Asiah Dingle Named A-10 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, DeWolfe and Downey Earn Year-End Awards

League Release

Newport News, Va. – The Atlantic 10 announced its year-end women's basketball awards on Tuesday afternoon and Fordham was well-represented, led by Asiah Dingle being named Co-Defensive Player of the Year, the second Ram to earn the honor. Dingle was also named to the All-Conference First Team and All-Defensive Team. Anna DeWolfe was selected to her third consecutive First Team, as was Kaitlyn Downey to the All-Academic team.
 
Dingle has continued to produce one of the program's finest two-way seasons, leading the league in scoring and steals and recently breaking Fordham's long-standing single-season record for steals, now up to 101, usurping Mary Hayes' record of 100 set in 1977-78. The fifth-year guard's 3.5 per-game average will also shatter Hayes' mark set the following season, and she is already 10^th in program history with 167 steals through just 58 games, giving her a new program-record average of 2.9 for her Rams career. Nationally fourth in total thefts and steals per game, Dingle has 16 games this season of four or more steals and has at least two in all but four, including a 10-steal game, a new school record by two, and an eight-steal game.
 
A Third Team selection last year, the Boston native's 19.1 points per game also lead the conference and she also is tops on the team with 94 assists and free throws. Division I's career active steals leader by a whopping 28, she is now the second Ram to win the Defensive Player of the Year award, after G'mrice Davis in 2018, and now stands at 2,001 career points, just 20 points shy of 1,000 with the Rams.
 
DeWolfe becomes the first Ram in the Atlantic 10 era to receive three First Team nods, joining Sharon Nast, who received three straight MAAC First Team honors from 1984-86. The senior is second in the league with 18.4 points per game, ranked 32^nd nationally. Also among her Division I compatriots, she is 15^th in field goals, 30^th in threes, and 35^th in minutes per game. She's scored in double figures in all but two contests this year, with 11 games of 20 or more, including a season-high 33 at UMass. She has ascended to third in program history in points (1,830), second in threes (234), third in field goals (717), fourth in minutes (3,977), fifth in scoring (16.9), eighth in free-throw percentage (.835), and eighth in starts (108). This year, her 75 treys are fifth-most and her 209 field goals are 10^th.
 
Already the first Ram to earn multiple All-Academic honors, Downey makes it three straight this year. Getting her Master's degree in Global Finance with a 3.86 GPA, the graduate student has started all 29 games this year and leads the team with 8.0 rebounds and 25 blocks, and is third in points (10.6) and steals (36). A one-time A-10 Player of the Week this season, she has a 1.4 assist/turnover ratio, as well, and is shooting 33.7% from distance and 88.2% from the line on 34 attempts with nine double-doubles. Downey set the program record in career starts, now up to 136, and is third with 142 games played, just four shy of Denise Hammersley's record set in 1995. The Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. native is also 13^th with 1,261 career points, fifth with 217 threes, fifth with 891 rebounds, and 10^th with 91 blocks.
 
DeWolfe and Dingle become just the second Fordham duo to garner First Team All-Conference accolades in the same year, joining Bre Cavanaugh and Mary Goulding in 2019.
 
This trio and the rest of the Rams await the winner of #5 Richmond and either #12 Dayton or #13 VCU in Friday's quarterfinal match-up, slated for 1:30 p.m. on ESPN+ and WFUV.