Westfield, Mass. — Framingham State’s Faith Greene was named the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Year while Salem State’s Ernidia Goncalves repeats as Defensive Player of the Year and head up the 2025-26 All-Conference team, which is voted on by the coaches around the conference prior to the conference tournament.

 

Greene, a sophomore from Worcester, Mass., earns her second straight major award after being named the Rookie of the Year last season. Over the 2025-26 season, Greene averaged a conference-leading 16.5 points and 9.3 rebounds while collecting 25 steals, 23 assists and 16 blocks. She shot 45.1 percent from the field and 65.9 from the charity stripe. She was named New England Women’s Basketball Association Player of the Week (NEWBA) after averaging 26.5 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, 2.5 steals and two blocks per game while shooting 22-28 from the floor (57.9 percent) in a 2-0 week for the Rams. 

 

Repeating as Defensive Player of the Year is Ernidia Goncalves of Salem State. The senior forward from Everett, Mass. led the league in rebounding for the third straight year at 11.5 and 99 steals. She also tallied 203 defensive reobunds and 24 blocks while averaging 14.7 points per game. She sits in 14th nationally with 3.81 steals per game and 21st nationally with 16 double-doubles on the year. She was named MASCAC Player of the Week after averaging 19 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 1.5 assists with shooting 57.7 percent (15-26) from the floor in a 2-0 week for the Vikings.

 

Claiming the 2025-26 MASCAC Women’s Basketball Rookie of the Year is Emilie von der Linden of Bridgewater State. The freshman from Sanbornville, N.H. made a name for herself as part of the Regular Season Champion Bears. During her freshman season, she averaged 11 points and nine rebounds while leading the MASCAC in blocks with 70 and 2.59 per game which is 12th in Division III. Seven times this season von der Linden received MASCAC Rookie of the Week, including twice as NEWBA Rookie of the Week.

 

After guiding the Bears to the MASCAC Regular Season crown for the second straight season, Bridgett Casey of Bridgewater State repeats as the 2025-26 BSN Sports Coach of the Year as voted on by her peers. 

 

Joining Greene, Goncalves and von der Linden on the All-Conference First Team are Sophie Bradbury of Bridgewater State and Jacqueline Schels of Framingham State.

 

Landing a spot on the Second Team All-Conference are Arianna Gonzalez of Anna Maria, Haley Burchhardt of Bridgewater State, Tavi Williams of Westfield State and Hannah Lomonaco and Lena Waldron of Worcester State.