See how every player who received a vote finished in our 2026 College Awards.
July 13, 2026 by Ultiworld in Awards
Now that we’ve completed announcing our official 2026 College Awards we wanted to pull the curtain back a little bit to give our subscribers a look at how all votes shook out for each award.
Each year, we invite all division reporters, staff writers, and editors to submit a ballot for each division. The exact process for tallying votes and naming recipients has evolved over time.
For each of the individual awards, we asked our contributors to submit a podium of first, second, and third place, and optionally, fourth, and fifth place. When our totals get tallied, players received five points for a first place vote, four for a second place vote, three for a third place vote, and so on.
Our Player of the Year voting has been combined with the All-American voting: the top vote-getter becomes the Player of the Year and the next two runner-ups are also decided through this methodology. The Player of the Year is ineligible to win other awards. In addition, we have instituted a rule, which we affectionately call the “Kami Groom Rule”1: a player can only appear once per year on the Offensive, Defensive, and Breakout podiums; in some cases, Rookie will also be exclusive, based on staff judgment. Players’ placement in the Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year podiums will be prioritized; after that, they will be placed wherever they are the highest voted, subject to the same voting tiebreakers. The Rookie of the Year is excluded from the Kami Groom Rule. This decision was made in order to recognize a variety of individuals, as there are so many players deserving of praise for their play.
For our All-American teams, each contributor submitted a ranked list of their top 21 players — three full teams in order to help differentiate around the margins — with a first place vote earning 21 points and descending from there. In the event of any ties, the first tiebreaker is the number of ballots a player appeared on and the second tiebreaker is who received the highest vote (i.e., most first place votes). Where there was still a tie, the editors made the final decision.
Below are the full results of our 2026 D-I & D-III College Awards.
D-I Women’s Division
This year, we received 7 All-American ballots and 6 ballots for our women’s division awards.
- All-American First Team
- Player of the Year
- 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
- Snubs and Superlatives
D-I Women's Div. 2026 POTY & All-American
| Player (Team) | Total Voting Points | 1st Team Votes | 2nd Team Votes | 3rd Team Votes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chloe Hakimi (Carleton) | 146 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Grace Maroon (Penn) | 133 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Mika Kurahashi (UBC) | 128 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Chagall Gelfand (Carleton) | 126 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Lia Schwartz (Tufts) | 122 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Quincy Booth (Georgia) | 101 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| Sage McGinley-Smith (Stanford) | 98 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Esther Filipek (Stanford) | 88 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| Rachel Chang (UC Santa Cruz) | 83 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Naomi Fina (Carleton) | 74 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Trout Weybright (Oregon) | 67 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Ella Bolan (UBC) | 65 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Annabel White (Tufts) | 61 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Lauren Goddu (Washington) | 48 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| Amelie Marshall (UBC) | 45 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Kai Agueros (UC Santa Cruz) | 34 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Claire Weng (UBC) | 32 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Sabrina Belkin (UCLA) | 31 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Mina Brown (Tufts) | 25 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Bella Russell (UNC) | 21 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Kyliah McRoy (Carleton) | 14 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Simone Pierotti (Colorado) | 13 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Emma Williamson (Colorado) | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Kate Gearing (Tufts) | 11 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Faye Burdick (Colorado) | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Goodness Nwakudu (UC Santa Cruz) | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Harper Baer (Stanford) | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Acacia Hahn (Oregon) | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ella Monaghan (Vermont) | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Helen Burruss (Carleton) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Zane Bird Smith (UC Santa Cruz) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ellie Lemberg (Tufts) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Alli Reilly (UNC) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Eliza Barton (Carleton) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Poppy Wagner (Penn) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Ultiworld’s 2026 D-I & D-III College Awards Voting Breakdown is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
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