Notre Dame’s Brunelle visiting UVA women’s hoops this weekend

By Jerry Ratcliffe

While new Virginia women’s basketball coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said she would like to rebuild the Cavaliers program with four-year players, she isn’t opposed to bringing in transfers to help speed the process.

One such transfer, who is visiting UVA’s program this weekend, is Samantha Brunelle, a former high school All-American from nearby William Monroe High. Brunelle entered the transfer portal last week after finishing her career at Notre Dame (see related story on this site).

Brunelle has two years of eligibility remaining after an injury-plagued career with the Irish. She was a standout for the Greene Dragons but understandably did not consider UVA out of high school three years ago because the Cavaliers’ program had dropped to the lower tier of ACC teams.

She was recruited to South Bend by hall of fame coach Muffin McGraw, who has since retired.

Brunelle, who was All-ACC as a freshman, started all 31 games and averaged 13.9 points per game that season. She didn’t miss any games this past season while coming off the bench. During her career with the Irish, she averaged 10 points, 4 rebounds per game and shot 42.6 percent from the field.