COLUMBUS, Ohio — Less than 24 hours remain until No. 11 Fairfield women’s basketball tips off in the opening round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament and a tough challenge lies ahead in the form of the No. 6 seed Notre Dame of the Fort Worth 1 Regional.
The Fighting Irish, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, will enter the contest winners of nine of their last 11 games after overcoming a 3-6 stretch in January. Slotting in at 22nd in the country in the latest AP Poll, the team is led by Second Team All-American junior guard Hannah Hidalgo.
“Somebody like Hidalgo, you’re not going to hold her to zero,” head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. “She’s a great player. You know how much the ball’s in her hands. She has one of the highest usage rates in the country.”
Described by Thibault-DuDonis as “the head of the monster”, Hidalgo’s average of 25.2 points per game ranks third in the country, and helped her secure ACC Player of the Year honors.
But she was also named ACC Defensive Player of the Year, thanks in large part to a staggering 5.4 steals per game, the highest mark in Division I.
“[Hidalgo] gets a lot of her energy and fire on steals and layups,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “So being really solid and strong with the ball, knowing where she’s at, having a high level of awareness of where she is on the floor is important so that she doesn’t get easy looks in transition.”
A key for the Stags in loosening up the Notre Dame defense will be reigniting their lethal three-point shooting. Despite leading the country in long-range makes per game (11.4), they have struggled to find a rhythm down the stretch of the season.
In three games at the MAAC Championships, the Stags made a total of 23 threes at a 33% clip, both well below their season averages. Of the team’s 23 makes that weekend, 11 came from junior guard Jillian Huerter.
Also of note in the matchup is the Fighting Irish’s size, or lack thereof. Their tallest player, senior forward Gisela Sanchez, comes off the bench and measures in at 6-foot-4, a much more manageable disadvantage for an undersized Stags squad that has struggled in previous years against players like Kansas State’s 6-foot-6 standout Ayoka Lee.
Those prior tournament experiences, an 85-41 loss to Kansas State a year ago and an 89-56 defeat at the hands of Indiana in 2024, have been crucial in helping what is now a more veteran Stags team to prepare for this year’s challenge.
“From the last two years, we reflected and really wanted to execute our game plan, and be a little bit more detail oriented,” said graduate road runner Lauren Beach. “I think that in the past, we went into the games very prepared by our scout and everything, but once we were on court, maybe didn’t fully execute every aspect of what we planned to… our practices that we’ve had the last couple days, we’ve been super locked in.”
With that experience and preparation comes a heightened sense of comfort for what stands to be the Stags’ best chance yet to make some March magic. And as they often are, the team is focused on finding the right balance between confidence and enjoying the moment.
“Sometimes I take a step back and realize that I’m actually getting to play in something I used to look up to a ton when I was little,” Beach said. “But I feel like what helps keep us grounded is… not getting too ahead of ourselves and thinking about the magnitude of the tournament or the game itself. I’m just trying to take it day by day.”
The 11th-seeded Stags will kick off another NCAA campaign on Saturday from Value City Arena at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
