Notre Dame’s Roman Tip-off Will Be Full-Circle Moment for Hannah Hidalgo

Three years ago, Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo lit up the world of women’s basketball with 31 points in the first game of her college career, a loss to South Carolina. That game was played in Paris, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, a breathtaking way to kick off college basketball season.

Now, Hidalgo’s senior season, one with major expectations for the Fighting Irish, will begin in an even more unforgettable setting.

In just over a month, Notre Dame will head to Rome for the first game of the women’s college basketball season, taking on Villanova. The two schools’ men’s teams will also face off there as part of a doubleheader, one set in motion after Pope Leo XIV was elected last spring. Leo is the first American pope and a Villanova graduate. The teams will attend a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City and will also have a papal audience before playing the games Sunday, Nov. 1.

“To open my freshman year in Paris and now go to Rome for my senior year, everything is full circle,” Hidalgo says. “It’s going to be super exciting.”

The opportunity to play in Rome was one that Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey called a “no-brainer” from the moment it was pitched to her as a possibility. And while it took months of work to fundraise, navigate logistics and finalize details to bring the two prominent Catholic institutions together, she believes the experience could be transformational for her team.

“Right when it came across my desk that this was something we were thinking about doing. I was like, We have to do it,” Ivey says. “I’m always trying to find experiences that will be life-changing for [the players] and I was grateful that we were a part of it.”

Hannah Hidalgo vs Kamilla Cardoso and South Carolina in Paris — Hidalgo (center) scored 31 points in her college debut against South Carolina in Paris. | Stephane Mantey/Presse Sports/USA TODAY Sports

In an era in which some neutral-site college sporting events seem hastily-assembled with little connection to the area (take Arizona State playing football against Kansas in London, or the since-scrapped NC State vs. Virginia game that was set to be played in Brazil), the Rome matchup is anything but. The cultural experiences players will get by traveling to Vatican City and Rome fit perfectly into the educational experience you sign up for when picking a program like Notre Dame or Villanova, and while the two institutions may not be conference rivals anymore, they share as much common ground as any given their Catholic missions. With all the programming planned, the experience the players will have while in Rome will be distinctly different from any other college road trip they’ll ever take, even for players like Hidalgo who’ve already had basketball take them to Europe.

“We know well the transformative impact of spending time in a city that is so central to our faith and rich in history, having established Notre Dame Rome in 2014, which allows us to host hundreds of students and scholars from around the world each year,” Notre Dame president Rev. Robert A. Dowd said in an April release. “It’s exciting and most fitting to add athletic competitions to our many activities in Rome.”

The Rome opener (and its stand-alone slot a day before the rest of the country tips off the 2026–27 season) is quite the carrot dangled in front of players currently grinding through a long offseason of practices. Notre Dame’s women’s schedule features plenty of major matchups, like UConn coming to South Bend in December and showdowns with both USC and South Carolina in Las Vegas later that month. But none carry quite the same gravitas and spotlight as this season opener, an early chance for the Irish to make a statement that they’re ready to build on last season’s Elite Eight berth.

“We’re on a big stage in our first game,” Ivey says. “I expressed that a lot this summer and I have expressed it a lot [lately]…  Preseason, it’s going to go really fast. I’m trying to mentally prepare them for how fast. In a blink of the eye, we’re going to be on a plane [to Rome].”

And all eyes will be on Hidalgo, the three-time All-American and defending national defensive player of the year who might just be the most exciting player in all of women’s college basketball. Could she top that 31-point explosion from her first college game and make an even bigger statement as she hunts a record-breaking senior season in South Bend? Hidalgo says she’d trade all the attention that’d come with another monster day for a season-opening victory.

“I want to win,” Hidalgo says. “My freshman year, we got blown out. I had 31 and it was not a good feeling. My goal is to win and feel good about that.”

But having seen the fireworks Hidalgo has created before in some of the highest-profile moments of her career, it’s impossible not to think she’s capable of starting the season with a bang.

“I think she’s going to show Rome the Notre Dame brand for sure,” Ivey says.

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