“I tried telling God my plans and He looked at me and laughed,” Westbeld wrote. “Thank You and Praise You for Everything, even if I don’t know exactly why yet.
“From top to bottom, left to right, this is my family for life. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. Thank you Notre Dame, and thank you to every person who has impacted me, along with those who allowed me to impact them.
“Most importantly, a thank you to myself: I want to thank you for having a dream from day one and sticking to it; not understanding the direction, or even the pace, but you never stopped. Thank you for doing the truly faithful work.
“Thank you for the trust you had in your decisions. Thank you for not letting the voices of others drown out your soft spoken one, telling you that your purpose and destiny is greater than what you can understand in that moment, and that is why you chose discipline. I want to thank you for staying kind and curious, for saying yes to opportunities even when you were tired. Thank you for waking up when the world was silent. Thank you for enduring the times when you didn’t feel worthy of it but you did it anyway. Even in those days, you walked with blind faith, and you understood that the character being built in those moments, would bear fruit sweet enough to be worth remaining steadfast. This awareness allowed you to understand how to give yourself your own flowers, along with how to give others, theirs. What a gift you received.
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“Thank you for everything thus far, but babygirl, this is only the beginning and you have so many gifts yet to realize. I am blessed to announce I am declaring for the 2025 WNBA Draft. Thank you God!”
Westbeld averaged 7.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in 21 games as a fifth-year senior at Notre Dame. She missed the first 13 games of the season after undergoing foot surgery in August. In three NCAA tournament games, she averaged 7.7 points, helping Notre Dame reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight season.
Westbeld ranks seventh in Notre Dame history with 940 rebounds and fourth with 138 starts. She scored 1,710 points in five seasons. Her sister Kathryn, who played for Notre Dame from 2015-18, scored 1,076 points in four seasons. They are the only sister duo in school history to both reach the 1,000-point mark.
Westbeld’s college career ended with a 74-62 loss to Texas Christian on March 29.
“I think that this group of girls is so special,” Westbeld said at the postgame press conference with teammates Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron. “Coming in with all of them you never — oh my goodness. There’s truly no place on Earth that I would want to play with.
“When you go around the locker room, it’s not about the basketball. It’s not about anything other than the people, and that’s why you do it. You do it for each other, and throughout my entire career I have done it for them.”
