The first-years who have already established themselves among the division's best overall players.
June 18, 2025 by Felicia Zheng, Edward Stephens and Graham Gerhart in Awards
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.
The Rookie of the Year award recognizes players who impressed in their first college ultimate seasons. That includes both freshman and true rookies. Each season, it feels like this group of players becomes more impactful; as the level of youth play and of coaching and development rise, so does the bar for the division’s best rookie. Whether they come to the college game from years of youth experience, a background in other sports, or none of the above, these players made debuts to remember in high-level college play.
- Player of the Year
- All-American First Team
- All-American Second Team
- Defensive Player of the Year Award
- Offensive Player of the Year Award
- Rookie of the Year Award
- Breakout Player of the Year Award
- Coaches of the Year Award
- Full Awards Voting Breakdown
D-I Women’s 2025 Rookie Of The Year
Eliza Barton (Carleton)
There’s something to be said for simply getting after it, and few players in the division (rookies or otherwise) got after it as often as Barton. How often? Fifteen goals – best on national finalists Syzygy – is a pretty good indicator.
What’s most remarkable about Barton’s first-year campaign is the way she used a (forgive me) somewhat limited palette of ultimate skills to tremendous effect. Compare her game to her closest competition and you’ll see what I mean. She didn’t play the same sort of technical defense as Lauren Szeto-Fung. She wasn’t going to drive a possession from the center handler spot like Isabella Pharr. She didn’t have Rowan Lymp’s arrow of a forehand. Even on her own team, Kyliah McRoy was more polished, and Melba Henley built up the biggest library of layouts.
She had quickness near the top of the division, though, as well as a sublime sense of timing. Between keeping defenders on their heels by darting herself and her stall-0 reset backhands about the backfield or reading the rest of the O-line’s movement in order to set up a dash across the goal, Barton out-produced them all. Her play in 2025 was the perfect example of how to make the most of the tools in your toolbelt – and a perfect foundation for when she inevitably adds more high-level elements to her game over the next three seasons.
– Edward Stephens
First Runner-Up
Rowan Lymp (Washington)
Lymp’s impact on this Washington Element team isn’t something you can measure with stats alone. Sure, the numbers are on her side — she put up an impressive 11/9/5 line at Nationals — but what truly set her apart was how she rose to every moment when it mattered most. Lymp is a playmaker through and through, and she brought an intensity and doggedness to every possession that set the tone for the entire squad. To be a rookie on the biggest stage in college ultimate, playing both sides, getting Ds, scoring goals, and never blinking in the limelight? That’s a rare and difficult feat, and Lymp made it look effortless.
– Felicia Zheng
Second Runner-Up
Lauren Szeto-Fung (UBC)
It’s rarefied air to make the podium for two different awards, but if there was anyone this year who was worthy of it, it’s Lauren Szeto-Fung. Starting your college career with a team that has title aspirations is a tough challenge for any rookie, as playing time and development can take a back seat in those settings. That was never a problem for Szeto-Fung. She earned every minute she was played this season and came to exemplify exactly the style of defense that won UBC a title. With three recorded blocks in the final, it doesn’t feel disingenuous to say that UBC doesn’t win a title without Szeto-Fung. To be a game-altering player as a rookie takes a special ‘it’ factor, and she has IT.
– Graham Gerhart
