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Irish Breakdown

Notre Dame Women's Basketball Lands 6-Seed vs Fairfield in NCAA Tournament

Notre Dame found out on Sunday that it's a six seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face Fairfield to begin the journey.
Jared Shlensky|
Mar 6, 2026; Duluth, GA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Cassandre Prosper (8) celebrates with teammates after being removed from a game against the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the fourth quarter at Gas South Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
Mar 6, 2026; Duluth, GA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Cassandre Prosper (8) celebrates with teammates after being removed from a game against the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the fourth quarter at Gas South Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

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Notre Dame Fighting Irish

In what has been a roller coaster ride of a season, the Notre Dame women's basketball team officially learned its NCAA Tournament seed on Sunday.

The Fighting Irish are the No. 6 seed in the Fort Worth, Texas, side of the bracket and will face No. 11 seed Fairfield on Sunday.

About Notre Dame

Notre Dame enters Saturday's game with a record 22-10 after losing to Duke, 65-63, in the ACC Tournament Semifinals. ND has plenty of impressive wins -- No. 11 USC, No. 22 North Carolina, and ACC Tournament Runner-Up Louisville -- but the Irish also have a couple of bad losses.

ND lost to No. 11 Michigan by 39 points back in November, a 28-point defeat to UConn, and lost to a Georgia Tech team that finished the regular season below .500.

Notre Dame has made it to the Sweet 16 four straight years, but never worse than a five seed. Last year, ND was a three seed, and the year before that, they were a two seed.

However, Notre Dame is playing much better basketball as of late. The Irish have won seven of their last eight games and gave No. 8 Duke everything they could handle.

Scouting Notre Dame

Considering head Coach Niele Ivey took over for a legend in Muffet McGraw nearly six years ago, she's done a fairly nice job at the helm. Ivey is 139-48 since taking over for McGraw, has won a share of two ACC Regular Season Titles and has won one ACC Tournament Title.

This season, ND as a team ranks in the top ten nationally in steals per game (8th) and free shooting percentage (9th).

Individually, the Irish are led by junior guard Hannah Hidalgo, who's arguably the best player in all of college basketball.

HIdalgo has broken record after record during her three years at Notre Dame and if she chooses to leave college a year early, will likely be a top five pick. This season, Hidalgo leads the nation with 5.4 steals per game and is third in scoring with 25.2 points per game.

She recently won ACC Player of the Year honors for the second straight season and became the first player in conference history to win Defensive Player of the Year honors three straights seasons.

Scouting Fairfield

Fairfield clinched an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament. The Stags enter Saturday's game against ND with a 28-4 record and finished second in the MAAC during the regular season with a 19-1 record.

Fairfield has won three straight MAAC Tournament titles, a share of three straight MAAC Regular Season Titles, and seven total MAAC Titles, including four of the last five.

Scouting Fairfield

Fairfield arguably has one of the most underrated coaches in the country in Carly Thibault-DuDonis. In four seasons at Fairfield, Thibault-DuDonis has a record of 102-26 (.797), a conference record of 69-11 (.863), an overall record of 87-11 over the last three seasons and a conference record of 58-2 over the last three years.

On the court, the Stags have been led by junior guard Kaety L'Amoreaux and junior road runner Meghan Andersen. L'Amoreaux led the conference in scoring (18. 5 PPG) and assists (4.6 APG) and was named the MAAC Player of the Year. As for Andersen, she's a three-time All-MAAC selection who averages 16.1 points per game and leads the MAAC in three-point field goal percentage (41.9%).

Game Time

Tip-off on Saturday from Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, between Fairfield and Notre Dame is at 2 p.m. (ET). The game is scheduled to be televised on ESPN and if Notre Dame wins, they'll play the winner of Ohio State vs. Howard on Monday, March 23rd.

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Jared Shlensky
JARED SHLENSKY

Jared Shlensky is a contributing writer for On SI and a freelance play-by-play broadcaster. Jared was previously a sports betting writer for Yardbarker, an On-Air YouTube Personality for the Sports Geek and a minor league play-by-play broadcaster

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