Notre Dame women’s basketball sweeps weekly ACC awards via Hannah Hidalgo, Kate Koval
This is the first time this season for Notre Dame to have two players recognized by the Atlantic Coast Conference for receiving weekly awards, but it probably won’t be the last. Sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo is the league’s Co-Player of the Week, and freshman center Kate Koval is the Co-Rookie of the Week. The ACC announced the honors Monday afternoon.
Hidalgo averaged 26.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 3.0 assists in Notre Dame’s two wins last week. She shares the title with Florida State senior forward Makayla Timpson, who averaged 23.0 points and 12.0 rebounds per game in a pair of Seminoles victories. Timpson had 38 points in one of those while Hidalgo was a bit more consistent from a scoring standpoint in going for 24 and 29.
Koval put up a staggering 17.5 rebounds per game in Notre Dame’s triumphs over James Madison and Lafayette, meanwhile, to go along with 12.5 points and an equally as impressive as the rebounds number 6.5 blocks per game. The 6-5 post player also averaged 2.5 assists in those games. She’s side-by-side with Georgia Tech guard Dani Carnegie this week. Carnegie averaged 17.5 points points per game in two Yellow Jackets wins.
In Notre Dame’s first four games, Hidalgo is averaging 25.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.3 steals per game. Koval is sitting at 12.8 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.5 blocks in the first four games of her career.
Notre Dame (4-0) remained No. 6 in the Associated Press Poll on Monday, setting up a Saturday showdown with No. 3 USC (4-0) in Los Angeles. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. RT, just a few hours before the Notre Dame football team kicks off against No. 24 Army (9-0) at Yankee Stadium in the annual Shamrock Series game. Both matchups are televised on NBC.
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Senior guard Olivia Miles won ACC Player of the Week in the first week of the season. She continued her strong return to the floor against JMU and Lafayette, nearly putting up a triple-double against the latter with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists.
Hidalgo and Miles are the catalysts for Notre Dame, but the Irish need graduate senior forward Liatu King to be available for Saturday’s game against the Trojans for them to have their best shot of winning the top-six clash. King, who put up 17.7 points and 9.7 rebounds in her first three games with the Irish, missed Sunday’s game at Lafayette with an apparent head injury.
Without King, the Irish played with six players until former walk-on Sarah Cernugel entered the game in the fourth quarter. Six players probably won’t be enough to hang with a team like USC. There is only so much the likes of Hidalgo, Miles, Koval and the three others can do.
