NEW YORK - Eight CUNY Athletic Conference female student-athletes have been nominated for the prestigious National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Woman of the Year honor.
Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their member school. Each conference office then reviews the nominations from its core member schools (and sponsored sports) and submits its conference nominee(s) to the NCAA. Then, in the Fall, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee identifies the top 30, 10 from each division, and from there selects three finalists from each division. The Committee on Women's Athletics then selects the winner from the nine finalists.
The 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the NCAA 2026 Convention in January.
The nominees
Mia Castillo, Baruch (women’s basketball)
An Accounting major with a minor in Communications and Data Analytics, Castillo is one of the most decorated players in CUNYAC women’s basketball history. A native of Pleasant Valley, N.Y., Castillo finished as the all-time leading scorer in conference history with 2,369 points. A two-time conference Player of the Year (2024, 2025) and the Rookie of the Year in 2023, Castillo was a four-time First Team All-Star.
Castillo served as the Vice President of the Baruch chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants, where she worked with Wells Fargo on a food drive for food insecure students on campus. She also served as a Peer Mentor with Success Amplified, giving a presentation to middle school students on the Lower East Side on the importance of attending college. Castillo was a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District selection and named to the CUNYAC Vice Chancellor’s Honor Roll.
Erin Cosio, Hunter (women’s basketball)
A Nursing major from East Brunswick, N.J., Cosio has been an integral part of the Hawks’ recent success on the hardwood. A career 1,000-point scorer, Cosio finished her career in the top-10 of several Hunter statistical categories all-time. She was also a two-time CUNYAC Second Team All-Star as a junior and senior, helping the Hawks to the conference regular season title and the league title game this past winter.
During her undergraduate career, Cosio worked at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell as a nurse companion, working 12-hour shifts providing one-on-one care to patients of all ages. She served as a peer mentor in the Hunter-Bellvue School of Nursing and was also secretary of the Hunter Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). Cosio was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau nursing honor society. This May she was the athletic department’s recipient of the Purple and Gold Award.
Ava Deguzman, Baruch (women’s tennis)
A Computer Information Systems (Data Analytics) major and a Communications minor, Deguzman was a four-time CUNYAC women’s tennis Player of the Year for the Bearcats as she led Baruch to four conference title match appearances in her four seasons, including titles in 2021 and 2023. The Long Beach, Calif. native finished as Baruch’s all-time singles and doubles wins leader.
The 2024-25 CUNYAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Deguzman earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-America honors as a junior and was Academic All-District as a senior. A member of the Vice Chancellor’s Honor Roll, Deguzman served as the Baruch FUSION Marketing Chair and also volunteered with the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in New York City. She also organized a free tennis clinic for students in the Gramercy area.
Kristin Gretener, John Jay (women’s volleyball)
Gretener, who hails from Chestermere, Alberta, graduated Summa Cum Laude from John Jay in Criminology this spring. She finished second in program history in career digs with 908 while this past fall helped the Bloodhounds to their first-ever CUNYAC women’s volleyball championship. The 2024 recipient of the CUNYAC Sportsmanship Award in women’s volleyball, Gretener was a two-time CSC Academic All-District selection as a junior and senior.
Away from the court, Gretener assisted with the planning and facilitation of two election processing events on the John Jay campus in the fall of 2024. She completed an internship with the New York Unified Court System Office for Justice Initiatives in the Division of Policy and Planning and also volunteered with a 9/11 flag planting on campus each year. She also worked with Connie’s Closet last year on an event to provide young New Yorkers with appropriate clothing for court appearances, job interviews, and other important life events.
Alicia Gumbs, York (women’s basketball/softball/women’s volleyball)
A women’s basketball player who also participated in three seasons of softball and two years of women’s volleyball during her career, Gumbs is a Movement Science major. The Queens native was a two-time Second Team All-Star performer for the Cardinals, earning the accolades as a junior and senior. Gumbs finished her career averaging 16.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.2 steals per contest.
Gumbs also finished her career as a two-time All-Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) Honorable Mention All-Met selection for Division III. She finished her career with 1,316 points, third in program history, and helped the Cardinals to conference semifinal appearances in 2022 and 2023.
Maryam Khan, York (women’s tennis)
Khan played three seasons with the Cardinal women’s tennis team, competing in 21 singles and doubles matches. The Jamaica resident and Nursing major was the 2024 recipient of the CUNYAC Sportsmanship Award for women’s tennis and was also a two-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Honoree. She was also a 2024-25 CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete honorable mention.
Away from tennis, Khan served as the President of the York Nursing Club and was also a volunteer for Career Services at York. She also worked as a volunteer with the Salvation Army and worked with Project Serve helping to coordinate and plan activities.
Bethany Tomaneng, Hunter (women’s volleyball)
A standout three-year performer for the Hawks women’s volleyball program, Tomaneng, a Pasychology major with a minor in Political Science, hails from San Diego, California. She earned First Team All-Star accolades in each of her three seasons and was the CUNYAC Rookie of the Year in 2022. During her career Hunter captured conference titles in 2022 and 2023. A CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Honorable Mention, Tomaneng was Hunter’s salutorian at graduation in May and the recipient of the female Golden Hawk award.
Tomaneng served as an intern with the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate implementing the program in K-12 schools. A teaching assistant in the Psychology department, Tomaneng, also served as a coach with Big City Volleyball and was a team captain and SAAC representative for the Hawks.
Ashley Zeolla, John Jay (women’s basketball)
A Criminal Justice major with a Criminology and English minor at John Jay, Zeolla starred for the Bloodhounds on the hardwood for four seasons. This past season, the Yorktown Heights, New York resident earned CUNYAC First Team All-Star honors and was also named to the ECAC Second Team. She helped John Jay to a pair of conference tournament finals during her career, and finished her career as the seventh-leading scorer in program history.
A CUNYAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honorable mention, Zeolla worked with the West Side Campaign Against Hunger as a volunteer, helping pack and distribute food to community members in need of assistance. She was also a member of the John Jay SAAC and worked as a Campus Security Assistant.
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