ROME — Notre Dame defeated Villanova in the D1 college basketball season openers on Sunday, Nov. 1, with final scores of 74-72 for the men’s game and 99-75 for the women’s. The Eternal City Tip-Off games, held in Rome, pitted two schools with “shared faith-based traditions and championship pedigrees” against each other in the historically Catholic capital of Italy.
Fans, students, faculty, staff, and alumni from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame filled Rome’s Palazzo dello Sport, a massive arena that seats more than 11,000, to cheer on their men’s and women’s teams in a matchup that was inspired by Pope Leo’s election as the first American pope. After a weekend of welcome receptions, tourism opportunities, and scheduled events, including a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and a papal audience, energy in the stadium was high before the men’s tipoff at 3:30 p.m. local time.
Before the game, Villanova fans confidently expected a Wildcat win: Tom McKernan, a Villanova alumnus from Philadelphia, joked: “We’re not playing [Notre Dame] in football, so I think we have the upper hand. We definitely have more crowd support today, so I’m looking for a big Villanova win.”
But while Notre Dame trailed Villanova for most of the men’s game, they came back with a minute left, pulling ahead for a score of 72-70 after Logan Duncomb’s three-point shot. After a suspenseful final minute, the Fighting Irish secured the game, upsetting the Wildcats by two points. Notre Dame fans erupted into cheers and chants of “Let’s go, Irish!” as Villanova’s much larger fan section sat in shock.
The Fighting Irish win came as a surprise for even Notre Dame fans, since the Wildcats came into the weekend with a few advantages: Besides boasting a storied basketball program, their fan presence in the stadium outnumbered Notre Dame’s supporters by a staggering majority. Most importantly for Villanova, however, was feeling that the pope was on their side: Pope Leo XIV, who graduated from the university in 1977, jokingly told both teams on Saturday that while “the pope doesn’t take sides… Prevost has another opinion.”
But whichever team Pope Leo was rooting for, fans of both sides were thrilled to see the pope during this weekend’s events, with Wildcats and Fighting Irish alike emphasizing that a visit to the Vatican was what made the Eternal City Tip-Off truly special.
Allen and Joanne Herda, parents of a Notre Dame senior from Dallas, said that when they bought their tickets for the game in Rome, they “knew that it would be a pilgrimage.” And while the Herdas were excited to cheer on their basketball team, they said the real main event of the Eternal City Tip-Off was the papal audience Oct. 31.
During the audience, Joanne was able to shake Pope Leo’s hand as he exited the audience hall, a moment she recalled with excitement.
“You got a reflection, a shock of gentleness and peace,” she said. “For me, [this weekend] has been otherworldly and extremely spiritual. I never dreamt that I would have touched the Holy Father, and we went to Mass this morning, and that was so spiritual too. … It’s hard to find the words.”
Father Francisco Carrillo, a priest from Mexico City who lives in Rome while studying for his master’s degree in biblical theology, was invited to the game by friends who are Villanova alumni. “For today, I’m a Villanova fan,” he said. But like the Herdas, Carrillo described the events of the weekend as more than simply a basketball game, calling them “providential.”
He said: “The first time that there’s an American pope, and that he studied in a Catholic university in the States, and then the fact that they organized this NCAA game here in Rome for the pope… it’s a huge event, not only on a human level but also spiritually.”
Second win for Notre Dame
The weekend got even better for the Irish when the women’s game ended in a second victory for Notre Dame — this time more expected. The Indiana school is known for having a higher-ranking women’s basketball team than its men’s team, in large part due to senior guard Hannah Hidalgo, who is expected to be a top lottery pick in the 2027 WNBA draft. Hidalgo contributed 32 of Notre Dame’s 99 points against Villanova.
Notre Dame fans celebrated their second win of the night with cheers as the buzzer sounded, the culmination of a victory that was more than just a basketball win: Opening the college basketball season with a triumph in the storied city of Rome, just kilometers away from Pope Leo, was a once-in-a-lifetime feeling for the excited Notre Dame teams, fans, and students present.
Hidalgo’s parents, Tamara and Orlando Hidalgo, were thrilled with Notre Dame’s season opener win. And while watching their daughter play will always be reason enough for them to travel around the world, Tamara commented that their experience in Rome has been “spectacular” for more reasons than basketball.
“I was actually taken to the prison where Paul was held,” she said. “For me, it was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime [experience]. It really touched my heart to know that I’m standing right above where he wrote the Book of Timothy. So I’ve had a phenomenal experience.”
For Villanova, the evening certainly held a fair share of disappointment from the basketball loss. But despite inevitable regret at the games’ outcome, Wildcat fans won’t be going home despondent.
Linda Hodgson, a Villanova alumna who was at the game with her daughter, shared her mixed feelings after the game: “[I’m] very disappointed. What else can I say? We were really expecting a Villanova win, especially with the pope’s blessing,” she said.
But, Hodgson added, “it was great meeting the pope. It was fun walking around Rome and seeing all the landmarks and coming to the basketball game. It was a great trip.”
For Hodgson and the other Villanova fans, the Eternal City Tip-Off loss may have been disappointing, but the weekend remained an amazing opportunity to be present in Rome for a historic visit to the Vatican, a competitive matchup with another Catholic school, and a chance to experience the excitement of basketball in the context of the faith.
In a statement to EWTN News before the game, Notre Dame president Father Robert Dowd, CSC, described the weekend as an expression of “shared commitment” to Catholic higher education between the universities, saying: “[W]e are united in our deep devotion to our faith and appreciation for the power of sport to elevate the human spirit.”
His hope that the matchup would deepen “a spirit of joy and communion” between Notre Dame and Villanova echoed the words of Pope Leo, who said on Saturday that “the members of two teams, even when they have a competitive rivalry, are certainly not enemies” and encouraged the “fraternity, solidarity, and peace” that athletics can promote.
And while Notre Dame has the scoreboard as proof of its victory, the moments of fraternity, joyful competition, and prayer shared between both schools during the Eternal City Tip-Off weekend made the season opener a historical moment for Notre Dame and Villanova alike.
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