CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hannah Hidalgo is both the ACC Rookie of the Year and ACC Defensive Player of the year, the conference announced on Tuesday. She is just the third player in ACC history to take both ROTY and DPOY, joining Duke’s Elizabeth Williams (2012) and former Syracuse post Kamilla Cardoso (2021). Hidalgo is the only guard to ever win both awards. Additionally, the star freshman finished third in the voting for ACC Player of the Year and was the only rookie named to the All-ACC First Team.
The revelation that Hidalgo is the conference Rookie of the Year comes unsurprisingly, as the point guard from Haddonfield, N.J., won 12 of the 17 ACC Rookie of the Week honors this year. That mark is a conference record and was previously 10 set last year by Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson.
Offensively, Notre Dame’s point guard is averaging 23.8 points per game, which leads the ACC. She is also tied for third with 5.4 assists per game and is a solid rebounding guard as well (6.5 per game). On Feb. 29 against Virginia Tech, Hidalgo scored her 660th point of the year and set a new single-season ACC freshman scoring record. Through 29 games, she now sits at 689 points on the year.
Hidalgo has become a defensive household name as well this year, as the freshman leads the nation with 4.9 steals per game. With 141 steals on the year, she has already broken the program single-season steals record and the ACC freshman steals record. She is on-pace to shatter the Notre Dame record for highest steal average, which was set in 1978-88 by Mary Gavin (3.3).
Hidalgo’s length of accolades is lengthy and is likely to continue to grow in the postseason. On Monday, she was named one of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award, which is given to the nation’s best point guard. She is the only freshman on the list. Hidalgo also made the Wooden Award Late Season Top 20, the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Year Midseason Team and the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watchlist.
With the Rookie of the Year award, Hidalgo joins a long list of Notre Dame greats to take a conference’s freshman honors. Brianna Turner (2015), Sonia Citron (2022) each won the ACC award as a freshman, while Maddy Westbeld was voted the conference’s Rookie of the Year by the coaches. Alicia Ratay (2000), Jacqueline Batteast (2002) and Jewell Loyd (2013) earned the award while Notre Dame was a member of the Big East.
Brianna Turner is the sole Irish player to have won the ACC Defensive Player of the Year award, and she did it in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Devereaux Peters (2011 and 2012) and Ruth Riley (1999, 2000 and 2001) won it in the Big East. Hidalgo is the first Irish player to earn a spot on the ACC’s All Defensive Team since Turner did so in 2019.