Notre Dame center Kate Koval to follow Olivia Miles, Emma Risch into transfer portal
The fabric of the Notre Dame women’s basketball roster is falling apart at the seams.
In under 24 from Monday night to Tuesday afternoon, the Fighting Irish lost three players to the NCAA transfer portal — graduate senior guard Olivia Miles, junior Emma Risch and now sophomore center Kate Koval. The news of their intentions to leave South Bend via the portal came out in that order, that of Miles leading the way late Monday night while the Risch and Koval news dropped in rapid succession Tuesday.
Talia Goodman of On3 has been able to confirm all three reports.
Koval started 10 of the 32 games she played in as a freshman. The former five-star recruit and No. 5 player in the recruiting class of 2024, according to ESPN, averaged 5.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in 18.3 minutes per game.
In 15.7 minutes per game in three NCAA Tournament appearances for Notre Dame, Koval only mustered 3.3 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, 2.0 points and 1.3 assists per game. Like Risch, Koval was on more of a developmental track at her particular position. Some five-star talents come in and are immediately acclimated to the pace of the college game. Koval did not turn out to be one of them; she seemed to be a step behind.
Still, she was set to be a foundational piece of the Notre Dame program moving forward. The Fighting Irish are thin on numbers; she’d have had a good shot to be a season-long starter had she stayed in South Bend. There seems to be some writing on the wall, though, with Miles, Risch and Koval all choosing to look for a new playing destination just three days after Notre Dame was bounced from the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16.
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With those three players on the move, and with losing five more players to exhaustion of eligibility, Notre Dame only has five scholarship players currently slated to suit up in blue and gold in the 2025-26 season; freshman forward Leah Macy, junior guard Hannah Hidalgo, redshirt junior guard KK Bransford, senior guard Cassandre Prosper and graduate senior center Kylee Watson.
Macy recently had knee surgery for an injury sustained in the final high school game of her career. Watson and Bransford sat out the entire 2024-25 season nursing injuries. Only Hidalgo and Prosper are holdovers from the game the Irish just played in, a 71-62 tournament loss to TCU.
