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