By: Chuck Stogel, MBWA, 914-428-6111, chstogel@aol.com
NEW YORK (April 21, 2026) – Riley Weiss of Columbia University was named the All-Met Division I women’s college basketball Player of the Year for 2025-26 as announced Tuesday by the Met Basketball Writers Association.
Stephanie Gaitley of Fairleigh Dickinson University was selected the Maggie Dixon Met Coach of the Year for the fourth time in her career, with the three previous awards coming during her tenure ar Fordham (2013, 2018, 2019).
Zahara Bishop of Seton Hall was named the Rookie of the Year.
The All-Met First Team: Savannah Catalon, Seton Hall; Kaety L’Amoreaux, Fairfield; Ava Renninger; Madison St. Rose, Princeton; Kadidia Toure, LIU;
and Weiss.
The All-Met Second Team: Meghan Andersen, Fairfield; Brooke Moore, St. John’s; Perri Page, Columbia; Kya Smith, Army West Point; Mariana Valenzuela, Seton Hall.
The All-Met Third Team: Gigi Gamble, Monmouth; De’Naya Rippey, Saint Peter’s; Fadima Tall, Princeton; Zoey Ward, Iona; Sa’Mya Wyatt, St. John’s.
All-Met Honorable Mention: Skye Belker, Princeton; Isabellah Middleton, Iona; Amelia Wood, Sacred Heart.
Being named All-Met is a unique honor in that there are 21 colleges and universities and more than 300 women’s players under the MBWA Division I umbrella.
The 2025-26 All-Met teams will be honored at the 93rd MBWA Haggerty Awards dinner on Thursday, April 23, at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel & Conference Center in Tarrytown, NY. The Haggerty dinner, which also will be Livestreamed is the longest running, media-managed college basketball awards program in the United States.
A 5-10 junior guard from Hewlett, NY, Weiss --- who also was named Ivy League player of the year --- helped the Lions (25-8, 11-3) finish second in the league’s regular season before moving on to sweep five postseason games in annexing the WBIT tournament title.Weiss set a school record in scoring 662 points this past season (No. 1 Ivy, No. 23 NCAA) for a 20.1 points per game average (No. 1 Ivy, No. 18 NCAA). In the WBIT event, she averaged 21.0 points with 20 or more in each of the five games and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
Leading the Ivy League with 93 made 3-point goals and a 37.8% accuracy from beyond the arc, Weiss shot 43.2% overall from the floor and 83.0% at the free throw line, while posting 70 assists and 57 steals. She registered a single-game school record 40 points against Dartmouth and twice equaled the school mark with nine 3-pointers in a game.
An All-Met First Team designee in 2025, Weiss was named an Associated Press All-America Honorable Mention for this past season, the third Lion to achieve AP A-A status following Judie Lomax (2010) and two-time All-American Abbey Hsu (2023, 2024). This is the third time a Columbia player has been selected as Division I Player of the Year since the MBWA began women’s awards in 1996, following Camille Zimmerman (2017) and Hsu (2024).
Weiss now has scored 1,429 points in her three seasons at Columbia.
This is the fourth time Stephanie Gaitley --- who also was named the NEC coach of the year --- has been selected as the MBWA Maggie Dixon Coach of the Year.
This past year, in her third season at FDU and with only one returning starter, Gaitley guided the Knights (30-5,18-0) to an NEC record equaling number of victories in a season along with a second straight undefeated regular season crown, a second consecutive conference tournament title and the second NCAA Tournament appearance in women’s school history. The 30 wins also were the most in single season program annals. FDU, with the No. 2 scoring defense in the nation, was one of only three women’s teams to complete undefeated conference slates (UConn, UCLA) and the only Division I team alongside UConn to achieve the feat in back-to-back fashion.
A native of Ocean City, NJ, with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Villanova, Gaitley now has a career head coaching record of 727-414 (.637 W-L pct) across 39 seasons, all at the Division I level. In addition to FDU and Fordham, she also has coached at Richmond, St. Joseph’s, Monmouth and LIU Brooklyn. The fifth winningest coach in the active ranks and 15th all-time among NCAA coaches, her teams have earned 21 postseason bids, including 11 trips to the NCAA Tournament. 
A 6-0 freshman guard/forward from Minneapolis, MN, Zahara Bishop provided the Pirates (19-13, 12-8) with their second consecutive Rookie of the Year (Jada Eads, 2025) and second overall since the MBWA initiated the rookie accolade in 2012. It also is the third straight year a Seton Hall player has been named to the Big East All-Freshman team. Bishop helped propel the Pirates to the postseason WBIT by averaging 8.4 points and 3.4 rebounds per game, playing in all 32 Seton Hall contests with 18 starts. She shot 36.1% from the field and 80.2% at the free throw line, and canned a career high 21 points at DePaul in January.
The Haggerty Awards dinner on Thursday is to be Livestreamed via the MBWA website. Here is the link: https://metbasketballwriters.org/2026haggertylivestream
For a list of previous Women's Division I Awards:
Players of the Year - Coaches of the Year - Rookies of the Year
SUMMARY
NEW YORK (April 21, 2026) – The 2025-26 All-Met Division I women’s college basketball team announced Tuesday by the Met Basketball Writers Association.
FIRST TEAM
Savannah Catalon, Seton Hall • 5-8, Jr., G, Mansfield, TX
Kaety L’Amoreaux, Fairfield • 5-6, Jr., G, Endwell, NY
Ava Renninger, FDU • 5-6, Jr., G, Yardley, PA
Madison St. Rose, Princeton • 5-10, Sr., G, Old Bridge, NJ
Kadidia Toure, LIU • 6-3, Sr., F, Silver Spring, MD
Riley Weiss, Columbia • 5-10, Jr., G, Hewlett, NY
SECOND TEAM
Meghan Andersen, Fairfield • 6-1, Jr., F, Wantagh, NY 
Brooke Moore, St. John’s • 6-0, Jr., G, Kennesaw, GA
Perri Page, Columbia • 5-11, Sr., G, Pittsburgh, PA
Kya Smith, Army West Point • 6-1, Jr., F, Lubbock, TX
Mariana Valenzuela, Seton Hall • 6-2, Sr., F, Mazatlan, Mexico
THIRD TEAM
Gigi Gamble, Monmouth • 5-5, Jr., G, Somerset, NJ
De’Naya Rippey, Saint Peter’s • 5-10, So., F, Brooklyn, NY
Fadima Tall, Princeton • 6-1, Jr., G, Silver Spring, MD
Zoey Ward, Iona • 6-0, Jr., F, Gastonia, NC
Sa’Mya Wyatt, St. John’s • 5-11, So., F, Powder Springs, GA
HONORABLE MENTION
Skye Belker, Princeton; Isabellah Middleton, Iona; Amelia Wood, Sacred Heart
Player of the Year: Riley Weiss, Columbia
Maggie Dixon Coach of the Year: Stephanie Gaitley, FDU
Rookie of the Year: Zahara Bishop, Seton Hall
--- www.metbasketballwriters.org ----