Chloe Hakimi makes history as first D-I women’s rookie of the year

Chloe Hakimi did more than have a standout first year at Carleton. She became the first rookie to win the division’s top player honor, and the way she did it left no wiggle room: 42 assists at the 2026 D-I Women’s National Championships, 53 goals, and a title run that ran straight through defending champion UBC.

By the end of the spring, Hakimi was no longer just a promising newcomer on Syzygy’s roster. Her role kept expanding until Northwest Challenge in Seattle on March 21-22, where Carleton beat UBC 15-14 in the quarterfinals on the way to the tournament title. That game was a useful preview of what was coming. Hakimi was already part of the quick-strike core with Naomi Fina and Eliza Barton, and by that point she looked less like a freshman easing into college ultimate than a player dictating how one of the best teams in the country wanted to attack.

The biggest stage only magnified it. At the 2026 D-I College Championships in Rockford, Illinois, Hakimi’s 42 assists set a new D-I women’s Nationals record, breaking Angela Zhu’s previous mark of 38. Zhu remains the career assists leader at Nationals with 100 across the 2015-2017 tournaments, which gives Hakimi’s single-weekend total its proper scale. This was not just a hot run through a bracket. It was record-setting volume from a first-year player on a championship team.

Carleton’s 15-13 win over UBC in the final on May 25 completed a full-circle turn from the 2025 title game, when the Thunderbirds edged Syzygy 14-13 on universe point. Hakimi was central to the rematch, putting up 4 goals and 6 assists in the final and touching nearly every decisive possession. Her 53 goals accounted for just over half of Syzygy’s scoring output at Nationals, a workload that would be extreme for a veteran star, let alone a rookie.

The vote behind her award was competitive enough to matter. Tufts’ Ellie Lemberg finished as first runner-up, and all-region honors spread across 80 players from the 10 D-I women’s regions. But Hakimi’s combination of throwing range, scoring load and poise in pressure moments separated her from the pack. She arrived with elite expectations from Roosevelt High School and spent the season outgrowing the usual freshman arc, moving from useful piece to offensive engine to the player carrying the title favorite across the line.

That is what makes this award bigger than a freshman breakthrough. Hakimi did not just break through early. She changed the standard for what immediate impact can look like in D-I women’s ultimate.