LOS ANGELES — All eyes are on the Irish.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles Athletic Club John R. Wooden Award announced its Preseason Women’s Top 50 Watch List, and it includes four Notre Dame players: Sonia Citron, Hannah Hidalgo, Olivia Miles and Maddy Westbeld. Notre Dame is the only school with four players on the list, and just five total programs in the country had at least three players make the mark.
This is Citron’s second time earning the preseason honor. The first was last year. She averaged a career-high 17.3 points, 2.7 assists and 1.8 steals per game as a junior and earned All-ACC honors as a result. The senior and likely top-10 WNBA Draft selection come April sat out the opener with a foot injury, but she is expected back very soon.
Hidalgo was not on the preseason watch list as a freshman, but she earned the honor midseason and ended up as one of four finalists for the award last year. As a result, she was able to travel to Los Angeles in April for the presentation of the award, which was won by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. She posted a Notre Dame record-break 22.6 points and 4.6 steals per game last year, and she led the nation in the latter number.
Against Mercyhurst earlier this week, Hidalgo picked up right where she left off last season with 19 points, 5 rebounds and 6 steals.
Miles is back on the list after making the national ballot two years ago. The graduate guard put on a show in her first game back from an ACL tear, posting a 20-10-10 triple-double. With four triple-doubles in her career, she now ranks second in ACC history and is the first player to post one in three different seasons. Miles also became the first player in the history of the NBA, WNBA and college basketball to sit out for a year with an injury and post a 20-point triple-double in their first game back on the court.
Finally, Westbeld made the list for the third time in her career and the first time since her junior season. The now-graduate student returned to Notre Dame for a fifth year after a standout 2023-24 during which she averaged 14.4 points and 8.7 rebounds over 34 starts. Like Citron, Westbeld also missed the opener with a foot injury. She is expected back in the next month to six weeks, around the start of ACC play.