This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.

The first time Grace Smith photographed a University of Iowa women's basketball game, the stands at Carver-Hawkeye Arena were silent.

It was 2020, in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the university opted to fill the stands with cardboard cutouts of students, fans and pets to keep crowd sizes down. It was Smith's freshman year, and unbeknownst to her, she was covering a classmate who, in just a few years time, would change the conversation about not only the school's program, but the WNBA.

"That was my first experience covering Caitlin," Smith said. "To see that transition from cardboard cutouts to sold-out arenas, home and away, was something really special."

Now, just a few years later, Gainbridge Fieldhouse gets so loud that Smith has advised her grandmother to remove her hearing aids before seeing Caitlin Clark play.

Smith, now a full-time photojournalist with IndyStar, covers the Indiana Fever alongside another Iowa alumna, Chloe Peterson. Together, they put their expertise to work to bring Fever fans courtside for Clark's historic rookie season.

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Photojournalist captures how Caitlin Clark 'comes alive' in games

Before graduating from Iowa last spring, Smith collaborated on a book, "More Than a Moment: Elevating the Game With Iowa Women’s Basketball," chronicling the team's rise to the NCAA Women's Final Four during the 2023-24 season.

"It was kind of like a peer-to-peer project, because the athletes are students, too," she said. "It was a really cool thing to work on a project about the growth of women's sports as a woman in sports, myself."

Smith spent about two weeks embedded with the team during their tournament run, which produced her favorite photo she's taken of Clark. Just hours before the Final Four game against Connecticut, Clark was in her socks, reclined on a hotel bed in Cleveland, scrolling her phone in silence.

Clark is a funny, personable teammate, Smith said, but her in-game energy takes her to a different level.

"I think she comes alive when she's on the court," Smith said.

Having covered Clark for years gives Smith an edge when photographing high-energy WNBA games.

"I can maybe feel a little bit what she's going to do and how she's going to react to it," Smith said. "She doesn't celebrate often, herself, unless she's drained a bunch of threes in a row, so you can kind of prepare for how she's going to react in certain moments. I've definitely realized what she'll do and what kind of makes her tick."

Smith said this historic moment is one Clark was ready to meet.

"I think Caitlin has a way of making others around her better, and the crowd sees that," she said. "It's really cool that it's not solely Caitlin's team, it's the Indiana Fever. I try to capture that in my photos."

Covering Clark from college athlete to 'franchise-changing pick' in WNBA

Peterson, who graduated from Iowa in 2023, began covering women's basketball for the Daily Iowan during Clark's freshman season. At that point, though, Clark was more of a local name.

It wasn't until a February 2022 game against Michigan, where Clark scored a then-career high 46 points, including 25 in the fourth quarter, that the Hawkeye became a national name.

"It was really interesting to see how she was a local product — there were four or five of us covering her from her freshman year," Peterson said, "And then as it went on, more and more people started coming."

After graduation, Peterson arrived at IndyStar, where she began covering Indiana University women's basketball and the Fever. Peterson said she noticed in her first season covering the city's WNBA team that despite getting the 2023 No. 1 pick with Aliyah Boston, the team was still seen as a bit of an afterthought throughout the league.

"They were still kind of under the radar, I'd say, until the draft lottery party in December," she said. "When they actually got the No. 1 pick, someone next to general manager Lin Dunn fell out of their seat in excitement, and the entire lobby just erupted."

Fans were obviously excited at the prospect of having Clark in Indianapolis.

"I knew she could be a franchise-changing pick wherever she went," Peterson said, "but especially for the Fever, she would be a perfect fit."

Peterson said her experience covering Clark from college to the pros helped her hit the ground running as the phenom began changing the game in Indianapolis.

"I knew she had high expectations for herself and for her team," she said. "She wanted to be great like right away, but she also knew it was going to be a process. It was navigating those two things that really informed her first month in the league."

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Caitlin Clark: No one can match IndyStar's experience covering her