Notre Dame's Dara Mabrey Receives NCAA Waiver To Play In 2020-21
For the second time in four years, the Notre Dame women’s basketball program will benefit from an incoming transfer getting to play right away because of an NCAA waiver.
Combination guard Dara Mabrey, who starred her first two seasons at Virginia Tech, applied for a waiver this summer to be eligible right away at Notre Dame. On Friday she received the news that she has been cleared for the 2020-21 campaign. The same allowance was made for forward Jessica Shepard, who transferred from Nebraska, in November 2017, and it was crucial to Notre Dame's march toward the 2018 national title.
The 5-7 junior Mabrey will also play for older sister and assistant coach Michaela Mabrey, who suited up for the Fighting Irish from 2012-16 and last year was hired by former head coach Muffet McGraw when new head coach Niele Ivey took an assistant’s post with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies.
Middle sister Marina Mabrey starred at Notre Dame from 2015-19, starting for the 2018 national champs, setting the school record for career three-pointers made with 274 (Michaela is fifth with 228) and becoming the No. 19 overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft. She is currently with the Dallas Wings and also plays professionally overseas.
The youngest Mabrey built her own impressive résumé at Virginia Tech while starting every game of her freshman and sophomore seasons before entering the transfer portal this spring.
As a freshman in 2018-19 she led the team in assists, averaged 11.2 points per game and finished third-nationally in three-point percentage (46.2) while sinking a single-season school-record 80.
This past season her three-point total (75) and shooting percentage beyond the arc (36.4) dipped, but the latter was still the third best in the ACC while helping the Hokies to a 21-9 record and what would have been an NCAA Tournament bid had it not been cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She averaged 11.7 points this past season, and finished with 11 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists in a 68-62 win at Notre Dame Feb. 20.
Not only were her 155 career threes already the seventh best in school history, but she also was an ACC All-Academic Team selection in both years.
She is comfortable with playing the point, and her three-point shooting skills are a crucial addition to a Notre Dame team that last year among 349 teams finished 317th in three-point field-goal percentage converted (.271) and 309th in three-point goals made per game (4.1).
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