It has been quite an arduous few days for Notre Dame in 2026 as the team resumed its 2025-26 NCAA campaign with back-to-back losses against Georgia Tech (95-90) and Duke (82-68). This inadvertently led to the team getting unseated from the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in more than four years after the latest poll was released last Monday afternoon. However, coach Niele Ivey sees no reason to be perturbed.

“Yeah, what I was saying, our Captains have done a great job of keeping us solid. Understanding that it’s January, those are games that we will learn from, and it will make us better down the road, especially in ACC play. So just kind of turning the page, but recognizing what we need to work on, being accountable for themselves and the team, and moving on.”

“We’re not holding on to those losses. We’re recognizing it, working to get better at it, we’re watching it, holding ourselves accountable, and we’re moving on to the next game. And that’s what I think again, having a very experienced team is helping with that, and our Captains are doing a great job of echoing my message to them.”

“Just taking it one game at a time. We’re really excited that we have this home stand, or three games at home, bringing in two ranked opponents coming up. We know every game matters, especially in the ACC, to put ourselves in a really good position, so just try to focus on one game at a time and try to get better every day,” explained Niele Ivey, who has managed to restore some parity after Notre Dame’s recent trouncing of Boston College.

Notre Dame knows how important it is to shake off the cobwebs before it heads into the deeper part of the conference, tussling with the Big Boys like North Carolina, Louisville, and UConn. It’s about time the team steadies itself, or even the idea of finding itself in AP’s rankings would seem like a far-fetched fantasy.

Since 2021, Notre Dame has held their position in the AP rankings, trailing only UConn (615) and South Carolina (257). But it just took a couple of mishaps along the way to veer them off course, as they saw their run of 85 consecutive appearances in the Top 25 end under a never-before-seen circumstance.

But they now have a very good chance of redeeming themselves.

The team that bolstered their winning percentage last season with a 26-5 record now has a really good chance of clambering back into the Top 25, and the first team in their way is North Carolina.

 Tar Heels Won’t Have it Easy Against Notre Dame

The Fighting Irish have a lot of issues they need to get in order, but North Carolina should be the least of their worries right now. Niele Ivey will simply have to hope her top players deliver and play the cards right to take a win at the Purcell Pavilion. Now, the fact that the Tar Heels are in 22nd place in the AP rankings will have no bearing on the game. The reason is Notre Dame’s star power, which outweighs even the very best.

Notre Dame is a team brimming with talent – Hannah Hidalgo 24.7 points, Cassandre Prosper 17.1 points, Iyana Moore 10.1 points, while UNC has nobody in their repository who even comes close.

Ciera Toomey, 11.7 points, and Indya Nivar, 11.6 points, are good, but realistically speaking, not on the same level as Hidalgo or Prosper.

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Coincidentally, during UNC’s last meeting with Notre Dame, both Hidalgo (24 points) and Prosper (9 points) made crucial contributions. While the Indiana team will miss out on the services of Olivia Miles, Kate Koval, and Sonia Citron, that doesn’t make them any less of a threat.

It’s a meeting between the 6th-ranked Notre Dame and 9th-seeded UNC in the ACC, and things do seem to favor the former in every way. Not to forget that UNC is coming off a loss against Stanford after a hard-fought game, so that might play on their minds if they carry its weight.