Nima Lhamo wins D-I men’s defensive player of the year for UMass

Nima Lhamo’s case was built on the kind of defense that changes a tournament, not just a box score. The UMass senior spent the season hunting the hardest assignments in the backfield, then put his stamp on the biggest points of the spring as Massachusetts Zoodisc completed its climb to the D-I men’s title.

Ultiworld named Lhamo its 2026 D-I men’s Defensive Player of the Year, a nod that fit the way UMass won the championship game and the way it survived the bracket. The fifth-seeded Minutemen rolled through the 2026 D-I College Championships at Mercyhealth Sportscore Two in Loves Park, Illinois, without allowing more than 10 goals in any postseason game before the final, then beat Carleton 15-11 on May 25. That title was Massachusetts’ second in program history and its first since 1986, ending a 40-year wait with defense at the center of everything.

Lhamo was not just stopping cutters on the edge. He was the player UMass trusted in the opponent’s backfield, where he could disrupt initiation, squeeze reset windows and make elite handlers work for every continuation. In a tournament where offensive stars usually dominate the conversation, Lhamo’s value came from erasing clean looks before they ever formed. He played every key defensive point for UMass during the run, and the team’s ceiling rose with him on the field.

The semifinal against Oregon made that hard to miss. Lhamo delivered a layout block on Oregon’s end zone, one of the plays that helped UMass keep control in a complete win. He was part of a defensive core that also featured Jonah Stang-Osborne, Gavin Abrahamsson, Sam McCrory and Tomo Liou, all of whom helped stifle every opponent UMass saw in Nationals.

The championship itself turned on a second-half defensive surge. UMass poured on five breaks after halftime, including three straight, to flip a 9-9 game into a 12-9 lead and eventually pull away from Carleton. That was the same Carleton team that entered as the defending champion and had already beaten Colorado in the semifinal, but UMass’s pressure never let it settle into rhythm.

The award process weighs film, statistics and conversations around the division, with Nationals carrying heavy weight, and Lhamo’s run made the verdict feel obvious. Massachusetts has history, from finishing 3rd, 2nd and 1st in its first three championship appearances to disappearing from Nationals for 26 years before reemerging in 2014. Lhamo’s season gave that history a new chapter, one built on the old truth that title teams usually need at least one defender who can break an offense before it ever starts.