Balara, Brandon and Wasson Named to CSC Academic All-District® Women’s At-Large Team

CINCINNATI - Samantha Balara, Jada Brandon and Colby Wasson were named to the 2026 Academic All-District® Women's At-Large Team selected by College Sports Communicators on Tuesday.

Balara was named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team after leading the team in goals (25). The midfield ranked tied for first on the team in points with 32. She finished her career ranked second all-time at Xavier in goals (43).

Brandon played and started in 17 games last season. The goalkeeper posted a 11.07 goals against average and made 120 saves. She finished her career as the program's leader in career saves (229) and saves percentage (.411).

Wasson was named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team after totaling a team-high 45 ground balls and 29 caused turnovers. She ranked second in the BIG EAST in ground balls per game (2.65) and seventh in caused turnovers per game (1.71).

ABOUT CSC

The 2026 Academic All-District® Men's and Women's At-Large teams, selected by College Sports Communicators, recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances in competition and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes at-large honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

For more information about CSC Academic All-District® and Academic All-America® Teams program, visit AcademicAllAmerica.com.

AWARD CRITERIA

Academic standing:

Student-athletes must be at least a sophomore academically and athletically.
Nominee must be enrolled at their institution at the time of nomination as either an undergraduate or graduate student. Only the school at which an athlete competed in the current academic year can nominate that player.
Student-athletes who have graduated from their own institution during the current academic year and are not competing in athletics at another institution at the time of nomination are eligible.
Transfer student-athletes are immediately eligible. If your transfer student-athletes (undergraduates or graduates) are in their first semester at your institution, you must use their cumulative undergraduate GPA and cumulative graduate GPA (if grad GPA is applicable) from their former institution — which meets the 3.50 cumulative GPA — to be considered for Academic All-District/Academic All-America status. This would be the GPA or GPAs they used when gaining admittance to your institution. If your transfer student-athlete has a GPA at your institution, then you take the COMBINED cumulative GPA (from all institutions) and use that in your nomination process. (You cannot just select their GPA at your institution to date.)

Academic eligibility:

An undergraduate student-athlete must have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale).
A graduate student-athlete must have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) as both an undergraduate and a grad student unless they are in their first semester as a graduate student and don't have an established graduate GPA.
The cumulative grade point average may not be rounded up to 3.50.
First-semester transfers: See the information, above, for how to submit their GPA.

Athletic eligibility:

MEN'S & WOMEN'S LACROSSE
Eligible nominees must compete in 90 percent of the institution's games played OR must start in at least 66 percent of the institution's games.

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