Colorado’s Simone Pierotti wins D-I women’s Breakout Player of the Year

Simone Pierotti turned Colorado’s semifinal against Carleton into a national calling card. She finished with three assists and four blocks in a 15-14 loss to the eventual champion, the kind of two-way line that made the Colorado center handler impossible to ignore as the postseason reached its peak.

That performance carried extra weight because Colorado entered the 2026 D-I College Championships as the No. 2 seed in the women’s bracket and had to navigate a deep field in Rockford, Illinois, from May 22-25. The Quandary run started with a 3-1 pool record, then a 15-11 quarterfinal win over Western Washington before the narrow semifinal loss to Carleton. Carleton went on to beat British Columbia 15-13 in the final and finish a perfect 37-0 season.

Ultiworld’s Breakout Player of the Year selection hinged on more than one weekend, but Nationals made the case impossible to miss. Its awards process weighs season-long performance, film and statistics, with extra emphasis on Nationals, and Pierotti arrived in Rockford as a player already flagged for a major leap. In the regional preview, Ultiworld had told readers, “don’t sleep on Pierotti,” a warning that looked sharper every round Colorado played.

The rise did not come out of nowhere. Pierotti had been a highly regarded youth player for years, including a spot on USA Ultimate’s 2024 U20 Women roster for Birmingham, United Kingdom. What changed in 2026 was the scale of her role and the consistency of her output. On a Colorado roster with plenty of star power, she stopped looking like a complementary piece and started looking like a center of gravity.

Ultiworld described her as a multifaceted center handler who can also work as a receiver and a deep defender, and that versatility showed in the points that defined Colorado’s season. She was on both sides of the disc against Carleton, helping keep the game within reach with throws, stops and the willingness to take on every phase of the point. In another postseason game, she added two goals and an assist while repeatedly winning space on upline and continuation cuts, a reminder that her game is as much about movement and decision-making as raw production.

That kind of value is exactly why Colorado’s strong season became a platform for Pierotti’s breakout. USA Ultimate’s final regular-season rankings also noted that Colorado was one of four schools ranked in the Division I top ten in both men’s and women’s divisions, a sign of how sturdy the program’s foundation was around her. By the end of Nationals, Pierotti was no longer a deep-cut coaches’ pick. She had become one of the division’s names to know, and Colorado’s future now runs through her.