Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 14, 2026 7 UNDER THE DOME Jacy Abii Goes To The Head Of The Class By Eric Hansen Roughly three and a half months before Jacy Abii's freshman season tipped off in Rome, Italy, Notre Dame women's basketball head coach Niele Ivey dropped the Jackie Young comparison to the media. The 6-foot-2 freshman wing from Dallas would later confess that it wasn't the first time she'd been com- pared to the former Irish All-American and current WNBA star. Abii heard the same estimation about what she could turn into in a Notre Dame uniform while being recruited by Ivey. Then against Villanova Nov. 1, the former five-star prospect went out and showed glimpses of why that parallel was drawn and why she is the most promising of eight scholarship players making their Notre Dame debuts this season. Leah Macy, a 6-2 sophomore forward and de facto backup post who missed all of last season rehabbing an ACL injury, had the biggest numbers among the newcomers in the 99-75 romp over Pope Leo XIV's alma mater. And Princeton transfer guard Madison St. Rose and freshman guard Jenica Lewis were big contributors, too. But Abii brings point guard skills she retained even as she grew into a forward's body. She has three-point range. She can defend four of the five positions on the court. She can rebound, step into passing lanes and block shots. She'll also have some growing pains, but she'll run through them at 100 miles an hour and eventually outgrow them. Sooner rather than later. She's a big personality who embraces big challenges and big stages and has the work ethic to back all of that up. Just like Jackie Young. Jenica Lewis: Equal Parts Valuable And Fun By Jack Soble It's an exciting time for the program that there are so many options here, all but two (St. Rose and Anaya Hardy) of whom have at least three years of eligibility remaining. But Lewis — who does not start but will play a starter's minutes — looks like an immediate home run. The 5-foot-10 freshman guard from Johnston, Iowa, scored 11 points in her debut against Villanova. She hit 3 three-pointers (second on the Irish behind St. Rose), along with 4 rebounds and 4 assists (second behind Hannah Hidalgo). But even if Lewis isn't putting up numbers, her ability to space the floor will send ripple effects throughout Ivey's lineup. Lewis is an extremely dangerous shooter, and not just because she is accurate. She has a lightning-quick release and she's very quick herself, which means she can get herself open. Shooting the ball is one thing, but when you can put yourself in position to fire and do so before the defense has a chance to close out, you become a nightmare to defend. "Her three-point shooting, just fantastic," Ivey said after Lewis hit 6 threes in Notre Dame's preseason victory over Truman State. "She has deep range. She's exactly what I thought she was gonna be for us." Lewis can handle the ball as well, which takes stress off Hidalgo's and St. Rose's shoulders. But her shooting makes her an electric weapon at their disposal. "Having her on the team, it just makes the game so much easier because she opens up the floor," Hidalgo said. "She's able to pull defenders out, which I'm able to either drive, or if they collapse on me, I'm able to hit her." Point ✦ Counterpoint: WHICH NEW NOTRE DAME WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CONTRIBUTOR IS MOST PROMISING? Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman and defensive coordinator Chris Ash want to generate pressure on opposing quarterbacks with a four- man rush as much as possible. That's put a lot of responsibility on defensive line coach Charlie Partridge in his first season with the program. The sack numbers through the first eight games of the season showed just how much the Irish were relying on the defensive line. Of the team's 15 sacks, 13.5 of them came from defensive linemen. Blue & Gold Illustrated recently caught up with Partridge to discuss his group of players and their growth this season. BGI: What did you take away from your pass rush against BYU after senior defensive end Bou- bacar Traore's early targeting ejection? Partridge: "I wouldn't say anything completely relative directly to pass rush was declared on the way that game went that night. BYU did a nice job with some trick plays in the red zone." BGI: What have you learned about freshman defensive end Rodney Dunham? Partridge: "We can throw the entire game plan at him and feel comfortable with him going out there and executing it. Loves contact, no fear of throwing his face in the fan and taking on blocks with a demeanor that you love at this level." BGI: Is it good to have senior Elijah Hughes as a different body type from those of some of the other defensive tackles? Partridge: "I've always believed there's a little bit of a sliding scale with size and mobility. If they're a little bit on the smaller side, their mobility needs to balance that out. He has a nice combination of intel- ligence, so that allows him to execute at a high rate. "He's strong. He's extremely tough. He plays re- ally, really hard snap to whistle. Those are things you can count on. Because of that, you see him show up and make plays." BGI: What have you seen from junior defensive tackle Sean Sevillano Jr.? Partridge: "He's often ahead of a play, because of something that he knows from extensive, ex- tensive study of what they do and tendencies that we give them and those kind of things. He's got them all on lock. He's able to scan, see all 11 guys, see some alignments and narrow it down to two or three plays." BGI: Is it hard to identify smart defensive line- men during recruiting because they don't need that level of knowledge to succeed in high school? Partridge: "I think that Notre Dame is going to get a higher percentage of young men like this. We have smart, intelligent people here. Now, it doesn't always translate to really immediately being able to process this style of information, but there's certainly a higher clip compared to other colleges I've been with the amount of guys that can absorb the amount of information that we ask them to retain. "But yeah, if you have two guys on the board that are equal in talent, equal in size, equal in character, and one you feel has more mental talent than the other, you're going to lean in that direction. So, it is a factor in recruiting, but it's not always the deciding factor." — Tyler James Five Questions With …DEFENSIVE LINE COACH CHARLIE PARTRIDGE In Partridge's first season as Notre Dame's defensive line coach, his unit accounted for 13.5 of the Irish's 15 sacks through eight games. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER ABII LEWIS