For the third time in four years, the Notre Dame women’s basketball program will welcome a graduate transfer from Stanford.
On her Instagram page, 6-3 senior forward Maya Dodson — who had her choices reportedly down to the Cardinal and Fighting Irish in 2017 — announced she will join head coach Niele Ivey’s program next year. She opted out of her senior year this season even though Stanford is a bona fide national title contender.
Previous Stanford transfers to Notre Dame included point guards Lili Thompson (2017-18), who tore her ACL on Dec. 31 during the national title year, and Marta Sniezek last season.
A 2017 graduate of St. Francis High School in Milton, Ga,, (same as Irish freshman forward Amirah Abdur-Rahim) and an engineering/ethics major at Stanford, the former McDonald’s All-American Dodson was rated the 11th best player in the country by ESPN HoopGurlz and 24th by Prospects Nation.
Her presence in the lineup next year also provides a valuable bridge in development between 2021-22 and 2022-23, when current freshman post figures, 6-5 Natalija Marshall (recovering from 2020 ACL surgery) and Abdur-Rahim should be more seasoned juniors.
She was in the same recruiting class as current 6-3 Irish senior center Mikki Vaughn, who has a medical redshirt season in 2021-2022 but has been noncommittal about returning for that fifth year. Like Vaughn, Dodson has been beset by injury issues during her college career.
• As a freshman she appeared in 33 games and started four. Dodson had season averages of 3.5 points and 2.0 rebounds in 11.3 minutes per outing, shooting 49.5 percent from the floor (51-of-103) and 39.4 percent at the line (13-of-33).
• A left foot injury her sophomore year began to affect her when she was sidelined 10 games, but she still appeared in 26, starting 13, and averaged 7.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 20.6 minutes per game. She shot 49.1 percent from the floor (79-of-161) and 53.5 percent on free throws (23-of-43)
• As a junior in 2019-20, Dodson missed the first 24 games of the season recovering from the previous left foot injury. She did appear in the final nine games, starting the last seven, and averaged 5.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks in about 19 minutes per contest. She was 20 of 38 (.526) from the floor and 5 of 11 (.455) at the foul line.
Dodson was a Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention in 2019, and Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll in 2020.
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