Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com PRESEASON 2021 59 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL According to ESPN HoopGurlz, Citron was the No. 16 overall re- cruit in the class of 2021. She was the highest-rated four-star prospect in the class. Her Notre Dame teammate, point guard Olivia Miles, ranked ahead of her at No. 8. Miles participated in the U-19 Team USA trials in May. She didn't make the team's final roster like Cit- ron did, though. That's no slight to Miles, who enrolled early at Notre Dame and averaged 9.3 points and 3.5 assists in six games. Miles is well on her way to superstar status for the Fighting Irish. But by accomplishing something Miles didn't, Citron proved just how valuable she could be. The two play entirely different positions. Citron can find a home anywhere from shooting guard to power forward. Miles is exclusively a point guard. That means they'll play together quite a bit, which could be a daunt- ing proposition for opponents. Combine Miles and Citron with Notre Dame's leading returning scorer Maddy Westbeld, former five- star recruit Natalija Marshall and graduate transfer Maya Dodson, for- merly of Stanford, and Ivey is work- ing with a potential starting five with a ton of talent. Those five players are intrigu- ing for their own reasons, too. Can Miles be the top-10 talent she was re- cruited as? Can Marshall come back from ACL surgery in strong fashion? Can Westbeld build upon her stellar freshman season? Can Dodson mesh well with her new teammates? Finally, can Citron take what she did for Team USA and replicate it for Notre Dame? If the answer to that question — and the ones that came before it — is yes, then the Irish are primed to get back to their winning ways after two seasons that ended with more losses than wins. The talent is there. Citron's perfor- mance this summer is proof of that. Now Ivey just has to put it all to- gether. ✦ Citron averaged 13.7 points per game at the FIBA U-19 World Cup in Hungary, helping Team USA claim the tournament championship. PHOTO COURTESY USA BASKETBALL