CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The youth movement continues for Notre Dame women’s basketball, as freshman Kate Koval was named ACC Co-Rookie of the Week and sophomore Hannah Hidalgo was named ACC Co-Player of the Week on Monday. No. 6 Notre Dame defeated JMU and Lafayette this week to move to 4-0 on the season.
Koval had a record-breaking few days just four games into her collegiate career. Against JMU on Wednesday, the rookie from Kyiv, Ukraine had her first career double-double with 14 points, 16 rebounds and 6 blocks. Koval bested that board performance on Sunday at Lafayette with 11 points, 19 rebounds and 7 blocks. Her 19 boards are a Notre Dame freshman record and tied for the seventh-best single-game performance in school history. Further, the 7-block performance is the first for the Irish since 2017 (Brianna Turner). In total last week, the 6-5 forward had 25 points, 35 rebounds and 13 blocks.
To date this season, there have been three performances in the ACC of 6+ blocks. Koval owns two of those three. She leads the conference with 5.5 blocks per game and the nation with 22 total blocks this year — 10 more than anyone else in the ACC.
Also of note, Koval is one of two players in the ACC currently averaging a double-double (12.8/13.0), and she leads all ACC freshmen with a 55.3 percent success rate from the floor.
After rewriting the record books as a freshman last year, Hidalgo has picked up where she left off in March. This week, the Merchantville, N.J., native averaged 26.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3 assists and 4.5 steals per game. In somewhat of a homecoming on Sunday, Hidalgo tied a career-high by draining five 3-pointers at Lafayette.
On the year, Hidalgo is one of just five players in the country averaging at least 25 points per game, and she ranks second nationally with 5.3 swipes per contest. The guard has three 20-point games this year and is shooting 50.7 percent from the floor.
Hidalgo has now been named ACC Player of the Week four times in her short career.