Hannah Hidalgo is calling the 2025–26 season a “blank canvas” for No. 18 Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish’s roster has some strong players returning from last season, starting with the junior guard and Naismith hopeful, and followed by Cassandre Prosper and KK Bransford. But as the only returning starter from last year’s roster, Hidalgo has had a lot of new faces to get familiar with. Luckily, though, there are some natural leaders in the mix to join her in guiding Notre Dame through the season. Enter: Vanessa de Jesus.
After spending the last five years at Duke (she didn’t play in the 2023–24 season because of injury), de Jesus transferred to fellow ACC program Notre Dame looking to make an impact. And as the Irish head into their matchup against No. 14 Michigan on Saturday, de Jesus already seems to have settled in with her new team. She started the season with a career-high 22 points against Fairleigh Dickinson in her debut with the team, and is averaging 13.7 points per game, which is about triple what she averaged with Duke.
The guard, who currently leads the Irish in playing time, didn’t see much starting time while with the Blue Devils, starting in just 18 of her 102 appearances, but she still made an impact coming off of the bench. For her final college basketball season, though, de Jesus wanted to land at a program where her talents would be greatly needed. And since Notre Dame lost guards Olivia Miles to the transfer portal and Sonia Citron to the WNBA, de Jesus knew the Irish would be a great fit.
“They call [Notre Dame] ‘Guard U’ because all of the guards who have gone to the pros, and for me, that’s always been a goal of mine, to make it to the pros,” de Jesus says. “So, being able to be coached by the coaches who have helped players get there, and then also be a part of that legacy, it was something that I couldn’t say no [to].”
While de Jesus’s ambitions of making the WNBA are in the back of her mind this season, her main focus now is to help the Irish win a national championship. The goal was top of mind for Notre Dame last season as it was seen as one of the favorites to take home the ACC title and the national title. In the end, de Jesus’s Duke defeated Notre Dame in the ACC tournament and went on to win the conference title, while the Irish fell short in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
This season the Irish will have a lot of eyes on them to see if they can replicate their most recent successes with an essentially all new roster. Last season was a bit of a roller coaster for Notre Dame, which had a shaky start followed by a 19-game winning streak to then losing four of its final eight games to close out the campaign. And since joining the team a few months ago, de Jesus can tell the program is prepared to prove any doubters wrong this year.
“I know this is a new team, we’re trying to figure out who we are. Obviously they had an amazing team last year, losing a lot of people from there,” de Jesus says. “Being Notre Dame, there’s a lot of eyes on us because of the prestige of the program and because of how they’ve done the past couple years especially. For us, it’s a whole new team. We’ve just really bought into each other. … People are always going to talk, but at the end of the day, we know what’s going on here and we’ve been working since the summer, so we believe in each other.
“I think we’re going to surprise people, just ’cause they don’t know what to expect.”
Hidalgo thinks there’s a benefit to having transfers coming to the program because they can bring expertise from their previous experiences. Hidalgo specifically appreciates de Jesus’s confidence and comfortability with the team, which has helped the veteran player embrace her leadership role, even though that position looks “different” for her this year.
“[Being a leader this year is] a little different because everybody’s completely new, this is the first time we’ve all played together ever,” Hidalgo says. “Being able to take what other players have brought from their programs and implement them into how we play, it’s been exciting. … Our thing this year is having a blank canvas, so I’m excited to play with a completely new group of girls and just learn from them and show them my ways a little bit.”
Before digging in with Notre Dame this year, de Jesus had another team to play for. She competed in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup for the second time, having represented her family’s home country of the Philippines in 2023 and ’25 in the professional basketball tournament. In her first year, the guard averaged 12.3 points and 3.2 assists per contest. She helped Team Philippines win its first group play game since the ’15 tournament.
Competing in the Asia Cup meant more to de Jesus than just playing in a professional basketball setting. Even though widening her knowledge and expertise was a big draw for her, she wanted to represent her family and honor her culture by playing for the Philippines. In her American basketball career, she hadn’t seen many Filipino women like her competing at one of the highest levels in the sport. There’s never been a Filipino in the WNBA, for example—a first she hopes to achieve by reaching the league one day. She also wants to compete for the Philippines in the 2028 Olympics, which will take place in her hometown of Los Angeles.
“Playing against international players is a whole different game than in the college level, just the physicality, obviously they’re older so the wisdom, and just the pace of the game is different,” de Jesus says. "So, for me it’s always a great experience to grow as a player, since my goals are to play professional basketball. It’s allowed me to grow my bag and the tools I have, leading a team—all tools that will help me at Notre Dame, like being part of a new program and finding out how I can help the team the best and how I can help lead them with the other people who are here now.”
It meant the world to de Jesus to have her family in the Philippines to support her. She was playing for herself, but mostly for them, and especially for her late father Phillip, who died in August 2022. Playing in her dad’s memory even sparked de Jesus to change her jersey number when she went to college. She previously wore No. 1, but switched to No. 2 to show that she plays for more than just herself. Her dad was one of the main reasons she followed her basketball aspirations as a kid, and he was always one of her biggest supporters.
“He was my first coach, so being able to now represent that and all my family who have supported me and my goals, being able to represent his culture, my culture, it means a lot,” de Jesus says. “I’m just grateful for that.”
Notre Dame’s schedule will look pretty familiar to de Jesus as she faced a lot of the same teams while playing at Duke, and she will play against her former Blue Devils on Jan. 4 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. She’s excited for this opportunity, but she knows it might feel weird to compete against her former teammates.
“It’s going to be a surreal moment for me being back there, after being there for my whole undergrad career. But, I’m super excited,” de Jesus says. “I love playing at that gym. Duke’s still part of my journey. Maybe they’ll have the banner up because we won, it’ll be cool to see that. I’m excited to play against them, just being able to play in front of all of these fans—hopefully they don’t boo me.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Vanessa de Jesus Is Fitting Right in With New-Look Notre Dame.
