Bridgewater, NJ — Nine standout Northeast Conference (NEC) student-athletes have been selected as institutional nominees for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year Award. The nominees represent six different sports across seven NEC institutions. 
 
This marks the 34th year of the Woman of the Year program. 
 
One of the most prestigious NCAA awards, the Woman of the Year was established in 1991 to celebrate the achievements of women in intercollegiate athletics. The award honors graduating female college athletes who have distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
 
Below are the NEC’s nine impressive nominees: 
 
Caitlin Murphy, Central Connecticut (WSOC)
Leo Boisseau, LIU (WTEN)
Olivia Fantigrossi, LIU (WLAX)
Abigail Cieri, Merrimack (WSOC)
Katsiaryna Starastsenka, Sacred Heart (WTEN)
Julia Breneman, Saint Francis U (FH)
Rachel Marsden, Saint Francis U (SB)
Sydney Stockwell, Stonehill (WSWIM)
Kayla Barbosa, Wagner (WSOC)
 
Caitlin Murphy (Southbury, CT/Pomperaug) posted a career .774 save percentage and 1.24 goals-against average between the posts for Central Connecticut’s women’s soccer team. The netminder logged 24 starts and 28 appearances throughout her four seasons in New Britain and amassed 12 career victories while pitching eight clean sheets during that stretch. Murphy was pegged an All-NEC second team selection as a junior in 2022 after she ranked second amongst league goalkeepers in GAA (1.09), save percentage (.786), goals allowed (18) and shutouts per match (.412).
 
The Connecticut native and four-time NEC Academic and Commissioner’s Honor Roll member was near perfect in the classroom. She graduated with a 3.95 GPA in December 2022 as a Psychological Science major with a minor in Sociology before she posted a perfect 4.00 mark in her graduate studies (Master of Arts in Psychology). Murphy, who served as Central Connecticut’s SAAC President in 2024 and was a four-year member of the organization, spearheaded a plethora of initiatives and events both on campus and in the community, including PRIDE Celebration and Awareness, Mental Health Education, Read Across America Day, National Girls and Women in Sport Day and youth soccer clinics. 
 
One of three first team selections from back-to-back NEC women’s tennis champion LIU, Leo Boisseau (Lavellois, France/Passey Saint Honoré (Texas A&M Corpus Christi)), the 2023 NEC Player of the Year, occupied the #1 spot for LIU and went 13-3 in in dual matches while winning 17 total singles matches in 2024. Notably, the French standout earned NEC Tournament MVP distinction after she clinched the Sharks’ 4-2 win over FDU with a three-set victory in the championship-deciding match. The senior was a regular on the NEC women’s tennis awards list as a senior during the 2023-24 campaign, garnering NEC Player of the Month distinction in October and NEC Player of the Week recognition on three occasions (March 19, March 26 and April 9).
 
Boisseau also aced it in the classroom. She graduated with an impressive 3.93 GPA while pursuing her undergraduate degree in Business Administration/Management and was a member of the NEC Academic and Commissioner’s Honor Rolls in each of her two seasons in Brookville. In addition, Boisseau, who volunteered at the French Open in 2024, was a tennis instructor for local youth at the Theo and John Tennis Clinic. 
 
LIU’s top goal-getter in 2024, Olivia Fantigrossi (Port Jefferson Station, NY/Comsewogue) was the catalyst of a Sharks’ squad that made history in 2024 by raising the program’s first-ever NEC Women’s Lacrosse Tournament championship banner in Brookville. The Port Jefferson Station, NY native and 2024 All-NEC First Team member went off for five scores in LIU’s semifinal triumph over Stonehill to etch her name on the All-Tournament Team. Fantigrossi capped off her storied senior campaign with a stellar performance in LIU’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game, striking three times against Virginia to close out her season with 45 goals. 
 
In the classroom, the Business Administration major has earned NEC Academic Honor Roll distinction three times with a cumulative 3.43 GPA. In terms of community service, Fantigrossi has served as a Team Ambassador for “Let Her Play” and she has been actively involved in supervising several youth lacrosse clinics.
 
A four-time All-NEC women’s soccer defender during her career at Merrimack, Abigail Cieri (Matawan, NJ/Saint John Vianney), who made her debut on the league’s First Team as a junior in 2022, turned the trick and made it a repeat in her senior season in 2023. She led the Warriors to a runner-up regular season finish and an NEC Tournament appearance in their first year of postseason eligibility in 2022, while in 2023, she helped propel the program to its first-ever NEC regular season title. With Cieri anchoring the back line, Merrimack led the circuit during conference play with 2.80 goals per game and four shutouts last season. 
 
Hailing from Matawan, NJ, Cieri claimed a spot on the NEC Academic and Commissioner’s Honor Roll lists in each of her four years. The 2022 NEC Women’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year and 2023 team captain graduated with a 3.95 GPA as a Business Administration major. Cieri, who held several leadership positions during her involvement with Merrimack’s Honors Program and SAAC, also dedicated her time to “Mack Gives Back” and Habitat for Humanity as an undergraduate student-athlete.
 
The NEC’s premier women’s tennis player in 2024, Katsiaryna Starastsenka (Mogilev, Belarus/Mogilev City Gymnasium) was a dominant force all season long for Sacred Heart, finishing with a league-best .840 singles winning percentage and 21 victories en route to posting a 21-4 record. Posting a nearly unblemished record of 17-1 at #1 singles and finishing the campaign with a 7-1 mark against NEC opponents, the Mogilev, Belarus native became the first Sacred Heart competitor to be named NEC Player of the Year. A two-time NEC All-Tournament team member and a rare four-time first team All-NEC honoree, Starastsenka compiled an impressive 65-25 singles mark during her four years in Fairfield.
 
Starastsenka, who ran it back as the league’s scholar-athlete winner in women’s tennis in 2024, graduated with an impressive 3.99 GPA while majoring in Finance. She landed on the NEC Academic and Commissioner’s Honor Roll four times apiece and was a lifelong member of Phi Kappa Phi and Beta Gamma Sigma, all while serving as a Resident Assistant, a Classroom Learning Assistant for Critical Thinking and a volunteer youth tennis coach
 
Julia Breneman (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cedar Cliff) was a mainstay on the field hockey field at Saint Francis U since her arrival in 2021. The midfielder/forward started in 51 of the 53 contests she appeared in, and during that time, she racked up 27 points on 10 goals and seven assists. This past season, the local product from Mechanicsburg, PA found the back of the net four times to lead the Red Flash to a 10-8 overall record — including a 5-2 mark against league competitors — and a second-place finish in the NEC league standings. Saint Francis U qualified for the NEC Championship twice during Breneman’s career, in 2022 and 2023.
 
Breneman was appointed team captain as a sophomore, and that opportunity opened several other doors for her during her undergraduate career. She served as a Student-Athlete Mentor (SAM), was the Red Flash’s SAAC representative for field hockey and was elected the organization’s DEI Chair in her final year. Breneman was also part of Saint Francis U’s Apple Leadership Team. The three-time NEC Academic and Commissioner’s Honor Roll member excelled in her academic studies as well, posting a 3.88 GPA while majoring in Management and Marketing with a minor in Communications.
 
One of the league’s top two-way players of recent vintage, Saint Francis U softball graduate student Rachel Marsden (Erie, PA/McDowell) made her fourth consecutive appearance on the All-NEC first team as a pitcher while also earning a spot on the first team as a utility player for the second time in as many seasons. Leading Saint Francis U to a 24-0 record in conference play and the program’s sixth regular season crown in 2024, she helped put the exclamation point on a storybook campaign by piloting the Red Flash to their sixth tournament title in the past seven years, and the program’s second-ever NCAA Tournament victory, a 1-0 shutout of Siena in the Austin Regional. Finishing 19-6 in the circle, the 2022 NEC Pitcher of the Year and program-record three-time NFCA All-Region selection closed out her final campaign ranked second in the NEC in wins and third with a 1.89 ERA. In addition to her stellar pitching numbers, she ranked third in slugging percentage (.612) and homers (nine), while hitting .331 on the year.
 
Marsden, who repeated as the NEC’s Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year a month ago, was awarded the conference’s most prestigious honor this year when she was named the NEC Female Team Student-Athlete of the Year. Her numbers in the classroom were just as impressive as her athletic feats. She graduated with a 3.90 GPA as a Management/Marketing major in 2023. The Erie, PA native raised that average to a 3.96 mark while earning her Master of Business Administration. A recipient of the 2023 Frank & Marie Picarella Scholarship Award, Marsden has appeared on the NEC Academic and Commissioner’s Honor Roll lists five times apiece while earning two CSC Academic All-District nods. The four-time team captain served as a SAAC Representative for four years and a member of the organization’s E-Board in 2024, was a five-year participant in Reaching Every Door campaign and a volunteer softball coach for several youth organizations during her time as an undergrad.
 
Sydney Stockwell (Hopkinton, NH/Hopkinton), a four-year member of Stonehill’s women’s swimming team, graduated as the Skyhawks’ highest-scoring championship swimmer in the program’s young history with 129.5 career points. She qualified for three championship finals at the 2024 NEC Swimming & Diving Championships (100-yard butterfly, 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke) and scored a program-best 74.5 of Stonehill’s program-best 383.5 points during the five-day event. The Granite State product is currently the Skyhawks’ record holder in the backstroke, the butterfly and the individual medley.
 
A neuroscience major who minored in pre-med, Stockwell held a 3.90 GPA during her undergraduate career. A two-time NEC Academic and Commissioner’s Honor Roll member, she racked up several other academic honors during her time in Easton, including 2023-24 Neuroscience Student of the Year, Edward E. Martin Female Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year and two CSC Academic All-District nods. The four-year team captain’s commitment to service extended beyond the pool. She dedicated several hours at Heights Crossing Assisted Living and is currently volunteering as an EMT this summer. In addition, Stockwell, who was a member of the Pre-Health Society and the Neuroscience Society, was a four-year member of Stonehill’s SAAC.
 
In four seasons on the pitch at Wagner, Kayla Barbosa (Jefferson Township, NJ/Jefferson Township) logged nearly 4,000 career minutes on the Seahawks’ back line. Earning NEC All-Rookie team honors in 2021, the Garden State product played every single minute of Wagner’s 16 matches in 2023 to garner All-NEC First Team and US Coaches Third Team All-North Region distinction. In addition to being a mainstay on defense, Barbosa tallied a career-high 10 points, including the game-tying strikes with less than one minute remaining in an NEC Tournament semifinal win over regular season champion Merrimack and in a hard-fought defeat to eventual champion Central Connecticut three days later. Her heroics during Wagner’s memorable postseason run resulted in her landing NEC All-Tournament Team recognition.
 
Barbosa, who earned both NEC Academic and Commissioner Honor Roll plaudits in 2021, 2022 and 2023, posted a 3.82 career GPA while studying Business Management. She served as the President of Wagner’s SAAC for two years (2023, 2024) and was an intern for the Staten Island Ferryhawks during her time on Grymes Hill. 
 
Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their member schools. Each conference office then reviews the nominations from its core member schools (and sponsored sports) and submits its conference nominee(s) to the NCAA. All nominees who compete in a sport that is not sponsored by their school's primary conference, as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, will be sent to a separate pool to be considered by a committee.
 
Per the NCAA, all conference-level nominees are advanced to the Woman of the Year selection committee. The selection committee will choose the top 10 honorees in each division. From the top 30, the selection committee will determine the three finalists in each division. Finally, the members of the Committee on Women's Athletics will determine the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year. From those nine finalists, the top 30 honorees will be honored, and the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the 2025 NCAA Convention in Nashville.

About The Northeast Conference
Now entering its 44th season, the Northeast Conference is an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association consisting of nine institutions of higher learning located throughout six states. Media coverage of the NEC extends to a number of the largest markets in the United States including New York (#1), Chicago (#3), Boston (#8). Hartford/New Haven (#32) and Syracuse (#87). Founded in 1981 as the basketball-only ECAC Metro Conference, the NEC has grown to sponsor 25 championship sports for men and women and now enjoys automatic access to 16 different NCAA Championships. NEC full member institutions include Central Connecticut, Chicago State, FDU, Le Moyne, LIU, Mercyhurst, Saint Francis U, Stonehill and Wagner. For more information on the NEC, visit the league’s official website official website (www.northeastconference.org) and digital network (www.necfrontrow.com), or follow the league on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, all @NECsports.