Notre Dame women's basketball adds freshman walk-on to 2024-25 roster
There’s a new name on the Notre Dame women’s basketball roster. The Fighting Irish held a closed-door walk-on tryout recently, and head coach Niele Ivey liked enough of what she saw from freshman Luci Jensen to officially add her to the 2024-25 squad.
Jensen is the only walk-on on the roster.
“So excited for her,” Ivey said. “Just with our numbers, low numbers, I just decided to do a small walk-on tryout. She did a phenomenal job, so I just added her this week.”
Jensen is a 5-10 guard from Brookfield (Wisc.) Academy. She scored more than 1,000 points in her high school career there, including an average of 18.8 points per game as a junior and senior, according to MaxPreps. She’s billed as a sharpshooter. She competed in the Wisconsin State Three-Point Competition as a senior.
Also a track and field athlete, Jensen made it to the high jump state finals three years in a row in high school. She also made it to state once in the 800-meter race.
Jensen was a National Merit Finalist at Brookfield. She plans at majoring in civil engineering at Notre Dame. She has two sisters who are also students at Notre Dame.
Jensen logged three minutes at the end of the Fighting Irish’s 118-49 victory over Eastern Michigan on Monday. She missed the one shot she took, a three-pointer from the top of the key. She also committed a foul.
Top 10
- 1New
Commish shreds portal
Marshall bowl opt-out spotlights issue
- 2
Predicting AP Poll
Chaotic Saturday will shake up rankings
- 3
Michael Van Buren to LSU
Miss. State QB commits
- 4Hot
Final Heisman votes totals
Closest result since 2009
- 5
Alabama to Georgia?
Tide transfer QB visiting Athens
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
Jensen was one of nine players to play for Ivey on Sunday, a larger number than usual given the blowout. Ivey’s used only six or seven players in multiple games this season.
Graduate senior forward Maddy Westbeld has yet to make her season debut coming back from offseason foot surgery. Junior guard KK Bransford is out for the season nursing a foot injury of her own. Graduate senior center Kylee Watson will not come back until tournament time, if at all. She tore her ACL at the end of last season.
Freshman center Kate Koval missed a game for the first time this season against EMU. Ivey and the Notre Dame coaching staff held her out because she was experiencing some soreness.
Graduate senior forward Liza Karlen, meanwhile, played for the second time this season vs. the Eagles. She scored 2 points on 3 shot attempts and had 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in 21 minutes. When she gets up to speed and if Westbeld comes back and is her usual, steady self, an already elite Notre Dame team will be even better.
The depth, too, is bolstered by the addition of someone like Jensen. Click here for a look at Notre Dame’s entire 2024-25 women’s basketball scholarship roster.
