of her name. But then again, you didn't hear much about prospects in women's basketball coming out of high school, before they committed - unless they were super spectacular (look up the Mc Gee twins of USC for example).
Mostly in that era, the women at ND would be all state - but not truly elite on a national level. But that was still a huge step up quickly from the late 1970s.
The class of 1980 at ND was the first "Title IX" group - a couple of women.
The class of 1981 was a big one - 5 or 6 women who were so much better than the prior team that the senior captain of that team (Missy Conboy - our long time AD) rarely played.
Class of 1982 was also a relatively big one - at least 3 I can remember. At that point, most of the recruits were all-state - but that's a long way from All-American. We played Louisiana Tech that year at home and got absolutely trounced - probably lost by 40 plus - but our record wasn't bad - it was just the difference between an all stater and a team with some of the best players in the country was huge.
The best player at that point was Trena Keys (see link).
And it pretty much lasted that way until the early 1990s - when Muffet recruited Michelle Marciniak - who was a top 5 in the country player who lasted one year and then went on to Tennessee.
It wasn't until 1993 and 1994 when the breakthrough was really made and recruiting - then recruiting went to top 5 or top 10 in the country - Beth Morgan, Kaitryna Gaitner - even then making the final four in 1997 was as surprise.
and I remember hoping that she would choose ND. I believe that ND had an interest in her, but back then there were no reports of recruits visiting campuses or revealing their top choice lists. Her story reminds me of former ND player Kelsey Wicks who also entered the religious life.
Mary DiStanislao was the ND coach back then. It is hard to believe that Coach Perretta is still the coach at Villanova after all these years.