Ryan Vigilante While Notre Dame students and faculty enjoyed a restful Winter Break, Irish athletics kept busy with over 25 events. From Hannah Hidalgo’s heroics to the dawning of a new men’s tennis season, here’s how the month played out.
Men’s Basketball
Winter Break Record: 3-6; Overall Record: 7-11 (2-5 ACC)
As year one under head coach Micah Shrewsberry rolls on, the Irish have reached the thick of conference play. But before they arrived there, they did some soul-searching. To start winter break, Notre Dame played a six-game homestand that kicked off with a 72-68 loss to Georgetown in overtime. A 65-45 fiasco against The Citadel followed, marking a low point in recent program history.
But the Irish countered with a 60-56 takedown of Marist before emphatically closing 2023 as ACC play reopened. They eviscerated Virginia, 76-54, on tandem 17-point efforts from freshman forward Carey Booth and junior guard J.R. Konieczny. Freshman guard Markus Burton added 15 points and 8 assists, securing his first ACC Rookie of the Week honor. The 76-point outburst became Notre Dame’s largest against the Cavaliers in program history.
Moving into 2024, the Irish let two surprisingly winnable games slip away. They led for nearly 39 minutes against NC State until a Wolfpack up-and-under beat the buzzer for a 54-52 final. Three days later, the Irish hung within 2 points of No. 14 Duke late, eventually falling 67-59.
Notre Dame then went on the road to Atlanta, where a 19-for-21 showing at the free throw line turned into an overtime win at Georgia Tech. In the 75-68 victory, freshman guard Braeden Shrewsberry dropped a career-high 25 points en route to his own ACC Rookie of the Week recognition.
In two break-closing losses since Georgia Tech, turnovers and missed foul shots have buried Notre Dame. Saturday’s 67-58 home loss to Florida State saw the Irish go 3-for-11 at the stripe and commit 14 turnovers against a long Seminole defense. Turning quickly to a Monday trip to Boston College, Notre Dame went 9-for-15 while accumulating 14 giveaways to the Eagles’ 3. The end result? A 63-59 loss in which the Irish led by 12 early.
Women’s Basketball
Winter Break Record: 5-2; Overall Record: 12-3 (3-2 ACC)
Still trudging back toward full strength, Niele Ivey’s squad managed a bumpy start to conference action. Hannah Hidalgo, however, was nothing but smooth throughout the break. The star freshman guard captured five consecutive ACC Rookie of the Week honors, bringing her season total to eight. Her seventh such honor broke Notre Dame’s program record.
Hidalgo’s team also opened the break on cruise control, drubbing Purdue 76-39. Before the game, Notre Dame unveiled a statue of Hall of Fame head coach Muffet McGraw outside the Joyce Center. After celebrating Muffet’s legacy, Hidalgo wrote another chapter of her own, delivering a triple-double in a Dec. 21 84-47 takedown of Western Michigan. Her 26 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 5 steals made for the second triple-double by a Notre Dame freshman.
Hidalgo then scored a career-high 32 in her first ACC game, a losing effort at Syracuse on New Year’s Eve. The 86-81 defeat featured an alarming 24 Irish turnovers. Notre Dame then played perhaps its most shorthanded game yet in a 71-66 win at Pitt. While senior forward Maddy Westbeld nursed a concussion, Hidalgo and graduate student guard Anna DeWolfe — who scored her 2,000th career point during the game — pushed the Irish to the finish line.
Westbeld would miss game one of the most recent three-game homestand, and her absence showed on the interior. Even as junior guard Sonia Citron returned from a knee sprain that sidelined her for nearly 2 months with 17 points, North Carolina controlled the paint and handed the Irish a 61-57 loss. Notre Dame promptly bounced back Thursday, riding Westbeld’s return double-double to a 98-48 blowout of Boston College. The good vibes continued Sunday, with Hidalgo’s freshman program record-tying 13th 20-point game leading the Irish to a 70-59 defeat of Miami (FL).
Hockey
Winter Break Record: 3-3-0; Overall Record: 11-11-2 (5-7-2 Big Ten)
The hockey team also bookended winter break with victories, remaining at .500 on the season. With freshman forward Danny Nelson on his way to a gold medal at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Sweden, another first-year center stepped up in Notre Dame’s final series of 2023. Cole Knuble broke out against Augustana, spearheading an Irish sweep by quintupling his goal count. His game-one hat trick keyed a 5-2 victory before he slammed the door on the Vikings with a series-ending overtime winner. Knuble’s four-goal weekend earned him Big Ten Second Star of the Week accolades.
The stars didn’t align for a positive return to conference play, though. Wisconsin handed Notre Dame its first home sweep in three years with 2-1 and 7-4 results. Then, Ohio State extended the Irish in-league losing streak to 6 in a 3-2 game Friday in Columbus, Ohio. But Notre Dame responded well, overcoming its Saturday woes with a 5-2, split-inducing triumph. Senior forward and captain Landon Slaggert netted two goals in the win, bringing his team-leading goal total to 15.
Swimming & Diving
Competing for the first time in over a month, the Irish went 3-1 in a home tri-meet with Navy and Princeton. The 12th-ranked Notre Dame men swept the Jan. 12-13 get-together, topping Navy 219-134, and Princeton 218-135. Junior Chris Guiliano captured both the 50 and 100 free while the Irish went 1-2-3 in the 100 back. Sophomore Dillon Edge also won the 200 fly to go with a 3-meter victory from sophomore diver Daniel Knapp.
Meanwhile, the Irish women went 1-1, handling the Midshipmen 291-62, but losing to the Tigers, 187-166. Junior Madelyn Christman swam the fastest 200 back of her career (1:54.07) and took the same stroke’s 100-yard event. Junior Maggie Graves also swam a personal best time, clocking 9:45.27 in a winning 1000 free effort. To round out the individual winners, graduate student Ellie Jew paced the 200 breast while junior diver Calie Brady nabbed the 1-meter springboard title.
Men’s Tennis
Winter Break Record: 2-0; Overall Record: 2-0
Ryan Sachire’s group commenced its season Saturday against IUPUI, sweeping a pair of matches (7-0, 4-0). Freshman Chase Thompson and sophomore Evan Lee set the tone in both competitions, sweeping No. 2 doubles and teeing up the top pair of sophomore Sebastian Dominko and senior Jean-Marc Malkowski to secure each doubles point. In singles play, Notre Dame did not officially lose any individual sets, marching to a dominant day against the Jaguars.
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