COLONIA, N.J. – The 2026 East Coast Conference Regular Season champion Mercy garnered a trio of major awards to headline ECC Women's Volleyball All-Conference honors, as voted on by the league's seven head coaches and announced on Thursday ahead of the start of the 2026 ECC Women's Volleyball Championship. Highlighting major award winners were a pair of unanimous winners in Mercy’s Grace Dilena which was voted as ECC Player of the Year and St. Thomas Aquinas’ Boglarka Kiss being chosen as ECC Defensive Player of the Year. Mercy star setter Adriana Rivera Rodriguez won her third straight ECC Setter of the Year, Daemen freshman Audrey Johnson earned ECC Rookie of the Year, and Mercy head coach Ana Todorovic repeated as the ECC Coach of the Year.
Regular Season Champion Mercy dominated ECC All-Conference selections with a conference-high four First Team choices and an ECC-most six honorees in total. Daemen and D’Youville were the next closest institutions, placing three athletes each on All-Conference teams. Molloy and St. Thomas Aquinas followed with two recipients, while Roberts Wesleyan added one All-Conference pick.
Dilena, the unanimous ECC Player of the Year, was the ECC leader in kills per set and points per set this season, averaging 4.18 kills and 4.77 points, marks that ranked 8th and 10th in NCAA Division II, respectively. She played in 82 sets for Mercy this fall, totaling 391.0 points, 343 kills, 39 service aces, and 10 assists, while recording a .365 hitting percentage offensively. Among ECC players, Dilena ranked second in total kills, total points, and hitting percentage, while ranking fifth in aces per set, and seventh in attacks per set and service aces. Defensively, she totaled 179 digs (2.18 per set) and 17 blocks (1 solo, 16 assisted). Dilena totaled double-digit kills in 18 out of 25 matches to lead the Mavericks, surpassing 20 kills four times in a season in which the Mavs played more than three sets just six times. In 2026, she was named ECC Player of the Week an ECC-most seven times.
Winning ECC Defensive Player of the Year unanimously, was Kiss of St. Thomas Aquinas. The senior libero led the conference in digs and digs per set (383, 4.30) during the 2026 slate. In 89 sets of play, Kiss added 109 assists, 29 service aces, 31.0 points, and a pair of kills. She recorded an ECC season-high of 29 digs against Pace on September 12 and the second-most digs in a contest with 28 versus Molloy on November 4, while surpassing double-digit digs in 20 matches. Kiss was named ECC Defensive Player of the Week on the final week of the regular season additionally.
A now three-time ECC Setter of the Year, Rivera Rodriguez ran away with an ECC-most nine Setter of the Week awards during the season. She topped the ECC in assists per set (9.92) and ranked second in total assists (764). The senior played in 77 out of 85 sets for Mercy this fall and added 51 kills and 32 service aces with 177 digs and 25.0 blocks. Against ECC competition, Rivera Rodriguez was at the top of the conference leaderboard in assists per set (9.26) and ranked second in total assists (361). Rivera Rodriguez totaled 30+ assists in 15 of 23 matches, she led the conference with 30 or more assists in 11 three-set matches, and her 53 assists against Monroe on September 3, was the second most by any ECC player this season in a match.
Daemen freshman, Johnson, took home ECC Rookie of the Year. An outside hitter, Johnson played in 89 sets as a rookie, producing an offensive statline of 256.5 points, 202 kills, 40 service aces, and nine assists. Her 40 aces and .45 aces per set average, ranked fifth and sixth in the ECC, respectively. On the defensive side, Johnson had 182 digs and 25.0 blocks (4 solo, 21 assisted). She was named ECC Rookie of the Week a conference-most, four times this year.
Todorovic earned back-to-back ECC Coach of the Year honors in a vote by her peers after leading Mercy to its second straight ECC Regular Season title and No. 1 seed in the ECC Championship for the second consecutive year. In her fifth year at the helm of the Mavericks, Todorovic led Mercy to a 24-1 overall record and a perfect 12-0 ECC mark, winning the program’s sixth regular season title and their most ECC and overall wins in a single season under her leadership. They became the first team to run the table in the ECC since Daemen in 2023. Todorovic’s Mavs spent the final four weeks of the season ranked first in the NCAA East Region, boasted the highest NPI out of all East Region schools at 21st nationally to conclude the regular season.
2026 ECC Women's Volleyball All-Conference First Team
Grace Dilena, Mercy
Mia Illes-Hair, Mercy
Boglarka Kiss, St. Thomas Aquinas
Adriana Rivera Rodriguez, Mercy
Stasa Stamenkovic, Mercy
Erin Stanley, Molloy
Cameron Ulinski, D'Youville
2026 ECC Women's Volleyball All-Conference Second Team
Ashley Ballou, D'Youville
Avery Craig, Daemen
Audrey Johnson, Daemen
Aleksandra Lucic, Mercy
Madeline O'Brien, D'Youville
Janneliz Rodriguez Fuentes, Mercy
Adriana Zarceno, St. Thomas Aquinas
2026 ECC Women's Volleyball All-Conference Honorable Mention
Jolie Faw, Daemen
Camryn Karelus, Roberts Wesleyan
Haven Trechter, Molloy
NOTE – 3 Honorable Mention selections due to tie in voting for final spot
Player of the Year: Grace Dilena, Mercy*
Defensive Player of the Year: Boglarka Kiss, St. Thomas Aquinas*
Setter of the Year: Adriana Rivera Rodriguez, Mercy
Rookie of the Year: Audrey Johnson, Daemen
Coach of the Year: Ana Todorovic, Mercy
*Denotes unanimous selection
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Founded as the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1989 and rechristened the East Coast Conference in July 2006, the ECC was formed to enhance intercollegiate athletic competition among member institutions and to assist them in integrating athletics into their academic program in a fiscally sound way. The ECC is committed to the highest standards of scholarship, sportsmanship, teamwork, and citizenship. Its mission is to promote the total person concept in its student-athletes, which stresses the abilities to excel in academic achievement, athletic competition, and positive character traits. East Coast Conference members include: Daemen University (Amherst, N.Y.); University of the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.); D'Youville University (Buffalo, N.Y.); Mercy University (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.); Molloy University (Rockville Centre, N.Y.); Queens College (Flushing, N.Y.); Roberts Wesleyan University (Rochester, N.Y.); College of Staten Island (Staten Island, N.Y.); and St. Thomas Aquinas College (Sparkill, N.Y.). The ECC also is home to 13 associate members in the sports of women’s bowling (3), men’s and women’s indoor track & field (3), men's volleyball (2), field hockey (1), and men’s lacrosse (1).
The ECC sponsors the following championship sports: baseball; men’s and women’s basketball; women's bowling; men’s and women’s cross country; field hockey; men’s and women’s lacrosse; men’s and women’s indoor track and field; men’s and women’s outdoor track and field; men’s and women’s soccer; softball; and men's and women’s volleyball.
The East Coast Conference is a proud member of the NCAA and Division II. Division II is a dynamic and engaging group of colleges, institutions and conferences of varying sizes and educational missions. Division II members encourage and support diversity; value sportsmanship, fairness and equity; and place the highest priority on the overall educational excellence of the student-athlete.