SOUTH BEND – University of Notre Dame women’s basketball junior guard Jewell Loyd announced Wednesday evening that she will forego her senior season with the Fighting Irish and place her name under consideration for the 2015 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Draft.

Loyd is eligible to enter this year’s Draft due to a league provision that allows players to submit their names for consideration in a given draft if the player’s 22nd birthday occurs within the calendar year of the same season (Loyd will turn 22 on Oct. 5). A player must make such a declaration at least 10 days prior to the draft or 24 hours after her last game if she is still playing 10 days prior to the draft (as was the case with Loyd).

Loyd is projected to be among the top three selections in this year’s draft, and if she is chosen that high, it would make Notre Dame the first school in the 19-year history of the WNBA college draft to produce lottery (top-four) picks in four consecutive years (2012-Devereaux Peters to Minnesota; 2013-Skylar Diggins to Tulsa; 2014-Kayla McBride to San Antonio – all with the No. 3 overall selection).

The 2015 WNBA Draft will be held at 7 p.m. (ET) April 16 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. The first round of the draft will be televised live to a national cable audience on ESPN2, with the second and third rounds broadcast live on ESPN3. The Seattle Storm hold the No. 1 and No. 3 picks in this year’s draft (the latter selection obtained via a trade with the Connecticut Sun), while the Tulsa Shock will be choosing second.

“I am incredibly grateful for my experience at Notre Dame and the support I have received from Coach (Muffet) McGraw, our staff, my teammates and the entire ND community,” Loyd said in a statement to The Associated Press. “I have grown as a woman and as a basketball player and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to be a part of such an inspiring community.”

“We appreciate all that Jewell has done for our program and the University of Notre Dame during her time here,” Fighting Irish head coach Muffet McGraw said. “We understand this was not an easy decision. We wish her nothing but happiness and success at the next level.”

Loyd, in 2014-15, became the fifth consensus first-team All-America selection in Fighting Irish women’s basketball history. She garnered first-team All-America honors this season from the Associated Press (unanimous selection), the John R. Wooden Award (she is one of five finalists for this year’s award, presented to the national player of the year Friday in Los Angeles), Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), United States Basketball Writers’ Association (USBWA) and espnW, which also chose her as the espnW National Player of the Year, the first Notre Dame player to earn a national player-of-the-year award since Ruth Riley in 2001.

Loyd was a two-time All-America selection in her college career, having split first- and second-team honors from numerous outlets as a sophomore in 2013-14. She is one of four players in program history to be a two-time All-American (not including honorable mention citations) while at Notre Dame, joining Riley, Diggins and McBride in that exclusive company.

This season, Loyd was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year by both the league’s Blue Ribbon Panel (media) and its 15 head coaches, along with earning first-team all-league honors for the second consecutive season as she helped Notre Dame to its second ACC regular-season title in as many years of conference membership (and their fourth league title overall, a first in the program’s 38-year history).

Loyd then repeated as the ACC Tournament Most Valuable Player while pacing the Fighting Irish to their second consecutive ACC postseason crown, and third overall, the best conference tournament run for Notre Dame since 1989-92 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League. Loyd was the second Fighting Irish player ever to be a two-time conference tournament MVP (and first in back-to-back seasons), joining Krissi Davis in that elite club—Davis was the MVP of the 1989 and 1991 MCC tournaments, the former being the only other time a Notre Dame sophomore took MVP accolades before Loyd’s 2014 ACC citation.

In 2014-15, Loyd turned in one of the greatest offensive seasons in Notre Dame women’s basketball history, scoring 772 points to come within an eyelash of the school record (776) set by Katryna Gaither in 1996-97. Loyd also tied the single-season program record with 20 20-point games (set by Gaither in 1996-97), while her 19.8 points-per-game scoring average tied for the third-highest mark in school history (Gaither did so in 1995-96).

In addition, Loyd set new school records for 30-point games in one season (four), highlighted by a record-tying 41 points in an overtime win at No. 25 DePaul on Dec. 10. It was one of 11 times in 15 games this season Loyd scored at least 20 points against a ranked opponent, including three 30-point outings (also 34 against No. 5/6 Tennessee on Jan. 19, and 31 against No. 3 UConn on Dec. 6, both at Purcell Pavilion). Against Top 25 teams this year, Loyd averaged 22.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.

Overall, Loyd started all 39 games this season, averaging career highs of 19.8 points and 3.0 assists per game, plus 5.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game with two double-doubles. She also led the ACC with her 20 20-point games this season, while her school-record four 30-point games likewise set the ACC standard this year.

Loyd ranks fifth on Notre Dame’s career scoring list with 1,909 points, while her 17.0 career points-per-game average is second-highest in school history behind current Fighting Irish associate coach Beth (Morgan) Cunningham, who averaged 18.6 ppg. from 1993-97. Loyd holds the school record with seven career 30-point games and ranks fifth with 35 career 20-point games, in addition to scoring in double figures 99 times in her 112 career games played, which ranks seventh in school history.