Six Named to CSC Academic All-District Women’s At-Large Teams

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Six Union College student-athletes spanning four sports were recognized for their work in competition and in the classroom with spots on the 2025 CSC Academic All-District Women’s At-Large Team, selected by College Sports Communicators and announced on Tuesday.

Seniors Maren Friday and Emma Hebert of the women’s hockey team were named to the Division I At-Large Team, while seniors Liz Bentsianov (women’s golf) and Julia Cole (women’s crew) as well as women’s lacrosse sophomores Gillian Joseph and Anna Dembowski all received Division III At-Large honors. Additionally, Bentsianov, Friday and Joseph were selected as CSC Academic All-America finalists and will advance to the national ballot, the results of which will be announced next month.

 

Unlike most sport-specific categories, the At-Large program is arguably the most competitive Academic All-District program, encompassing 12 different women’s sports: beach volleyball, bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing and water polo.

 

To be nominated for College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) Academic All-District honors, student-athletes must reach a minimum participation threshold (varies by sport), maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher, and reach sophomore athletic and academic standing at the school.

 

Friday earned Academic All-District honors for the third straight year. The 2025 Mandi Schwartz ECAC Hockey Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Friday broke career records for goals and points by a Union blueliner as a senior and finished her senior season with six goals and 13 assists for 19 points while also leading the team in blocked shots. The mechanical engineering major was recognized with Union’s Stephen Ritterbush ’68 Award and Award for Academic Excellence.

 

Friday was joined on the team as she is on the Union blue line by fellow co-captain Hebert, who is recognized for the first time. On the ice, the senior played in all 140 games of her four-year career, setting new program standards in games played and consecutive games played. Off the ice, the economics major was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa this spring.

 

Bentsianov is a three-time honoree as well after another excellent season with the women’s golf team. A biology and anthropology double major in the Leadership in Medicine program, Bentsianov swept Union’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards for her class over her four years and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a senior. The first three-time All-Conference honoree in program history, she is Union’s all-time leader in career scoring average (81.93 strokes per round) and holds four of the program’s five lowest single-season scoring averages.

 

Cole is a first-time honoree after earning a second All-Liberty League selection with a spot on the first team in 2024-25. The senior was one of two Garnet Chargers to race in a varsity boat in all nine competitions this season, including six races in the six-seat of the varsity 8+ boat and three races in the varsity 4+ boat. The biology major finished her collegiate career by taking third place in the varsity 4+ boat at the Dad Vail Regatta.

 

Joseph and Dembowski both are honored for the first time after excellent seasons on the lacrosse field. Joseph, a neuroscience major, earned IWLCA All-Region and All-Liberty League first-team honors after leading Union with 46 goals and 28 assists for 74 points as a sophomore, ranking second in the conference in points per game and third in assists per game. Dembowski earned All-Liberty League second-team laurels on defense after the political science major ranked third in the conference with a team-leading 54 ground balls and 25 caused turnovers.

With the six honorees, Union student-athletes have now earned 259 Academic All-District honors since 2001.