Big South Announces 2025 Women's Lacrosse Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Furman’s
Anna Roser (Easton, Md.) and Wofford’s
Bria Foley (Walpole, Mass.) have been voted the 2025 Big South Women’s Lacrosse Co-Offensive Player of the Year by the Conference’s head coaches, it was announced today by the league office. In addition, Furman’s
Paige Harman (Fairport, N.Y.) is the Midfielder of the Year, while Mercer’s
Abby Soltys (Gainesville, Va.) was selected the Defensive Player of the Year. High Point midfielder
Bella Germani (East Northport, N.Y.) was voted Newcomer of the Year, Furman attacker
Lily Toole (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) was tabbed Freshman of the Year, while Furman’s
Gail Wallach was voted Coach of the Year. The Big South’s sports information directors voted Soltys the Women’s Lacrosse Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
This is the first time with co-winners for the Big South Offensive Player of the Year award. Roser and Foley are the first from their respective programs to be voted Big South Offensive Player of the Year, as the two each finished with 16 total points and four first-place votes from the voting panel. Roser finished the regular-season with 89 points and 5.56 points per game, while leading the conference with 72 goals and 4.50 goals per game. She had five game-winning goals, 19 assists and 15 total hat tricks in the regular-season -- all coming in consecutive games following the season opener. Roser tallied at least five goals in a game five times, including a season-high seven goals twice. In eight Big South matches, Roser led the circuit with 37 goals (4.62 per game) along with 14 assists for 51 points (6.38 per game).
Foley capped the regular-season as the league’s co-leader in overall points with 93 (5.47 per game), and was second with 42 assists while ranking sixth with 51 goals. The lone Big South player this season with 50 goals and 40 assists, Foley was face-guarded in more than half of the Big South season and was marked by the opponent’s top defender. In conference action, she scored a team-high 25 goals in her eight appearances (3.12 per game), and dished out 22 assists (2.75) for a total of 47 points and a 5.88 points per game clip. Foley had 10 hat tricks during the regular-season, as well as seven games with at least seven points scored. Following Roser and Foley in the Offensive Player of the Year voting were High Point’s
Allie Connally (12 points, one first-place vote) and Mercer’s
Caroline Glus (eight points).
Harman is the first Furman student-athlete to win Midfielder of the Year honors in the award’s four years of existence. She finished the regular-season as the Big South leader in assists with 47 and 2.94 per game, and tied for the lead with 93 overall points. Her 5.81 points per game paced the conference, and she tallied two 10-point games in 2025 (11 vs. Presbyterian and 12 vs. Radford), while her 46 goals ranked eighth among the leaders. A three-time Big South Offensive Player of the Week honoree, Harman tallied 61 draw controls (3.81) during the regular-season -- including a season-high 11 against Presbyterian on April 16. In eight Big South contests, Harman led the way with 54 points, 6.75 points per game, 28 assists and 3.50 assists per game. She also scored 26 times against conference foes, including seven goals in Furman’s 18-17 overtime win over Mercer on April 23. In the voting, Harman received five first-place votes and 19 points, ahead of Germani (three first-place votes and 16 points) and Mercer’s
Ansley Walters (one first-place vote and 13 points).
Soltys is the second Mercer Bear in three seasons to be voted Big South Defensive Player of the Year. The team captain started 16 of 17 contests during the regular-season, and is a lock down defender who draws the opponent’s top attacker. Soltys totaled 29 ground balls and a team-high 23 caused turnovers in 2025, and also won six draw controls. She helped the Bears hold the opposition to a 11.07 goals against average. In Big South action, Soltys had 18 ground balls (2.25 per contest) and 13 caused turnovers (1.62), while part of a defense that permitted just 8.63 goals. Soltys received four first-place votes and 15 total points for the Defensive Player of the Year award, ahead of Wofford’s
Barrett Rowe (three first-place votes and 12 points), and High Point goalkeeper
Ava Welsh (10 points). Meanwhile, Soltys is a 4.00 graduate student working on her Master of Accounting after graduating in just three years with her bachelor’s degree in accounting. She is the second student-athlete in Big South history to be voted Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year in the same season.
Germani is the second Big South Women’s Lacrosse Newcomer of the Year, which was added in 2024 to recognize the top non-freshman transfer playing in the Big South for the first time. Starting in 15 of 16 appearances, Germani was among the top five in three categories: fifth in goals (31), fifth in ground balls (18), and third in caused turnovers (16). She had seven games where she had multiple goals plus ground balls and caused turnovers. Germani netted two or more goals nine times and had a career-high five at Longwood. She had two games with three ground balls and five with two, while having two or more caused turnovers in four games with a career-high three against Winthrop. Germani had seven perfect shot-on-goal performances and contributed to an offense that scored 20 or more goals in eight games -- seven being within conference play -- while helping the defense secure five scoreless quarters, featured by shutting out Gardner-Webb in the second half and blanking Virginia Tech in the third quarter. Germani earned 14 points and six first-place votes in the voting, ahead of Mercer’s
Sophia D’Angelo (two first-place votes and seven points), and Furman’s
Skylar Hilmer (one first-place vote and six points).
Toole is the first Paladin to be voted Big South Freshman of the Year. She was the Big South Freshman of the Week six times in 2025, including three-straight weeks to close out the regular-season, and also earned Offensive Player of the Week honors on April 8. Toole was the Big South’s second-leading overall goal scorer during the regular-season with 59 (3.69 per game), while her 77 total points ranked fourth (4.81 average). She was the league-leader with six game-winning goals -- including a league-best five against conference foes, and contributed 18 assists along with 18 ground balls. Toole was second with 33 goals during the Big South season (4.12 per match) and fourth with 46 points (5.75), and ranked among the leaders with 13 assists. She received all eight possible first-place votes and the maximum 24 points in the Freshman of the Year voting.
Wallach earned Big South Coach of the Year honors in her first season leading the Paladins, which included a share of the regular-season championship at 7-1, as well as a league-high 13 overall wins. Furman handed Mercer its first Big South loss since 2022 with an 18-17 overtime victory over the Bears on April 23, and the Paladins finished the regular-season second in goals with 266 and 16.62 per game. Furman dished out the most assists (133, 8.31 per game), averaged the second-most points at 24.94, led the Big South with 278 draw controls and 17.38 draw controls per game, tallied a league-best 52.9 shot percentage, had the third-fewest turnovers (14.06), and posted the Big South’s top goals against average at 10.82. In Big South matches, the Paladins had 82 assists (10.25), 152 goals scored (19.00), 234 points (29.25), 163 draw controls (20.38), and a 54.5 shot percentage. Wallach finished with six first-place votes and 20 points in the voting, ahead of Mercer’s
Samantha Eustace (one first-place votes and 11 points) and High Point’s
Lyndsey Boswell (10 points).
The Big South also announced the 2025 All-Conference and All-Academic teams Thursday, which are listed below. The All-Conference team is voted by the head coaches and features two teams of three attackers, three midfielders, three defenders, one goalkeeper and three at-large selections, plus five honorable mention honorees regardless of position. The All-Academic Team consists of one student-athlete from each institution that meets the criteria and is nominated and selected by the league’s sports information directors.
2025 BIG SOUTH WOMEN’S LACROSSE ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS
FIRST TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
ATT – Anna Roser, Furman
ATT – Bria Foley, Wofford
ATT – Allie Connally, High Point
MF – Paige Harman, Furman
MF – Ansley Walters, Mercer
MF – Sofija Buzelis, Furman
D – Abby Soltys, Mercer
D – Barrett Rowe, Wofford
D – Julia Dustin, High Point
GK – Ava Welsh, High Point
AL – Bella Germani, MF, High Point
AL – Caroline Glus, ATT, Mercer
AL – Avery West, D, Presbyterian
SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
ATT – Lily Toole, Furman
ATT – Scarlet Cifarelli, Winthrop
ATT – Esprit Cha, High Point
MF – Olivia Graebner, Wofford
MF – Willow Hammond, Presbyterian
MF – Emma Duchscherer, Gardner-Webb
D – Skylar Hilmer, Furman
D – Andrea Fisher, Furman
D – Haley Urban, High Point
GK – Emma Anderson, Gardner-Webb
AL – Shannon Smith, ATT, High Point
AL – Reese Dowgiallo, ATT, High Point
AL – Maddy Mayer, MF, Winthrop
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-CONFERENCE
Fiona Tanis, D, Mercer
Brooke Meltcher, D, Wofford
Mandy Brockamp, MF, High Point
Mady Cheney, MF, Radford
Lily Davis, D, Winthrop
ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM
Paige Harman, Furman
Reese Jones, Gardner-Webb
Tatum Mehring, High Point
Elena Firestone, Longwood
Abby Soltys, Mercer
MacKenzie Partsch, Presbyterian
Evie Gee, Radford
Tori Iannotti, Winthrop
Bria Foley, Wofford
CO-OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Anna Roser, Furman
Bria Foley, Wofford
MIDFIELDER OF THE YEAR
Paige Harman, Furman
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Abby Soltys, Mercer
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
Bella Germani, High Point
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Lily Toole, Furman
COACH OF THE YEAR
Gail Wallach, Furman
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Abby Soltys, Mercer