NEW HAVEN, Conn. (October 16, 2026) – Lilian Bandel, a senior at Chestnut Hill College, is the winner of the 2026 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Women's Tennis Championship Scholar Award, CACC Commissioner Dan Mara announced today.
The CACC Championship Scholar Award (formerly Top XVI Award) is presented in each of the conference's NCAA championship sports to the student-athlete at the finals site with the highest cumulative undergraduate grade-point average and at least 48 credits earned at his/her current institution. The student-athlete must be a member of the active roster and be competing at the finals site.
Bandel is the second Chestnut Hill women's tennis player to earn the conference's top academic honor, joining Nele Haag who won the honor twice back in 2022 and 2023 when it was called the Top XVI Award.
The senior athlete maintains a 3.93 GPA at Chestnut Hill while majoring in business administration & management and sporting minors in marketing and media and communications. She was also named to the All-CACC Second Team for the third consecutive year and the 2026 All-CACC Sportsmanship Team.
Bandel is also the 14th CHC student athlete in the ten-year history of the award to earn the CACC's top academic honor joining Joao Sousa (2023, 2024 – men's tennis); Eryn Moore ( 2022-23; 2023-24 – bowling); Nele Haag (2022, 2023 - women's tennis); Jason Fisher (2023- Men's Cross Country); P.J. Spernal (2021- men's lacrosse); Ben Revak (2020 – men's lacrosse); Kai Adler (2020 – men's tennis); Haley Novello (2020 - women's lacrosse); Jesus Darias (2019 - men's tennis); Hunter Leckonby (2016 & 2018 – women's lacrosse); Kaitlin Iavecchia (2017 - women's lacrosse); Joseph Monahan (2017 - baseball) and Emmanuel Egbosimbah (2015 – men's soccer)
The Chestnut Hill Women's Tennis team has qualified for the CACC Tournament Championship for the eighth consecutive season. The team has reached the championship match twice in that time span, most recently in 2024 and also during the 2020-21 season. The Griffins will open up tournament play against #1 seed Queens College on Saturday, October 17 at the Delcastle Tennis Center in Wilmington, Delaware. First serve is at 11:00 a.m.
