ATLANTA – Portland Pilots post Julia Dalan was one of 25 players named to the 2026 Naismith Women's College Defensive Player of the Year Watch List on Tuesday.
Awarded since 2018, the honor recognizes the best defensive player in college basketball and is presented by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Dalan becomes the second Pilot in three seasons to be named to the watch list, with Lucy Cochrane having made the list in 2024. Dalan is the only player in the country named to the list to come from a mid-major school and one of just four freshmen to make the list.
The freshman from Centralia has already cemented herself as one of the best defenders in the nation in her first year of collegiate action. She currently leads NCAA Division I in both total blocks (65) and blocks per game (3.42) in what is already one of the best defensive seasons in Pilot history. Her 65 blocks are the eighth most ever in a single season and the second most by a Pilot freshman, just one shy of the freshman record set by Rosemary Adams in the 1990-91 season.
Dalan leads a defense that currently ranks first in the WCC and fifth nationally in team blocks per game at 6.3 rejections a contest. Dalan, who is also averaging 7.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game and is the first Pilot freshman to record multiple double-doubles since Alex Fowler in the 2019-20 season, has the most blocks of any WCC freshman since Sara Hamson in the 2017-18 season. Dalan is the only player in the nation to have posted at least eight blocks in a game multiple times this season.
The Portland Pilots are 11-10 overall and 5-4 in WCC play as they return to the Chiles Center to host the Saint Mary's Gaels and the San Diego Toreros. They'll start with the Gaels on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 6 p.m. Check PortlandPilots.com for tickets, live stats, audio and video options.
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