Here’s the latest on Notre Dame women’s basketball recruiting:
This past weekend the Irish hosted 2025 prospect Leah Macy. It’s the third time the 6-foot-2 forward from Elizabethtown, Ky., has visited Notre Dame.
ESPNw ranks her as a five-star prospect and the No. 8 player nationally in the 2025 class, after she averaged 25 points and 13.2 rebounds as a sophomore at Louisville (Ky.) Mercy Academy. She has since transferred to Bethlehem High in Bardstown, Ky., for her junior season.
According to sources, Notre Dame is zeroing in on two prospects in the 2024 class the Irish hope to sign in November. Kate Koval, a Ukraine native who plays her high school ball at Long Island Lutheran in Glen Head, N.Y., is scheduled to take an official visit to Notre Dame on the weekend of Sept. 23, when Notre Dame hosts Ohio State in football.
The 6-4 Koval is the nation’s top post player and No. 5 player overall in the 2024 class. She also has visits set to LSU and Miami this fall, and visited Stanford back in the spring. ND feels good about the fit and where the Irish are positioned. Koval wants to major in pre-med.
The other 2024 target is Mackenly Randolph, a 6-foot forward from Sierra Canyon School in Encino, Calif. She’s also deemed a five-star prospect by ESPNw, and is the No. 21 player in the 2024 class.
She is taking all of her visits in October, and will make her way to ND for the USC football weekend on Oct. 14. She released a top five last month of Notre Dame, South Carolina, Duke, Louisville and Michigan State.
Two more elite top 2025 prospects and a top 10 2026 prospects are looking to line up unofficial visits in October.
The 2025s are center Sienna Betts, a 6-4 center from Grandview, Colo., and the nation’s No. 3 overall prospect per ESPNw, and Aaliyah Crump, No. 6 in the ESPNw player ratings and a 6-1 guard from Minnetonka, Minn.
Also looking to visit this fall is Addison Bjorn, a 6-1 guard from Park Hill South High in Riverside, Mo., near Kansas City. She is the No. 8 prospect in ESPNw’s 2026 rankings.
I’ll have a story on all this later this week, but I wanted to give the board the news first and a little more insight and discussion points.
The team is in its third week of individual and group workouts and is expected to morph those workouts into actual practices toward the end of the month.
All four newcomers — freshmen Emma Risch and Hannah Hidalgo, and grad transfers Anna DeWolfe and Becky Obinma — continue to impress.
A lot of you want to know about guard Olivia Miles, who had knee surgery in the spring. I was able to get both Olivia herself and head coach Niele Ivey both on record this summer as saying her availability to start the season isn’t a guarantee and they’re going to err on the side of caution to make sure she’s 100 percent recovered before she starts playing in games.
So, as to not put pressure on Miles to speed up that timetable, they’re not going to say much publicly or privately out of respect for her process.
However, what I can share is they’ve been encouraged by the progress she has made, and there have been no setbacks.
This past weekend the Irish hosted 2025 prospect Leah Macy. It’s the third time the 6-foot-2 forward from Elizabethtown, Ky., has visited Notre Dame.
ESPNw ranks her as a five-star prospect and the No. 8 player nationally in the 2025 class, after she averaged 25 points and 13.2 rebounds as a sophomore at Louisville (Ky.) Mercy Academy. She has since transferred to Bethlehem High in Bardstown, Ky., for her junior season.
According to sources, Notre Dame is zeroing in on two prospects in the 2024 class the Irish hope to sign in November. Kate Koval, a Ukraine native who plays her high school ball at Long Island Lutheran in Glen Head, N.Y., is scheduled to take an official visit to Notre Dame on the weekend of Sept. 23, when Notre Dame hosts Ohio State in football.
The 6-4 Koval is the nation’s top post player and No. 5 player overall in the 2024 class. She also has visits set to LSU and Miami this fall, and visited Stanford back in the spring. ND feels good about the fit and where the Irish are positioned. Koval wants to major in pre-med.
The other 2024 target is Mackenly Randolph, a 6-foot forward from Sierra Canyon School in Encino, Calif. She’s also deemed a five-star prospect by ESPNw, and is the No. 21 player in the 2024 class.
She is taking all of her visits in October, and will make her way to ND for the USC football weekend on Oct. 14. She released a top five last month of Notre Dame, South Carolina, Duke, Louisville and Michigan State.
Two more elite top 2025 prospects and a top 10 2026 prospects are looking to line up unofficial visits in October.
The 2025s are center Sienna Betts, a 6-4 center from Grandview, Colo., and the nation’s No. 3 overall prospect per ESPNw, and Aaliyah Crump, No. 6 in the ESPNw player ratings and a 6-1 guard from Minnetonka, Minn.
Also looking to visit this fall is Addison Bjorn, a 6-1 guard from Park Hill South High in Riverside, Mo., near Kansas City. She is the No. 8 prospect in ESPNw’s 2026 rankings.
I’ll have a story on all this later this week, but I wanted to give the board the news first and a little more insight and discussion points.
The team is in its third week of individual and group workouts and is expected to morph those workouts into actual practices toward the end of the month.
All four newcomers — freshmen Emma Risch and Hannah Hidalgo, and grad transfers Anna DeWolfe and Becky Obinma — continue to impress.
A lot of you want to know about guard Olivia Miles, who had knee surgery in the spring. I was able to get both Olivia herself and head coach Niele Ivey both on record this summer as saying her availability to start the season isn’t a guarantee and they’re going to err on the side of caution to make sure she’s 100 percent recovered before she starts playing in games.
So, as to not put pressure on Miles to speed up that timetable, they’re not going to say much publicly or privately out of respect for her process.
However, what I can share is they’ve been encouraged by the progress she has made, and there have been no setbacks.
