After a 74-58 home throttling of Louisville on March 1 heading into the ACC Tournament, Notre Dame senior forward Maddy Westbeld deftly fielded and answered awkward questions about what it felt like to be playing in her final game in Purcell Pavilion.
Which apparently required some clairvoyance.
Not only did the 6-foot-3, Kettering, Ohio, product play in two more home games this spring — first- and second-round NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament matchups last month — Westbeld announced Monday that a whole slate of them now await her in the 2024-25 season.
Which enhances the chances of that Irish team dancing beyond the Sweet 16 next spring and into April.
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By cashing in her COVID-year option for a fifth year at Notre Dame, the All-ACC second-team selection and WBCA honorable mention All-American joins all but sixth-year guard Anna DeWolfe from a starting lineup that helped produce a 28-7 record and an ACC Tournament championship.
The Irish did lose sophomore reserve guard KK Bransford to the transfer portal on Sunday and reserve post player Nat Marshall on Wednesday night, but they’ll add significantly, including from the long-term injured list — 2023 All-America junior guard Olivia Miles, versatile sophomore guard Cass Prosper and freshman sharpshooter Emma Risch, all of whom are eligible to take medical redshirt seasons from this past year.
And 6-5 center Kate Koval joins them in June. The Ukraine native who played her high school ball at Long Island (N.Y.) Lutheran is the nation’s top-rated center prospect and No. 5 player overall nationally in the 2025 class, per ESPNw.
Notre Dame’s other returning starters are All-American and freshman point guard Hannah Hidalgo, junior All-ACC guard Sonia Citron and fifth-year senior center Kylee Watson, the latter of whom will be coming back from an ACL tear she suffered on March 9.
Westbeld will begin next season 16th on the ND career scoring list (1,550 points), 15 points behind current Irish assistant coach Charel Allen. Her 880 rebounds are the eighth most all-time, and her 120 games played — all starts — puts her on a trajectory to break Brittany Mallory’s school record of 151.
Westbeld averaged 14.4 points and a team- and career-high 8.7 rebounds in 34 games in 2024. She missed one game in concussion protocol, suffering a broken nose on the same play. She went on to play with a protective mask for about a month.
She is a career .464 shooter from the field, .356 from the 3-point arc and .733 from the free-throw line. The versatile defender was second on the team in blocked shots with 39 and second on the team in steals (52) to the nation’s leader in that statistical category, Hidalgo.
“She is a special player,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said ahead of facing Westbeld in the NCAA Tourney. “To me, she's their secret sauce. She does a lot of different things that we hadn't seen a 4 player have to do. She can be a matchup problem.”
And now, she’s back.
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