Hailey Van Lith reflects on reaching five Elite Eights with three teams during her college career

The TCU Horned Frogs took out Notre Dame on Saturday. That win sent them, and star Hailey Van Lith, to the Elite Eight. That’s a stage of the NCAA Tournament that Van Lith has plenty of experience with too, now going to her fifth with three different schools.

Following the game, Hailey Van Lith was asked to reflect on that postseason success. However, before she could respond, TCU head coach Mark Campbell cut in to share how impressive her career has been, saying, “Before she talks, five Elite Eights in three different schools is insane. There is no way that’s ever been done in the history of college basketball. Keep going.”

From there, Van Lith jumped back in to reflect on her career success. As she’d explain, it goes back to her belief in herself and, in recent years, the experience that she has earned.

“Yeah, I think at this point I just have ultimate confidence and faith in myself to compete at an intense level,” Hailey Van Lith said. “What I’ve learned through my experience in these tournaments is you can’t always ask yourself to make every shot, but if you’re willing to compete and lay it all out there every game, you’re giving yourself a better shot than a lot of other people are out there.”

Van Lith began her college career at Louisville. In three seasons there, she made the Elite Eight three times. After that, she’d begin to make use of the Transfer Portal. That landed her at LSU for a season and later at TCU. Again, she made the Elite Eight with the Tigers and now has done so with the Horned Frogs.

“Like I said before the game to a lot of media, I was going to go out there and play as hard as I could to practice with these girls tomorrow,” Van Lith said. “And everyone else on my team played hard as well, it wasn’t just me. We had everybody step up, Aggie [Agnes Emma-Nnopu] did her role extremely well, Maddie [Conner] did her role well, Sedona [Prince] dominated in the paint. So everybody played their role and we were able to get it done and now we’re going to another Elite Eight.”

Hailey Van Lith led the Horned Frogs in scoring against Notre Dame with 26 points. In 39 minutes of action, she also had nine rebounds and four assists. This comes in what has been arguably the best individual season of her career.

Despite previously making the Elite Eight four different times, Hailey Van Lith has only gotten to the Final Four once. That was in 2022 with Louisville and remains the deepest run she’s had in the NCAA Tournament. However, this season is going to provide her with an opportunity to compete for a national championship.

TCU and Van Lith are going to be back in action on Monday when they take on Texas. A one-seed, it should be the toughest task the Horned Frogs have taken on all season. However, a win is going to send the Horned Frogs to the Final Four.