These big time scorers helped ensure their offenses would keep the points flowing.
June 13, 2024 by Anna Browne and Zack Davis in Awards with 0 comments
Each year, Ultiworld presents our annual College Awards. Our staff evaluates the individual performances of players from throughout the season, talking to folks around college ultimate, watching film, and look at statistics, voting upon the awards to decide those to be honored. The regular season and the college Series are both considered, with extra emphasis for performances in the competitive and high-stakes environment at Nationals.
Our awards continue with the Offensive Player of the Year, recognizing the individual, and two runners-up, who we felt had the most impactful and productive seasons helping their teams score. They set up goals, finished off points, and produced yardage at consistently high levels against the top defenders.
- Player of the Year
- All-American First Team
- All-American Second Team
- Offensive Player of the Year Award
- Defensive Player of the Year Award
- Breakout Player of the Year Award
- Rookie of the Year Award
- Coaches of the Year Award
D-III Women’s 2024 Offensive Player Of The Year
Keziah Wilde (Middlebury)
What more can be said about Keziah Wilde? The centerpiece to Middlebury’s high powered offense has said enough with her on field ability. Wilde is a sharpshooter with the rare combination of patience and precision. Slashing 9G/19A/7D, a lot of Wilde’s contributions this year came in the midfield, moving the disc and flummoxing defenses. When opponents played deep and tried to take away Keziah’s signature long ball she had no trouble adjusting and playing small ball. As soon as defenses relaxed enough and started clamping down, it was back to sending it.
What made this year different from last for Wilde was the team composition. Last year’s Pranksters featured a lot of veteran talent and a particularly bright star in Claire Babbott-Bryan. This year had a lot of fresh faces and put a lot more pressure on Wilde to perform. Clearly, she was able to rise to the challenge, willing her team who had looked shaky at best leading into a third place finish at nationals. Wilde was able to readapt her playstyle to fit the team and was clearly a major leadership presence for the Pranksters both on and off the field. What was maybe the only critique towards Wilde last year – an overeagerness to throw a deep shot – was clearly reined in this year, as an equal number of turns as 2023’s Nationals came with a much higher volume of passes.
– Zack Davis
First Runner-Up
Zoe Costanza (Haverford/Bryn Mawr)
Costanza is the centerpiece of a strong Haverford/Bryn Mawr team. The Sneetches are well known to run zone every defensive opportunity, and Costanza takes advantage of the short field turns through quick transition offense. Leading her team in almost every stat, Costanza continues to dominate with big backhands and a knack for give and gos. Costanza is emblematic of the changing of the guard as the division prioritizes strong cutters with disc skills. Like her counterpart JJ Galian, Costanza is just as dangerous with the disc as without it. Costanza has played a huge role in the Sneetches’ rise to the top of the Ohio Valley region and to being a national contender. She continues to have strong growth year over year, both through on field performance and off-field leadership.
– Anna Browne
Second Runner-Up
Frankie Saraniti (Carleton)
Saraniti exploded onto the scene last year with a big Nationals performance, earning BPOTY runner-up honors. With Eclipse losing a huge portion of their experienced handlers, Saraniti was one of a few forced to step up into more distributor roles, though we still saw her play to her strengths in the cutting space for a huge chunk of the season. Setting up deep cuts to finish off points was her specialty, but at Nationals Saraniti showed an offensive versatility matched by few. With a stat line of 17G/11A/15D/11T, Saraniti was able to excel as Eclipse’s continuation cutter. What truly raised Saraniti above others in the division was her game awareness and field awareness. She knew when the young Carleton College handers needed a bailout by dropping back into the handler space to overcome tough defenses or zones. And through it all, Saraniti did it with style.
– Anna Browne
