Five ACC women’s basketball teams landed in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 this week. Notre Dame was not one of them — but the Fighting Irish were close.
Head coach Niele Ivey’s team received eight votes in the inaugural poll and was the top unranked ACC team receiving votes. So it shouldn’t be surprising Notre Dame was picked to by both the conference’s 15 head coaches and a group of 57 voters on the Blue Ribbon Panel to finish sixth in the ACC.
No. 5 NC State was the overwhelming favorite to stand atop the conference standings at the end of the regular season. Notre Dame finished sixth in last year’s ACC standings with an 8-7 conference record and 10-10 overall mark.
The coaches and the Blue Ribbon Panel identically projected the conference’s top 11 finishers. The full results of both polls are below.
Head Coaches Predicted Order of Finish
1. NC State (14)
2. Louisville (1)
3. Georgia Tech
4. Virginia Tech
5. Florida State
6. Notre Dame
7. North Carolina
8. Duke
9. Miami
10. Clemson
11. Boston College
12. Syracuse
13. Wake Forest
14. Pitt
15. Virginia
Blue Ribbon Panel predicted order of finish
1. NC State (50)
2. Louisville (7)
3. Georgia Tech
4. Virginia Tech
5. Florida State
6. Notre Dame
7. North Carolina
8. Duke
9. Miami
10. Clemson
11. Boston College
12. Wake Forest
13. Syracuse
14. Pitt
15. Virginia
Individual Notre Dame players earn honors
A year after leading Notre Dame in scoring and rebounding with 15.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game as a freshman, sophomore Maddy Westbeld is a consensus preseason All-ACC team member.
Westbeld landed on both the coaches' and Blue Ribbon Panel's preseason list of 10 all-conference worthy players. Two of her teammates, freshman guard Olivia Miles and freshman forward Sonia Citron, were consensus selections for the newcomer watch lists. Only five players made those lists, and Notre Dame had two of them.
Miles got her feet wet in averaging 9.3 points per game in six games off the bench as an early enrollee last winter. Citron joins the program fresh off averaging 13.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game in a gold medal-winning effort with the U19 USA Team at the 2021 FIBA World Cup in August. She was named to the All0Star Five for the tournament.
Notre Dame hosts an exhibition on Nov. 1 before opening the season at home against Ohio on Nov. 9.
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