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FORT WORTH, Texas — On March 30, 2001, Notre Dame star Niele Ivey dropped 21 points in the Final Four against the UConn women’s basketball team to lead the Fighting Irish to their first national championship game.
Though she wasn’t on the court for the matchup after suffering a torn ACL in the Big East Championship, the 90-75 loss ended Huskies star Shea Ralph’s college career.
On Friday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas, a quarter century since their last meeting, Ivey and Ralph faced off again in the NCAA Tournament, this time as coaches in a Sweet 16 showdown between Ralph’s Vanderbilt and Ivey’s Notre Dame.
Once again, it was Ivey who emerged victorious. The 6-seed Irish stunned the 2-seed Commodores 67-64 behind a legendary performance from All-American guard Hannah Hidalgo.
Hidalgo logged a triple-double with 31 points, 11 rebounds and 10 steals plus seven assists to lead Notre Dame, and she made what was ultimately the game-winning pass to senior guard Cassandre Prosper in the final 30 seconds. Vanderbilt star Mikayla Blakes and freshman point guard Aubrey Galvan combined for 50 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Hidalgo’s heroic effort.
Notre Dame dominated the first half and led by as many as 12 points in the second quarter, but Vanderbilt got back within five points at halftime as Galvan got into a rhythm. The freshman guard had 13 points in the first half, but Blakes was just 1-for-13 from the field and 0-for-4 from 3-point range, while Hidalgo had 16 points and seven steals to lead the Irish.
The Commodores fought back in the fourth quarter, forcing four ties and four lead changes in the last six minutes of the game. Galvan hit a pair of free throws that tied the score 64-64, but Prosper hit a second-chance layup assisted by Hidalgo to put the Irish back in front. She then hit a free throw to make it a 3-point game, and Vanderbilt missed on a pair of 3-point attempts that could have tied it in the final 14 seconds.
Notre Dame advances to face longtime rival UConn in the Elite Eight on Sunday. The undefeated No. 1 Huskies haven’t met the Fighting Irish in the postseason since losing in the 2019 Final Four.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, Vanderbilt has plenty to be proud of after a historic run this season. Before Ralph was hired in 2021, the Commodores hadn’t so much as appeared in an NCAA Tournament since 2014, and they hadn’t made it out of the second round since 2009. While the team had higher aspirations than a Sweet 16 exit this year, even getting this far is a massive accomplishment for a program that held permanent residence at the bottom of the SEC for nearly a decade.
Ralph knows exactly what greatness looks like after spending 18 years inside the hallowed halls of Gampel Pavilion as both a player and coach. UConn went to the Sweet 16 every year of Ralph’s playing career from 1996-2001, and Ralph was the Most Outstanding Player of the Huskies’ national championship in 2000. As an assistant coach under Auriemma from 2008-21, Ralph helped the program to another six NCAA titles including four undefeated seasons.
When she was looking for a head coaching opportunity, Auriemma’s guidance was simple: Go to a place that shares your vision and is willing to back it up with resources. The first time she spoke to Vanderbilt athletic director Candiace Storey Lee, she knew she’d found the right place.
“I would hear (Auriemma) say, ‘You have to make sure that you work for a leader that’s in alignment with you.’ … ‘If you don’t have that, it’s going to be really hard to be successful,’ and I heard him,” Ralph said. “When I talked to Candice, she talked for 10 minutes about that on our first phone call before I even got to ask a question. It was the first time that I had heard a leader in her position, an athletic director, go so deep into how passionate she was about maximizing the true full potential of college student-athletes.”
In Ralph’s first season in 2021-22, the Commodores went 16-19, placing 13th in the SEC with four conference wins. The following year, they won 12 games and just three in the conference. Three years later, Vanderbilt finishes 2025-26 with its winningest record since 2002 at 29-5. The Commodores won 20 consecutive games before suffering their first loss of the season to South Carolina on Jan. 25, and their final resume includes victories over six other teams in the Sweet 16: Texas, Kentucky, LSU, Michigan, Oklahoma and Virginia.
Ralph was named the National Coach of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and she is a finalist for Naismith Coach of the Year alongside Auriemma.
“To go down there and do what she’s done in such a short period of time I think is really cool,” Auriemma said back in January during the Commodores’ 20-game win streak. “I’m really happy for all of them. It’s not easy to do what she’s done, and she’s so detail-oriented. She’s so competitive in so many ways. She’s a great teacher, and so many guards that have come through (UConn) were impacted by Shea.”
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