From the instant she first took the court for Notre Dame as a freshman, it was clear Hannah Hidalgo was a star. She averaged 22.6 points in her first year with the team, establishing herself as one of the best young players in the sport.
And that wasn’t even her best skill. Hidalgo led the ACC is steals per game, earning her the ACC Defensive Player of the Year award as a freshman.
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Those skills have only gotten better as Hidalgo has aged, leading to the Notre Dame star breaking the NCAA’s single-season steals record Friday.
Hidalgo accomplished the feat in the first quarter against Vanderbilt. It was a dominant quarter for Hidalgo, who racked up four steals to set the record with her 193rd steal this season.
While she had to work for some of those steals Friday, her record-breaking one came easily thanks to an errant pass.
With the accomplishment, Hidalgo broke the record of 192, set by Lamar University’s Chastadie Barrs in 2019.
Passing Barrs was no easy feat. Over her four-year career at Lamar, Barrs emerged as the most prolific steals artist in women’s NCAA history. Barrs holds the record for the most career steals in women’s NCAA history with 649. She hit that mark in 122 games.
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Barrs set the previous single-season record of 192 steals during her senior season at Lamar. The year prior, however, she had already etched her name into the record books, tying the then-record of 191 steals, which was set by Florida A&M’s Natalie White during the 1994-95 season.
With Barrs’ single-season record down, Hidalgo can now focus on trying to become the NCAA’s all-time career leader in steals. She’s on pace to pass Barrs, as Hidalgo already has more steals than Barrs had — 456 — in her first three seasons at Lamar.
Hidalgo would need to turn in a similarly dominant senior season to pass Barrs, but does have the advantage of Notre Dame being one of the best teams in college basketball, which typically allows Hidalgo to play more games per season as Notre Dame moves deeper into the NCAA tournament.
Notre Dame has reached the NCAA tournament in each of Hidalgo’s first three seasons, playing in at least three games in the event every single year. Lamar never reached the NCAA tournament during Barrs’ career, limiting her to — at most — 31 games per season.
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Hidalgo has played in more than 31 games per year in each of her first three seasons at Notre Dame.
This story will be updated.
