First, this Seton Hall women’s basketball trio was recognized among the best in the conference—and now they’re being honored among the best in the region.
On Tuesday, the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA), a group of sports writers and media professionals in the Metropolitan area, announced its 2026 Division I women’s basketball awards.
Among the honorees, junior guard Savannah Catalon was named to the All-Met First Team, graduate forward Mariana Valenzuela to the Second Team and Zahara Bishop the All-Met Division I Rookie of the Year.
As mentioned, this comes just a month after the trio received All-BIG EAST honors. Catalon and Valenzuela were both named unanimous selections to the All-Conference First Team, Catalan also named to the conference’s inaugural All-Defensive team, while Bishop earned All-Freshman honors.
Both Catalon and Valenzuela made significant leaps in their collegiate careers last season. In her third season at The Hall, Catalon set new single-season career highs in nearly every statistical category, including points, rebounds, assists, steals and field goal percentage.
Starting all 32 of The Hall’s games this season—even through a broken orbital bone later in the season—Catalon averaged 13.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.7 steals per game, on shooting splits of 39.5%, 33.1% and a conference-best 89.2% from the line.
In her first season at The Hall after transferring in from Florida State, Valenzuela also had a career-year. Like Catalon, Valenzuela started all 32 of the Pirates’ games last season, averaging 12.3 points and a team-best 7.2 rebounds per game on shooting splits of 46.2%, 37.7% and 62.5%. She collected four double-doubles on the season while also leading SHU in rebounding 18 times.
Rounding out the Pirates’ honors was Bishop, who gives the program its second-straight All-Met Rookie of the Year, joining the likes of sophomore guard Jada Eads. Interestingly, Bishop saw her role increase mid-season with the loss of Eads to an ACL injury—and she responded with a standout freshman season.
Starting 18 games but appearing in all 32, the Minneapolis native averaged 8.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. Named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week three times last season, Bishop produced a 21-point performance at DePaul on Jan. 17 and a 20-point performance at Marquette on Feb. 11.
Unfortunately for Pirate Nation, Bishop announced her plans to enter the transfer portal prior to its opening on April 6. Although there’s no guarantee she will depart from the program, retaining the incoming sophomore could be crucial to SHU’s future success, with Catalon entering her senior year, Valenzuela graduating and Eads likewise testing the portal waters.
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
