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🏐 What’s Happening Today. The AVCA releases its DIII women’s volleyball preseason poll.

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“The Division III Commissioners Association (DIIICA) is proud to announce the 20 outstanding student-athletes selected as the 2025-26 Regional Student-Athlete of the Year winners. These prestigious awards, now in their fourth year, recognize graduating seniors who have demonstrated excellence in athletics, academics, leadership, and service throughout their collegiate careers.

Each regional winner now advances to the national ballot for the DIIICA Men's Sport Student-Athlete of the Year and DIIICA Women's Sport Student-Athlete of the Year awards, which will be announced next month.

Graduating seniors were the only student-athletes eligible for nomination. Each conference was permitted to submit up to two nominees for each gendered award, provided at least one was an international student or from an ethnic minority background. Selection was based on four key areas:

Voting took place among commissioners within each of the 10 Division III regions. The top male and female honoree in each region will be considered for the two national awards.

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“The NYU women are a unanimous No. 1 while three men’s teams received first-place ballots, topped by UW-La Crosse, as the USTFCCCA released its 2026 NCAA Division III preseason cross country polls.

The defending national champion Violets return four All-Americans from a year ago, headlined by Grace Rowley. Williams is in the No. 2 spot and the Ephs welcome back three All-Americans, including Tamar Byl-Brann.

On a conference level, both the NESCAC and UAA have five teams in the top-30 nationally. The NESCAC has three in the top six, yet the UAA might have the most depth with five in the top 15.

» Preseason Top 10 (W). 1-NYU, 2-Williams, 3-Johns Hopkins, 4-CMS, 5-Middlebury, 6-Tufts, 7-Chicago, 8-UW-La Crosse, 9-Pomona-Pitzer, 10-Washington U.

The two-time defending national champion Eagles edged Johns Hopkins by a single point for the top spot. UWL looks to replace four All-Americans from last year’s championship squad. The Blue Jays must find a replacement for 2025 individual national champ Emmanuel Leblond, but return sophomore All-American Anthony Clark.

» Preseason Top 10 (M). 1-UW-La Crosse, 2-Johns Hopkins, 3-NYU, 4-Wartburg,
5-Geneseo, 6-Tufts, 7-Chicago, 8-Pomona-Pitzer, 9-RPI, 10-Carnegie Mellon.

“Four members of the Hanover College women’s swimming team filed a Title IX lawsuit against the school on Tuesday for discriminating against female student-athletes.

The college announced it was cutting both its men’s and women’s swimming teams in March, with “facility maintenance concerns, projected increases in operational costs, and declining roster size” among the reasons mentioned by Vice President for Athletics Mark Shook in an email sent to donors at the time.

On Tuesday, women’s team captain Lucy Schoenlein, along with teammates Tallulah Frazier, Shelby Geraghty and Anna Williams, filed the class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, accusing Hanover of depriving women equal opportunities to participate in varsity sports.”

» Court Awareness. “The swimmers are being represented by Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, who has served as lead counsel of several other women’s swim & dive programs suing their schools on Title IX grounds. According to Bryant, Hanover cut both the men’s and women’s swim teams despite the school already providing women with approximately 170 fewer opportunities than required by law.”

» Quotable. “Hanover’s elimination of its women’s swimming team is a flagrant violation of Title IX,” said Bryant. “According to the most recent publicly available information, women were 50.34% of Hanover’s undergraduates in 2024-25, but they were given only 34.86% of the opportunities to participate in varsity sports. Hanover needs to add around 170 opportunities for women to reach gender equity. It should not be eliminating any women’s teams.”

» Of Note. “According to Arthur Bryant Law, counsel for the swimmers sent a letter to the school in May requesting a meeting to discuss the Title IX implications of the decision to cut the women’s team. The meeting was accepted, but “the school refused to agree to continue the women’s team and come into compliance with Title IX,” Arthur Bryant Law said in its press release. “So, the women filed suit.”

» Legal. “Four members of the Hanover College women’s swimming team filed a Title IX lawsuit against the school on Tuesday for discriminating against female student-athletes.”

» Anniversary. “The North Atlantic Conference (NAC) is proud to announce the celebration of its 30th anniversary, marking three decades of providing intercollegiate athletics opportunities for student-athletes across the Northeast. In honor of the milestone, the conference has unveiled a new 30th anniversary logo.”

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