Bringing you news and notes coming from the Missouri Valley in women's sports from both the athletic field and in the classroom as soon as news breaks. For a specific sport please see that specific page effective 8/9/24
PSAC 2024 NCAA Women of the Year Award nominees are Samantha Pirosko of Gannon and London Fuller of Clarion
Women's basketball athlete Samantha Pirosko of Gannon and Volleyball athlete London Fuller of Clarion have been selected by Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference as the conference's nominations for the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year Award
The NCAA Woman of the Year award, established in 1991, recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership throughout their college careers. This year's record-breaking number of 627 female student-athletes were nominated by NCAA member schools represented across all three NCAA divisions.
Samantha Pirosko – Gannon Women’s Basketball
Pirosko had the best season of her career last winter and was named the 2023-24 WBCA Division II National Player of the Year for her efforts. She also earned the 2023-24 D2CCA Division II Ron Lenz National Player of the Year award in addition to First Team All-America status from both the WBCA and D2CCA.
Pirosko’s community service and campus activities included work with the Day of Caring, A&K Basketball Clinic, SERVE Project, GIVE Day, Gannon Women’s Basketball Camps, and the Second Harvest Food Bank.
Academically, Pirosko majored in Health Sciences in the Physician’s Assistant Program and tallied a 3.90 cumulative grade-point average (GPA). She was named the 2024 CSC Academic All-America Division II Team Member of the Year, is a two-time CSC Academic All-America First Team honoree, and earned PSAC Scholar-Athlete status in each of her five seasons.
London Fuller – Clarion Women’s Volleyball
Fuller ended her Clarion career as the most decorated Golden Eagle volleyball player, with three consecutive AVCA All-America awards, with a Third Team nod in 2022 and Honorable Mention honors in 2023 and 2021. Fuller, who majored in Interdisciplinary Studies and minored in Biology, set the Golden Eagles to an Atlantic Region championship in 2023, marking the program's first regional championship and first trip to the NCAA Division II Championships since 2010. Fuller was voted D2CCA All-America Second Team in 2022, the highest placement on an All-American team for any Golden Eagles volleyball player to that point in program history, and was just the third player in program history to top 4,000 career assists and 1,000 career digs.
Her community service and campus activities included work with the Black Student Union at Clarion, the Kudets Step Team, Clarion Volleyball Camps, and a student representative on the Under Armour Baltimore City Student-Athlete Leadership Council.
PSAC member institutions also nominated seven other student-athletes for NCAA Woman of the Year consideration for 2024, including Edinboro’s Kylie Anicic, Clarion’s Mackenzie Carver, Kutztown’s Cyrose Conteh and Sarah Gatehouse, West Chester’s Leah Johnson, East Stroudsburg’s Nicole Krozser, and Slippery Rock’s Charleigh Rondeau.
Pirosko and Fuller will now have the chance to be selected as Top 30 Woman of the Year nominees by the Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from NCAA membership. The committee will choose 10 honorees from each division, announced in October, with further rounds of voting narrowing the field down to three finalists from each division and then the announcement of the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year at the NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tenn. in January of 2025.
Kristin Day, a former diver from Clarion, remains the PSAC's only winner of the prestigious award, having earned the honor in 2015.
2024 Woman of the Year Nominees from PSAC Member Institutions
Kylie Anicic – Edinboro – Women's Cross Country / Track & Field
Dual Major: Nursing and Psychology
GPA: 3.86
Community Service/Campus Activities: Own Your Roar, Student Nurses Organization of Edinboro (SNOE), SAAC, Edinboro Wolfpack
Academic Achievement: CSC Academic All-District (2024), CSC Third Team All-American (2023), PSAC
Mackenzie Carver – Clarion – Women's Track & Field
Major: Molecular Biology / Biotechnology | Minor: Chemistry
GPA: 3.98
Community Service/Campus Activities: Eagle Ambassadors, SAAC, Clarion River Cats, Clarion Hospital COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic, Christel House International, PennWest Honors Program
Academic Achievement: CSC Academic All-District in 2024 and 2023, 2023 USTFCCCA All-Academic Team (Individual) - Cross Country, Four-time Clarion and PSAC Scholar-Athlete
Cyrose Conteh – Kutztown – Women’s Lacrosse
Major: Criminal Justice | Minor: Sociology
Community Service/Campus Activities: Girls on the Run, Kutztown Area Food Bank, Get Out and Vote, Girls and Women in Sports Day
Sarah Gatehouse – Kutztown – Field Hockey
Major: Sport Management | Minor: Coaching and Athletic Administration
GPA: 4.00
Community Service/Campus Activities: SAAC, Treasurer, Sport Management Club, Special Olympics, PA Revs All-Stars Adaptive Field Hockey Clinic, National Girl and Women in Sport Day
Academic Achievement: NCAA DII Field Hockey Championship Elite 90 Award (2023), NFHCA DII National Scholar Athlete Award (2023, 2022), NFHCA Scholar of Distinction and National Academic Squad (2020-23)
Leah Johnson – West Chester – Women’s Basketball
Major: Finance | Minor: Data Analytics
GPA: 3.90
Community Service/Campus Activities: Adaptive PE Basketball Clinic, National Girls and Women in Sport Day, Lighthouse Clinic
Academic Achievement: CSC Third Team Academic All-America (2023), CSC Academic All-District (2023-24), 2022-23 West Chester University Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, D2 ADA Academic Honor Roll (2021-2024)
Nicole Krozser – East Stroudsburg – Field Hockey
Major: Psychology
GPA: 3.97
Community Service/Campus Activities: Dash for Dysphagia Fundraiser, Labor of Love Organization, Sigma Phi Omega Gerontology Honors Society, ESU Speech and Hearing Center
Academic Achievement: Presented research at ESU Pennsylvania Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in 2024, CSC Academic All-America Third Team (2023), CSC Academic All-District (2023), NFHCA Scholar-Athlete and Scholar of Distinction (2019-2023)
Charleigh Rondeau – Slippery Rock – Women’s Lacrosse
Major: Industrial and Systems Engineering | Minor: Mathematics
GPA: 4.00
Community Service/Campus Activities: Industrial and Systems Engineering Club, 11-Day Power Play, Alzheimer’s Care Volunteer, Special Olympics, Weekend of Welcome
Academic Achievement: 2024 PSAC Champion Scholar, CSC Academic All-America First Team (2023 and 2024), CSC Academic All-America Second Team (2022), Academic All-District (2022-24), 5x PSAC Scholar-Athlete.
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference announces nine different institutions have claimed Top Team GPA Awards for the 2023-24 academic year
The Top Team GPA Awards are in their 13th year of existence and are issued across 21 PSAC-sponsored sports.
The awards, released at the conclusion of every academic year, honor the teams with the top cumulative team grade point average in each of the sponsored sports within the PSAC. The conference hosts 22 championships in total, however, for award purposes, indoor and outdoor track & field are counted as a single sport.
There was a slight increase in overall average GPA in the PSAC, with 2023-24's total of 3.323 ahead of 2022-23's 3.302.
Listed below are the winners of each Top Team GPA Award by sport, including each team's cumulative GPA in 2023-24.
Women's BasketballKutztown*3.745
Women's Cross Country Mansfield 3.889
Field Hockey Slippery Rock 3.647
Women's Golf Clarion 3.798
Women's Lacrosse Slippery Rock 3.714
Women's Soccer Mercyhurst 3.819
Softball Mercyhurst 3.770
Women's Swimming Gannon 3.680
Women's Tennis Mercyhurst 3.717
Women's Track & Field Slippery Rock 3.641
Volleyball Slippery Rock 3.720