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Bridgewater, NJ — It was a new era of Northeast Conference (NEC) women's basketball in 2024-25, but amongst all the divergence, there was one common denominator in this year's major award winners.
That similar theme was history.
A first-time NEC Player of the Year for one program, the first-ever major award winners for another and the biggest postseason awards haul for a squad that hoisted the regular season trophy highlight this year's postseason honors.
For the first time since Central Connecticut became a league member in 1998, the NEC's most prized award has found a home in New Britain. Lethal scorer
Belle Lanpher (Princeton, MA/Wachusett Regional) owns the honor of NEC Player of the Year to put the exclamation point on what has been — and continues to be — a storybook career for the Blue Devils.
FDU's historic season resulted in the Knights' heavy presence on the list of All-NEC honorees. After becoming the seventh squad in NEC annals — and the first since Quinnipiac turned the trick 12 years ago — to complete an undefeated run through the league's 16-game slate, the Knights collected three major honors.
Lockdown defender
Teneisia Brown (Montego Bay, Jamaica/St. Andrew's (Merrimack)) was named NEC Defensive Player of the Year while
Ava Renninger (Yardley, PA/Archbishop Wood), her freshman teammate, earned FDU's first NEC Rookie of the Year nod in more than three decades.
Joining the dynamic duo on the awards podium was second-year head coach
Stephanie Gaitley, an NEC staple who was recognized by her peers as the Brenda Reilly NEC Coach of the Year for her role in guiding the Knights to uncharted territory in 2024-25.
Two key components of a Skyhawks' squad that made an impressive ascent to the upper echelon of the NEC in 2024-25 made history by pocketing the program's first-ever major awards. Sophomore
Brooke Paquette (Hudson, NH/Bishop Guertin) was pegged the NEC Most Improved Player, while grad transfer
Kylie Swider (Portsmouth, RI/Tabor Academy (Villanova)) claimed the inaugural NEC Newcomer of the Year award.
The award recipients — along with the conference's All-NEC Teams, All-Rookie squad and the league's inaugural All-Defensive Team — were revealed on the afternoon of the 2025 NEC Women's Basketball Tournament, which begins on Monday with quarterfinal round play at campus sites.
Lanpher put Central Connecticut on her back and carried the Blue Devils to the program's most fruitful conference slate — and their best postseason positioning — in a decade with her dynamic scoring ability and game-changing talent. The catalyst in an array of Central Connecticut second-half surges with her high-basketball IQ, the elusive 5-5 guard absolutely decimated the defenses of conference competitors. With a stealthy number of weapons in her bucket-getting arsenal, Lanpher, who can pile on the points in a hurry, erupted for 20-or-more in 10-of-16 NEC tilts this season for a healthy 23.0 point-per-game average in conference play. Just one of 13 ballers nationwide to have multiple 35-point games to her name, the Princeton, MA native and four-time NEC Player of the Week produced the NEC's best scoring clip since all-time great Jessica Kovatch from Saint Francis U put up 26.4-per-game in conference play in 2017-18. A true two-way threat, Lanpher ranks among the NEC's best in multiple categories, sitting third in assists (3.63), second in free throw percentage (889), seventh in steals (1.56), fifth in made three-pointers (1.88), sixth in three-point field goal percentage (.405), seventh in field goal percentage (.446) and ninth in rebounds (5.9) against fellow league foes.
Her honors didn't stop there. Adding first team distinction to her star-studded résumé, Lanpher, who is nine points away from 1,500 on her career, also inked her name on the NEC's inaugural All-Defensive Team. On Monday, she will be lacing up her kicks for the NEC quarterfinals for a rare fifth time with her sights set on carrying the third-seeded Blue Devils to the program's first-ever conference title.
Renninger made an instant splash with a 20-point game in her collegiate debut, and she never looked back from there. A member of the most veteran-driven squad in the circuit, the explosive 5-6 guard averaged 16.0 points off the bench in her first three games as a collegian, and that was all it took to slot her into the starting lineup. She would not relinquish that role for the remainder of the season. Turning heads early on with NEC Rookie of the Week distinction in each of the first three weeks of her career, Renninger did not lose any steam down the stretch, as she tacked on four more honors to her count — including one NEC Player of the Week award — to finish with a league-leading eight weekly awards. Stepping up to take — and make — bit shots, the Keystone State product was a menace to guard with her knack for finishing around the rim through traffic. Renninger ranked second among all NEC freshmen in scoring with 14.2 points per game and has reached double figures 24 times this season, including a 28-point explosion at Mercyhurst on Feb. 1. She also ranks among the conference's top-15 in a plethora of categories, including rebounding (4.6; 12th), field goal percentage (.407; 12th), three-point field goal percentage (.354; 10th), three-point field goals made (1.93 per game; 3rd) and minutes played (33.55, 8th). Renninger became the fourth player in FDU history to be named NEC Rookie of the Year, but she is the first since Barbara DeShields in 1992, the last time that the Knights hoisted the coveted NEC Tournament trophy.
Day in and day out, Brown was a workhorse for FDU during the program's historic run through the conference slate. The second-year Knight and Jamaican-born baller, who arrived in Hackensack in 2023 by way of Merrimack, was a game-changing defensive presence for an FDU squad that limited NEC counterparts to just 50.3 points per night. The Knights' defense hasn't been stingy against conference competitors, though. Limiting 24 of 29 opponents to 60 points or fewer, FDU checks in at 13th nationally in scoring defense (55.0 ppg) thanks in part to Brown's work in the paint. Browns' name became a synonym for double-double, and for the second-straight season, she nearly averaged one after putting up 13.7 points and a league-leading 9.8 boards. The forward/center has turned the double-double trick in more than half of her 29 starts, and with 15 on the season, she is tied for 17th in the entire nation in the category. Fueling FDU's current 19-game winning streak with her consistent scoring and dominance on the glass, Brown, who ranks 12th in the NEC in steals, rides some serious momentum into her second NEC Tournament appearance. The 6-2 post has achieved double-double status in each of her past nine games, a rally that is currently tied for the second-longest among all NCAA Division I players. Brown became the second Knight to claim the NEC Defensive Player of the Year award, joining Erika Livermore (2014-15).
A seven-time NEC Player of the Week, Brown followed the lead of Lanpher by also tacking on All-NEC First Team and All-Defensive Team distinction to her portfolio this season.
Paquette's transformation from promising to premier guard was nothing short of impressive. The Hudson, NH native blossomed not only into a reliable scorer, but a dangerous floor general for longtime head coach Trisha Brown. In making the leap, she raised her scoring average from 6.0 points per game to 13.0 points per night. She has reaped the benefits of a brand of Skyhawks' basketball that delivers a silky-smooth and entertaining old-school style of play as well. Often finding herself on the giving end of several back-door plays, Paquette has dropped five-or-more dimes 12 times this season — including a career-high 10 in a win over Chicago State on Jan. 9 — to lead the circuit with 4.69 assists per contest, a number that is significantly higher than her 1.7-per-game average from 2023-24. She finished the regular season strong, netting at least 10 points in each of her past nine contests, including respective 22- and 25-point outings in wins over Le Moyne and Wagner to close out the NEC slate.
In a league that is littered with several talented newcomers this season, Swider emerged from the pack and quickly burst onto the NEC scene as a do-it-all forward. Hailing from a basketball rich family that features a crop of Division I ballers, the Villanova transfer has often been tabbed the "difference maker" of this season's Stonehill squad, which in its third year as an NEC member, went 15-14 overall while finishing second in the league rankings with a program-best 11-5 mark. That was a seven-win improvement from last year's conference slate, marking the best single-season turnaround by an NEC squad this season. Swider's previous four years of playing at a high-major level translated into the Ocean State product filling up the box score on a nightly basis. Notching nine double-doubles with nine 20-point performances, Swider, who was one of three players to shoot better than 50.0 percent on the season (.506), is 10th in the conference in scoring (10.0), second in rebounding (8.8) and third in rejections (1.14).
The Knights already got a taste of winning prior to Gaitley's arrival with a NEC Championship Game run in 2023, back-to-back NEC regular season titles in 2022 and 2023 and top four finishes in the NEC rankings in four straight years. But under Gaitley's tutelage this year, a new standard of success has been set in Hackensack in 2024-25. The Knights not only ran the table in NEC play; they did so in dominant fashion after annihilating fellow conference foes by an average of 17.6 points per game. They locked up the No. 1 seed in the NEC Tournament with a week to spare and will enter the postseason as one of the hottest teams in the nation. FDU has rattled off 19-straight wins — the fourth-longest active streak in the country — while their 15-game home win streak, which dates back to a quarterfinal victory in 2024, is the ninth-longest in the nation. To go along with completing a perfect league slate — a feat that has been accomplished just six other times in NEC annals — the Knights had a productive out-of-conference slate as well. With their only blemishes this season coming at the hands of perennial power UConn, ACC foe Syracuse and Big Ten member Rutgers, the squad cracked CollegeInsider.com's Mid-Major Top 25 Poll for the first time in program history four weeks ago, where they recently rose to as high as No. 19 a week ago. FDU's current storybook season stacks up as one of the most successful campaigns the league has seen in recent history. Becoming the first team to manufacture a 25-win season since Robert Morris went 25-8 in 2017-18, the Knights' 26 wins surpassed the previous program record of 24, set in 2022-23. In terms of winning percentage, FDU's 26-3 record yields a 89.7 percent win rate that is the second-best in 38 years of NEC women's basketball, behind Quinnipiac's .909 winning percentage (30-3 overall record) in 2012-13, and currently the 12th-best in the nation.
With one of the league's top posts anchoring the frontcourt in Defensive Player of the Year honoree Brown — and a deep rotation of guards and forwards who can consistently knock down the three — FDU has what it takes to hang a NEC Tournament championship banner in the rafters of Bogota Savings Bank Center for the first time in 33 years. After going nearly three decades without a NEC Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year honoree, FDU has had a stranglehold on the award as of late. Gaitley brings the honor to Hackensack for the third time in the past four years, following the footsteps of her predecessor Angelika Szumilo, who pocketed the award in back-to-back years (2021, 2022).
AWARD WINNER HIGHLIGHTS
New to the 2024-25 campaign, the NEC has shifted from three, five-member All-NEC teams to two squads — an All-NEC first and second team — that consist of six honorees apiece.
Of the 12 All-NEC honorees, all but two are upperclassmen while six are newcomers to the league.
Each of the NEC's nine member institutions placed at least one player on an All-NEC squad. Stonehill led the way with a league- and program-best three student-athletes earning All-NEC honors, while FDU followed with two selections.
The Skyhawks landed a program-record — and league-leading — two All-NEC first team members. FDU also had two all-stars take home first team distinction.
The 2024-25 All-NEC list features just two repeat honorees. FDU's
Teneisia Brown (Montego Bay, Jamaica/St. Andrew's (Merrimack)) maintained her All-NEC First Team status from a year ago, while Central Connecticut's
Belle Lanpher (Princeton, MA/Wachusett Regional), a two-time All-NEC second teamer in 2023 and 2024, made the jump to the first team this year.
For the second time in two years, a pair of rookies made the cut for All-NEC distinction as
Ava Renninger (Yardley, PA/Archbishop Wood) bestowed First Team distinction and Chicago State guard
Aiyanna Culver (Queens,NY/Christ the King) nabbed second team honors. It should be noted that that the number of all-stars recognized has been trimmed from 15 in previous years to 12 this season, making this an even more impressive feat.
FIRST TEAM HIGHLIGHTS
Major award winners
Teneisia Brown (Montego Bay, Jamaica/St. Andrew's (Merrimack)),
Belle Lanpher (Princeton, MA/Wachusett Regional),
Ava Renninger (Yardley, PA/Archbishop Wood) and
Kylie Swider (Portsmouth, RI/Tabor Academy (Villanova)) were joined on the All-NEC first team by Stonehill's
Sharn Hayward (Penguin, Tasmania/Marist College Regional) and Mercyhurst's
Bailey Kuhns (Mount Pleasant, PA/Greensburg Central Catholic).
Establishing herself as one of the conference's most dangerous three-point specialists in 2023-24, Hayward took her game to an even more elite level in 2024-25. Just four other bombers in the nation have more three-pointers than the Australian-born baller, and with one more make, she will become the first NEC baller in five years — since legends Jessica Kovatch (Saint Francis U – 124 three-point field goals) and Jade Johnson (St. Francis Brooklyn - 100) — to hit the century mark in triples in a single season. Hayward, a senior, torched the net for five-or-more long-range makes seven times, including a sizzling 9-of-12 performance in Stonehill's win over Saint Francis U on Jan. 4. She averaged 16.6 points in NEC play to rank third in the conference, while overall, she led the Skyhawks with 16.1 points per night, marking the best scoring clip by a Skyhawk since making the jump to Division I in 2022-23.
Kuhns made an incredibly seamless jump to the Division I level to become the first-ever Mercyhurst player to garner All-NEC distinction. A reliable interior scoring presence with a polished mid-range game, the Mount Pleasant, PA native proved right out of the gates that she can hang with the big dogs and did not shy away from big-time competition. Beginning her Division I career with a 20-point outing at power Notre Dame before netting 32 in an overtime battle with Cornell, Kuhns and her strength in the post made her a handful for NEC opponents to handle. The 23rd-best scorer in the nation eclipsed the 20-point plateau eight times during the league slate and averaged 20.0 points per contest throughout that 16-game stretch. Kuhns' overall 19.9 point-per-game average made her the NEC scoring champion of 2024-25.
SECOND TEAM HIGHLIGHTS
Just one of two rookies to ink their names on the list of NEC all-stars, Chicago State guard
Aiyanna Culver (Bronx, NY/Christ the King) was dazzling in her debut season in the conference. Bringing a solid outside game to the table for the Cougars, the human highlight reel shredded defenses with tough finishes through contact. Culver was a menace on defense too, as her 1.75 thefts per game were good for second in the conference. Culver led a talented NEC rookie class in scoring — and was fourth overall — with 14.4 points per game.
Wagner graduate student
Julia Fabozzi (Staten Island, NY/Xaverian (Providence)) takes home All-NEC distinction for the Seahawks for the first time in her career. Missing the majority of the 2023-24 campaign with an injury, the 6-1 guard and hometown favorite made not only a remarkable comeback, but a massive leap, this season. Fabozzi put up a career- and team high 15.9 points per game — a 13.6 point improvement from last season — and averaged 6.6 rebounds. She netted twin figures 11 times in conference play, including the NEC's first 40-point showing since 2017-18, and was third in the circuit in scoring on the season.
After transferring from Southern, LIU guard
Sirviva Legions (Brooklyn, NY/Mansfield Legacy (Southern)), who became a staple on the conference's weekly NEC9 highlight reel with her silky-smooth handle, crafty buckets off the dribble and stealthy mid-range game, wasted no time in establishing herself as the Sharks' primary scorer. The junior put up the fifth-most points in the conference (14.6 ppg) and rides the NEC's longest active double-digit scoring streak — a 20-game rally — into the postseason.
Another transfer that made an instant impact was Saint Francis U's
Natalie Johnson (Waldorf, MD/North Point (Robert Morris)). Arriving in Loretto by way of Robert Morris, the speedy and versatile guard often found herself with the rock in her hands in crunch time, and she did not disappoint the Red Flash faithful. The lone Saint Francis U player to put up double figures in scoring with 10.0 points per game, Johnson, who closed out the regular season with a 25-point game at Chicago State and a 20-point performance at Mercyhurst, has been instrumental in leading Saint Francis U to its most fruitful conference campaign since 2020-21. Her efficient 47.6 percent clip from the field on the year — including a 45.3 percent conversion rate from three — is tops among all NEC guards.
Haedyn Roberts (Holland Patent, NY/Holland Patent) became Le Moyne's third All-NEC selection, joining former teammates Lytoya Baker (first team) and Sydney Lusher (third team). The forward helped fill the scoring void left by the graduation of last year's all-stars with her strength in the post. Roberts also stretched the floor with a whopping 48 three-pointers, 25 of which came in conference play. The Empire State product doubled her scoring average from a year ago and finished among the league's top-15 with 11.9 per game.
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM HIGHLIGHTS
This season, the NEC unveiled its inaugural All-Defensive Team. Anchored by FDU's
Teneisia Brown (Montego Bay, Jamaica/St. Andrew's (Merrimack)), the NEC Defensive Player of the Year, a quintet of defensive standouts was bestowed with the honor. Joining Brown was fellow Knight
Abageal Babore (Merchantville, NJ/Paul VI (Eckerd) as well as Chicago State center
Josie Hill (Rapid City, SD/Central), Wagner rookie
Keana Foz (Mississauga, Ontario/Fort Erie International) and Central Connecticut grad student
Belle Lanpher (Princeton, MA/Wachusett Regional), the NEC Player of the Year.
Babore, a graduate guard, emerged as one of the league's top on-the-ball defenders for a FDU squad that limited conference foes to 50.3 points per game, a league-best mark. The Garden State native put opposing guards on lockdown daily, and as a result, the Knights conceded just 66 threes — 4.1 per game — during the 16-game conference slate.
Hill, Chicago State's all-time leading shot blocker, swatted her way to the top of the NEC statistics in her debut season in the conference. The 6-1 rim protector turned away 36 shots to lead the circuit.
The only player in the league to average two-or-more thefts per game (2.22), Foz had a knack for getting in the passing lanes with her off-the-ball speed. Her 60 swipes were 11 more than the next closest competitor as she topped the chart in steals in her debut season in Grymes Hill.
ALL-ROOKIE TEAM HIGHLIGHTS
Five different schools were represented on the NEC All-Rookie team. The guard-heavy squad, which was highlighted by NEC Rookie of the Year
Ava Renninger (Yardley, PA/Archbishop Wood), also included Le Moyne's
Eli Clark (Oakhurst, NJ/Ocean Township), Chicago State's
Aiyanna Culver (Queens, NY/Christ the King) and Saint Francis U's
Ineivi Plata (Yardley, PA/Archbishop Wood). Rounding out the five-player team was Stonehill center/forward
Megan Sias (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North).
Clark made defenses pay from deep. Knocking down more than half of her 38 triples against league opponents, the Oakhurst, NJ native averaged 8.5 points and 3.5 assists in her debut in The Heights.
As the season progressed, so did the play of Plata. The first-year guard from Yardley, PA crafted a career-best outing of 18 points and four thefts to give Saint Francis U some momentum heading into the NEC Tournament with a win at Mercyhurst last Thursday. Plata contributes 5.6 points per game to a well-balanced Red Flash offense, but in her past 11 contests, that number has ballooned to 8.5 points per night.
Sias stepped right into a prominent role in her first year at Stonehill. She provided a huge spark off the bench for the Skyhawks to the tune of 8.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. With exceptional footwork in the paint, Sias stretched defenses with her ability to knock down the occasional three. Efficiency has been the name of her game as of late, and with that has come a significant increase in playing time. In her past five outings, Sias averaged 13.8 points on impressive 57.4 percent shooting from the field.
2024-25 Northeast Conference Women's Basketball Award Winners
Player of the Year
Belle Lanpher CCSU G 5-5 Gr. Princeton, MA/Wachusett Regional
Rookie of the Year
Ava Renninger FDU G 5-6 Fr. Yardley, PA/Archbishop Wood
Defensive Player of the Year
Teneisia Brown FDU F/C 6-2 Gr. Montego Bay, Jamaica/St. Andrew's (Merrimack)
Most Improved Player
Brooke Paquette Stonehill G 5-8 So. Hudson, NH/Bishop Guertin
Newcomer of the Year
Kylie Swider Stonehill C 6-4 Gr. Portsmouth, RI/Tabor Academy (Villanova)
Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year
Stephanie Gaitley FDU