Hailey Van Lith has set many program records, but her career can be defined by one thing: winning.

The TCU star added another “first” to her incredible resume on Saturday as she helped lead her third different program to an Elite Eight appearance, keying a 71-62 win over Notre Dame in the Sweet 16.

She appeared in three Elite Eight games with Louisville across three seasons and helped lead LSU to the Elite Eight last season.

“In this era of the portal and the modern-day college athlete, there are a lot of bad stories in the portal,” TCU coach Mark Campbell said. “Hailey Van Lith leading three schools five times to the Elite Eight, Miss March, yes, she gets that title and she can own it.

“It’s funny, you guys, one of the narratives with Hailey coming into the year at the highest level is can she defend? I mean, gosh dang, she is an elite defender. I don’t know where that came from, but with us she laces them up and she wants to guard the other team’s best player and she does it. It’s not like you’re trying to hide Hailey.”

Van Lith proved to be the X-factor in the matchup against Notre Dame with 26 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists, which were all team-highs for the Horned Frogs.

She scored 12 of TCU’s 20 fourth-quarter points in the win, knocking down 10 of her 21 shots and hitting a pair of 3-point baskets late in the matchup.

“I think at this point I just have ultimate confidence and faith in myself to compete at an intense level,” she said. “What I’ve learned through my experience in these tournaments is you can’t always ask yourself to make every shot, but if you’re willing to compete and lay it all out there every game, you’re giving yourself a better shot than a lot of other people are out there.

“Like I said before the game to a lot of media, I was going to go out there and play as hard as I could to practice with these girls tomorrow.”

It wasn’t just on the offensive end that she shined for TCU.

Van Lith logged a block and a steal on paper, but she said in the press conference she had two blocks; regardless, she made an impact.

“I think Hailey is a dog, regardless if it’s the offensive end or defensive end regardless, she is going to do anything it takes to win,” said Madison Conner, who scored 13 points. “She has a competitive edge. She’s talked about it a lot and you can see it in her game. She’s been at an Elite Eight every single year in college, that’s a testament to how hard she works.

“She knows what it takes to win at an extremely high level, and she doesn’t care if she makes all of her shots but we like when you make all your shots.”

Heading into the fourth quarter down a point, Van Lith said she leaned into her team and preached playing all 40 minutes of the matchup.

“Notre Dame is an extremely explosive team,” she said. “They’re super talented, extremely explosive but we’re a little bit more mature. I think if we were going to play steady all game, I was going to take us over forty minutes. They might win 10 or 20 but we will win 40. My message to the girls right before we went out for the fourth quarter is we’re going to be steady, and that’s what won us the game.”

Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey, who coached against Van Lith plenty when the now-TCU star played at Louisville in the ACC, lauded the player for her growth as she’s gained experience on multiple teams and in multiple roles.

“Her composure has gotten a lot better and just, again, and being able to score with a lot of different defenses, I think, has been really helpful for her, as far as just the way she can dictate games and take games over,” she said. “But you can tell with her experience she has gotten more confident and has played against a lot of different type of styles with three different conferences, and you can tell it’s paid off with the way that she plays.”