EDISON, NJ (Aug. 5, 2025) – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) has announced the duo of Grace Dobrzynski of Siena University and Miah McDonald from Marist University as MAAC nominees for the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. The pair were selected from a pool of nine MAAC school nominees.
 
Dobrzynski was a four-year varsity letter earner for the Siena women’s lacrosse team. A West Greenwich, RI, product Dobrzynski ended her storied career as the program’s all-time leader in both points (256) and assists (174), with her points ranking fifth most in MAAC history and her assists ranking second most in MAAC history. Making appearances and starting in all 73 games during her career, Dobrzynski also scored 82 goals, scooped up 78 ground balls, caused 18 turnovers and won 15 draw controls. This past spring, she led the MAAC in assists per game (2.00) and ranked sixth in points per game (3.44) while also registering a career-high three hat tricks. Dobrzynski scored 26 goals, dished out 36 assists, totaled 62 points, and collected 25 ground balls in 2025. The two-time reigning Siena Female Student Athlete of the Year secured First Team All-MAAC honors twice (2024, 2025), MAAC All-Championship Team honors this past season, and MAAC All-Rookie Team honors in 2022. Academically, Dobrzynski earned her degree in Biology, graduating with a 4.00 cumulative grade point average. She was a four-time MAAC Academic Honor Roll member and a three-time member of the MAAC All-Academic Team. She was also named a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Second Team Academic All-American, a CSC At-Large Academic All-District Team choice three straight years (2023, 2024, 2025), an Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Academic Honor Roll member, named a nominee to the Allstate NACDA Good Work Team by the Team Selection Committee and was named as 2025 Capital District Sports Women of the Year.
 
A native of Camp Hill, PA, McDonald was a standout member of the Marist softball team. In her four seasons as a Red Fox, McDonald appeared in 193 games while making 188 starts, splitting time between third base and shortstop. She finished her career with a .391 batting average, a .787 slugging percentage, and a .453 on-base percentage, while compiling 244 hits, 193 runs, 57 home runs, 200 runs batted in, and stealing 61 bases. McDonald graduated as the program's all-time record holder for home runs, RBIs, runs scored, hits, and triples, and set the MAAC’s all-time records for RBIs and runs scored. She also set Marist’s single-season program record in 2025 for home runs, doing so for the second straight year with 28, which was also a MAAC single-season record. Nationally, McDonald finished 2025 leading the NCAA with 195 total bases and ranked in the top 25 in home runs (second, 28), home runs per game (second, .48), runs (second, 80), runs per game (second, 1.38), slugging percentage (third, 1.026), batting average (11th, .453), hits (11th, 86), RBIs (18th, 69), RBIs per game (21st, 1.19), and on-base percentage (22nd, .542). Her conference accolades included two-time MAAC Player of the Year (2024, 2025), three-time First Team All-MAAC (2022, 2024, 2025), two-time MAAC All-Championship Team (2022, 2024), MAAC All-Rookie Team (2021), ECAC Player of the Year (2025), and three-time All-ECAC Team (2022, 2024, 2025). McDonald earned a BS in Biology compiling a cumulative grade point average of 3.69. She was named First Team Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators (CSC) in 2025, was a four-time MAAC All-Academic Team choice, a two-time CSC Academic All-District selection (2024, 2025), and she made the Dean’s List at Marist seven times.
 
Joining Dobrzynski and McDonald as MAAC member school nominees were Laryssa Imbuzeiro (Niagara University), Ahniysha Jackson (Siena), Lucia Mansilla Medina (Saint Peter’s University), Blakely Montgomery (Fairfield University), Kiley Myers (Marist), Hailey Palmer (Rider University), and Prakruthi Sastrry (Merrimack College).
 
Next, the Woman of the Year selection committee will choose 10 women from each division to make up the Top 30 honorees. The selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division, and the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will determine the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year. The Woman of the Year will be celebrated at the 2026 NCAA Convention in January. 
 
The NCAA Woman of the Year program was established in 1991 and honors the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service, and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three divisions. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by Summer 2025. 
 
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 13 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 45th year of competition during the 2025-26 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius University, Fairfield University, Iona University, Manhattan University, Marist University, Merrimack College, Mount St. Mary’s University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Sacred Heart University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena University.
 
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