The HoriZone Roundtable Post-Season All-#HLWBB Teams and Awards – 2025-26

The 110 games of the 2025-26 Horizon League regular season represented one of the more captivating journeys in recent conference history, as the HL evolved from a rather top-heavy circuit into one with loads of competitive balance.

Though that process was superficially familiar in some ways, including Green Bay’s 24th HL regular season title, it was also dotted with plenty of surprises. Youngstown State regained its status as one of the league’s powerhouses, thanks to a young core that has grown up in lockstep with its program. Cleveland State and Purdue Fort Wayne overcame staggering amounts of roster turnover to also remain among the conference’s best squads. Northern Kentucky rode a pair of star freshmen to close calls against the likes of Louisville and Ohio State, then to a fourth-place finish in the HL standings. Robert Morris, no longer an upstart in Chandler McCabe’s second season, proved that it has staying power. Even building teams like Oakland and IU Indianapolis offered plenty of evidence that they might join the list of contenders sooner, rather than later.

Ultimately, most of that is the result of the immense individual talent in the conference, distributed perhaps more evenly than at any point in the past. So without further delay, here are our choices for the Horizon League’s postseason awards.

All-League Honors

Player of the Year

Izabella Zingaro (Cleveland State)

Far beyond the fact that Zingaro led the Horizon League in scoring (18.5 points per conference game) and placed third in rebounding (8.1 per game), the former Iowa State and Montana center was a peerless focus in opposing gameplans. Even with a former HL Player of the Year, Colbi Maples, on the Cleveland State roster, teams facing the Vikings universally treated cutting off Zingaro’s supply lines as their key to victory. It rarely worked. Between January 28th and February 14th, Zingaro logged double-doubles in six straight games, a streak that featured dominant performances against most of the best teams in the conference, including Green Bay, Purdue Fort Wayne, Northern Kentucky, and Robert Morris. Not coincidentally, that tear coincided with CSU’s rise up the standings, from a team in danger of going on the road for the Horizon League tournament to third place.

Coach of the Year

Melissa Jackson (Youngstown State)

Jackson’s two seasons in the Mahoning Valley have been a masterclass in program building. Despite arriving on the heels of a chaotic situation, she managed to immediately land the conference’s best freshman class – including the likes of Sophia Gregory, Sarah Baker, Danielle Cameron, and Erica King – while also securing the buy-in of veteran holdovers like Malia Magestro and Haley Thierry. Those steps led to a productive foundation year, but the Penguins found another gear in 2025-26, ending with a surprising second-place finish. Her developing (and, crucially, retained) young core blossomed into stardom, and was augmented perfectly by savvy transfer additions like Casey Santoro and Paulina Hernandez. With as good of a chance as anyone to win the upcoming HL tournament, and with another strong rookie class on the way, the sky is the limit for YSU right now.

Newcomer of the Year

Alana Nelson (Purdue Fort Wayne)

The Newcomer of the Year award has become something of a consolation prize for Player of the Year finalists, provided they’re new to the conference. However, that’s not entirely fair to Nelson, an elite scorer who was one of a handful of reasons why Purdue Fort Wayne managed to stay in contention despite massive graduation losses. The former NAIA All-American at Spring Arbor was one of the Horizon League’s best three-point shooters, canning 2.2 bombs per game at 36.1 percent accuracy in conference play, numbers that included back-to-back games with five triples in early February. Nelson was far more than a deep-ball specialist though, given that she also shot 6.3 two-pointers per conference game, and made 62.4 percent of those, contributing to her league-best 1.1 points per play. She would probably be worthy of this honor just on her offensive numbers, though chipping in 5.4 rebounds per game certainly doesn’t hurt her case.

Sixth Player of the Year

Paulina Hernandez (Youngstown State)

It’s almost unheard of for a bench player to place among the national statistical leaders in anything, but that’s exactly what Hernandez accomplished by averaging 1.8 blocked shots per game, good enough to rank among NCAA Division I’s top 30. Sitting behind an elite player like Gregory can be a pretty thankless task, but Hernandez took full advantage of her opportunities, not only with her disruptive length, but through a series of important offensive performances. None were more significant than her career-high 18 points in a win at Cleveland State, her former team, on December 29th, though the Milwaukee-area native also collected her first double-double a couple weeks later, at Wright State. In 16.7 minutes per game during the Horizon League schedule, Hernandez managed 7.8 points per game, including double digits in four of her seven most recent outings.

All-League First Team

Player	Team
Izabella Zingaro	Cleveland State
Jenna Guyer	Green Bay
Colbi Maples	Cleveland State
Alana Nelson	Purdue Fort Wayne
Maddy Skorupski	Green Bay

All-League Second Team

Player	Team
Makenzie Luehring	Oakland
Sophia Gregory	Youngstown State
Karina Bystry	Northern Kentucky
Casey Santoro	Youngstown State
Jorey Buwalda	Milwaukee

All-League Third Team

Player	Team
Myriam Traore	Robert Morris
Breezie Williams	Wright State
Sarah Baker	Youngstown State
Jasmine Edwards	Detroit Mercy
Aislin Malcolm	Robert Morris

Defensive Honors

Defensive Player of the Year

Sophia Gregory (Youngstown State)

Gregory, quite simply, is the primary catalyst for most of what Youngstown State does well. She won the Horizon League’s Freshman of the Year award in 2024-25, then took things to another level as a sophomore, to the point where the Alliance, OH native might be the most well-rounded star in the conference. Her signature performance came in a win over Purdue Fort Wayne on February 21st, a 37-point, 19-rebound effort that easily rates as the best single game by any HL player this season. Thanks largely to Gregory’s work that night, she ended up as the conference’s top rebounder, with 9.2 boards per game. She also led the league in individual defensive rating and placed second in blocks, with 1.2 per league outing.

All-Defensive Team

Player	Team
Sophia Gregory	Youngstown State
Jada Leonard	Cleveland State
Jordan Reid	Purdue Fort Wayne
Jenna Guyer	Green Bay
Maddy Skorupski	Green Bay

Freshman Honors

Freshman of the Year

Makenzie Luehring (Oakland)

Luehring emerged on top of the Horizon League’s deepest rookie crop in years through her performance down the stretch run, which included a pair of 30-point efforts over the final month of the season, versus Detroit Mercy and Robert Morris. Overall, her 18.2 points per conference game ranked second in the league among all players, and she was a major factor behind Oakland’s surprisingly-solid first season under Keisha Newell. Though most might think of the Wisconsinite as a pure scorer, she was truly a dynamic perimeter talent; her 4.1 assists per game ranked third in the HL, and her 1.8 steals were sixth. Provided that the Golden Grizzlies are able to keep Luehring around through what’s sure to be a stressful transfer portal window, she could prove a foundational piece for an ascendant program.

All-Freshman Team

Player	Team
Makenzie Luehring	Oakland
Karina Bystry	Northern Kentucky
Sarah Baker	Youngstown State
Maddie Moody	Northern Kentucky
Danielle Cameron	Youngstown State