CLEVELAND – The Mid-American Conference announced the All-MAC Teams and Specialty Award selections for the 2024-25 women’s basketball season today. All awards were voted on by the league's 12 head coaches, with coaches not being able to vote for their own student-athletes.
Ball State’s Ally Becki was named the Player of the Year, while Cardinals Head Coach Brady Salle earned Coach of the Year accolades for the first time in his career. Central Michigan’s Madi Morson was tabbed Freshman of the Year, while Ball State’s Marie Kiefer (Defensive Player of the Year) and Toledo’s Nan Garcia (Sixth Player of the Year) rounded out this year's specialty award selections.
Becki earns postseason accolades for the fourth straight year. Becki is known as the Cardinals’ play maker as the senior guard recently became the program’s all-time assists leader with 699. She also ranks first in the MAC this season in assists (194), assists per game (6.3), assist/turnover ratio (2.20) and field goal percentage (47.1). Becki currently ranks seventh nationally in assists (194) and assists per game (6.3).
Becki has earned MAC weekly honors three times this season and 10 times for her career. Becki is also the only player in program history to have scored 1,600+ points, pulled down 700+ rebounds and dished out 700+ assists. Becki has scored 1,624 points, totaled 716 rebounds and 699 assists so far for her career. Becki is also the lone DI player to have ever averaged at least 10 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists in every season since her freshman year since 2021-22. Becki is only the fifth player in the nation to have recorded a triple-double this season. The senior guard recorded her first triple double on Nov 13, 2024, against Memphis. That game, Becki scored 22 points, pulled down 10 rebounds while dishing out 10 assists. Becki’s triple double also marked the first from a Ball State women’s basketball player since at least 2010 when the NCAA started keeping the triple double stat.
This is the first time in Sallee’s 13-year tenure he has earned MAC Coach of the Year honors. Sallee guided the Cardinals to a 24-7 record this season and their first regular-season MAC title in 22 years with a 16-2 league mark. Sallee is the third winningest coach in MAC history with 159 victories. In 13 seasons, he has helped the Cardinals to the NCAA’s first-ever postseason Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), nine postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournaments (WNIT), a WNIT Final 16 appearance, a Mid-American Conference (MAC) West Division title (2014), 11 MAC Tournament appearances, and eight 20-plus win seasons —a feat no head coach at Ball State has done. Under Sallee, the Cardinals have now had 41 postseason All-MAC selections, two MAC Player of the Years, three Defensive Player of the Years, two Sixth Player of the Years and three MAC Freshman of the Years.
Madi Morson, Central Michigan's fifth MAC Freshman of the Year, has proven to be cut from a similar cloth as other Chippewa greats in her rookie season. She is on pace to set CMU's freshman record for total points, entering the MAC Tournament at 499 points on the season--including 10 20-point outings.
Morson 32-point breakthrough at Dayton (Dec. 15) is second all-time by a Chippewa freshman. She is one of just eight freshmen in NCAA I to score at least 32 points in a game this season. The performance stood as the highest-scoring game by a freshman in the nation from Dec. 15 until Jan. 2.
This is the second-straight season the Cardinals have earned the MAC Defensive Player of the Year honor. Kiefer, who leads the league in blocks (58) and blocks per game (1.87), was also named to the All-MAC Defensive squad for the first time in her career. Kiefer recently broke the Cardinals’ single-season record for most blocks (58). Kiefer is Ball State women’s basketball all-time blocks leader with 198 career blocks. She also ranks ninth-all-time in rebounds with 793. She has registered a block in every game but two this season and has tallied eight double-digit rebounding performances including a career best 16 rebound performances twice this season against Ohio (Jan. 29) and Central Michigan (Feb. 26).
Garcia earned her first career MAC postseason honor of her career. She is averaging 18.0 minutes per game, 8.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game as Toledo enters MAC Tournament play with a top-two seed for the fourth-consecutive season. Garcia scored in double figures 10 times, including in six of her last nine games down the stretch. She grabbed a season-high 11 rebounds in a notable early-season defensive effort at Navy on Nov. 30. She also scored a season-high 18 points and hit a career high eight field goals (8-of-14) at Bowling Green on Feb. 22 and finished the year with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double at Kent State.
2024-25 MAC Women’s Basketball All-MAC Teams & Specialty Award Winners
Coach of the Year: Brady Sallee, Ball State
Player of the Year: Ally Becki, Senior, Ball State, Guard
Defensive Player of the Year: Marie Kiefer, Senior, Ball State, Forward
Freshman of the Year: Madi Morson, Freshman, Central Michigan, Guard
Sixth Player of the Year: Nan Garcia, Graduate Student, Toledo, Guard/Forward
All-MAC First Team
Ally Becki, Senior, Ball State, Guard
Amy Velasco, Senior, Bowling Green, Guard
Chellia Watson, Redshirt Senior, Buffalo, Guard
Enjulina Gonzalez, Sophomore, Miami, Guard
Jenna Batsch, Senior, Kent State, Guard
All-MAC Second Team
Alex Richard, Senior, Ball State, Forward
Kirsten Lewis-Williams, Sophomore, Buffalo, Guard
Madi Morson, Freshman, Central Michigan, Guard
Sammi Mikonowicz, Graduate Student, Toledo, Guard/Forward
Sisi Eleko, Junior, Eastern Michigan, Forward
All-MAC Third Team
Chelby Koker, Graduate Student, Northern Illinois, Guard
Hannah Spitzley, Graduate Student, Western Michigan, Guard
Kennedi Watkins, Senior, Ohio, Guard
Lexi Fleming, Fifth-Year, Bowling Green, Guard
Shelbee Brown, Redshirt Senior, Akron, Forward
All-MAC Honorable Mention
Amber Tretter, Sophomore, Miami, Forward
Janae Tyler, Sophomore, Kent State, Forward
Kendall Carruthers, Sophomore, Toledo, Guard
Marina Asensio, Junior, Western Michigan, Guard
Paige Kohler, Sophomore, Bowling Green, Guard
MAC All-Freshman Team
Ayanna-Sarai Darrington, Freshman, Central Michigan, Forward
Faith Fedd-Robinson, Freshman, Toledo, Guard
Johnea Donahue, Freshman, Bowling Green, Guard
Lexi Carlsen, Freshman, Northern Illinois, Guard
Madi Morson, Freshman, Central Michigan, Guard
MAC All-Defensive Team
Ally Becki, Senior, Ball State, Guard,
Hannah Spitzley, Graduate Student, Western Michigan, Guard
Johnea Donahue, Freshman, Bowling Green, Guard
Lani Cornfield, Fifth-Year, Buffalo, Guard
Marie Kiefer, Senior, Ball State, Forward
