SUNY Dellhi athletics photo

The State University of New York Athletic Conference will expand to a dozen full-time members with the addition of three schools in 2026-27, the conference announced on Thursday, June 5. It's the second time the conference has added full members since Brockport and Geneseo announced in August 2023 that they were leaving for the Empire 8.

Alfred State, SUNY Cobleskill and SUNY Delhi will join the SUNYAC as full-member institutions beginning in the fall of 2026. All three institutions are associate members in track and field with Cobleskill and Delhi participating as associates in cross country this coming fall for the first time.

• More moves in Conference Shuffle

"The unprecedented growth by the SUNYAC over the last 21 months firmly entrenches the conference as a destination for NCAA Division III student-athletes," Alberto Cardelle, the president of SUNY Oneonta, chair of the SUNYAC Presidents Council, and a member of the NCAA Division III Presidents Council, stated. "The SUNYAC student-athlete experience combines challenging intercollegiate competition in 22 sports with an array of academic opportunities aligned with the careers of the future."

"This addition of Alfred State, SUNY Cobleskill and SUNY Delhi as full member institutions will register as a pivotal moment in the history of the SUNYAC," Commissioner Tom DiCamillo said. "In the proverbial shifting sands of today's world of intercollegiate athletics, the SUNYAC is stable, powerful and has positioned itself as an NCAA Division III leader for the foreseeable future."

Alfred State comes from the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, where it has been a member since 2019-20. ASC has been a four-year school for a little more than a decade.

SUNY Delhi and SUNY Cobleskill have each been members of the North Atlantic Conference since 2020-21, and have been part of the conference's western division. The NAC, which had 14 programs participating in 2023-24, has quickly dwindled to eight, as all five SUNY schools have left or are leaving to join the SUNYAC and Eastern Nazarene closed. Canton and Morrisville joined the conference in all sports this past season.

The loss of Alfred State leaves the AMCC with eight full members.

The SUNYAC is in the process of reimagining championships and league schedules to adapt to the expanding conference membership. Alfred State adds to the conference's western flank, while Delhi and Cobleskill are 300-plus miles from Fredonia, the westernmost school in the conference.

The conference also added a number of associate members. Entering the 2026-27 season, the SUNYAC is expecting to offer 22 championships, increase its full membership to 12, and boast 13 associate members for a total of 25 institutions being members of the SUNYAC. In addition, Cobleskill will add field hockey and help the conference retain its automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in that sport, while Delhi solidifies the automatic qualifier for the SUNYAC in women's tennis.

Trine athletics photo

Trine defeated Virginia Wesleyan to secure the 2025 NCAA Division III Softball championship, the second national title in program history, both of them in the past three seasons. The Thunder led the series, one game to nothing, but trailed entering the top of the sixth in Game 2, before Emma Lee played hero with a three-run home run that secured the 3-1 victory.

"It was a great game," said head coach Donnie Danklefsen, "We knew it was going to be a battle and it was everything we expected. I kept thinking, we haven't been shut out all year and eventually someone is going to get one on us. But Space [Lee] came through for us!"

After receiving an impromptu day of rest due to rain, the two teams took the field today, Thursday, June 5 to determine the national championship. The Thunder needed just one victory after securing Game 1 of the series by the score of 8-1.

The rest allowed the team to comfortably send Alexis Michon back to the circle for the final time in her storied career. Despite a season's worth of toll to the pitching arm, Michon was once again nearly perfect in the contest, despite a rocky start.

Before she took the circle the team went to the plate, serving as the visiting team in the contest. Whitney Duell led off the game with a single down the left field line and then seemed to score on an error during the next at-bat, with Karley Trine laying a tough bunt that caused the throw. A review determined that there was interference on the play and the run came off the scoreboard.

Michon set down the first two batters before allowing a single down the right field line from the Marlins' Laci Campbell. The runner ultimately took off for second and drew a throwing error from the Thunder catcher, eventually reaching home despite a spectacular relay from Lee to Emma Beyer to Ainsley Phillips at home.

Both pitchers settled in after the strange first inning. Michon did so despite tweaking her leg during the third inning. She powered through and allowed just one more hit and two walks during the final six innings of the contest. Along the way she set down eight Marlins batters. The win is her 26th of the season and the 26th straight she has recorded since a loss to open the year.

Despite the lockdown pitching for Trine, the offense faced an uphill battle of their own. It took until the fifth inning for the team to threaten any runs of their own. With one out on the board, April Sellers didn't give up after a swinging strike three, beating the throw to first. She advanced to third on a single by Ainsley Phillips who reached second on the throw. Neither found their way home with the next two batters going down on foul balls.

The finals offensive leaders for the Thunder both came through for the team in the sixth inning. Debbie Hill reached base on a full-count walk followed by Macy Rocha singling through the middle and putting runners on first and second. It was then that Lee made her heroic at-bat. After a pair of balls she fouled a pitch down the left field line before straightening out the swing and going over the right center fence. The three-run bomb gave the team the 3-1 lead.

"This hasn't been my best week offensively, but my team and coaches have been telling me all week that I've got this," said Lee, "I was nervous, but I just kept taking deep breaths and thinking of those teammates."

In addition to the game winning homer, Lee made history in another way. During the contest she recorded her 33rd steal for the season without being caught once. It sets the program record for most steals with out a caught season in a season.

Virginia Wesleyan was not done yet; in the seventh inning, Samantha Deitsch hit a double to right-center, putting a runner in scoring position for the hot-hitting Olivia Knight. Knight fought hard in the at-bat but couldn't bring home Deitsch and the Marlins fell 3-1. Michon recorded the final out not with pitching but fielding a tricky groundball between her circle and the third base line.

"My team is the reason," said Michon while reflecting on what got her through this game, "Every inning when I go out I look at my teammates and I say this is the reason. No injury was going to keep me out of this game. I told myself I'm not coming out of this game."

"She's my pitcher and teammate of the year for sure," said Danklefsen. "I'm so proud of her."

Following the contest the NCAA announced the all-tournament team. Rocha and Hill earned spots on the team for their offensive and defensive efforts. Olivia Knight and Morgan Tucker were selected to the all-tournament team from Virginia Wesleyan. Michon was named the tournament's most outstanding player. 

"I'm just so proud of this team," explained Danklefsen. "It's just hitting me that we won it for the second time. It's a great moment for this team, but it's a little bittersweet as these seniors played their last game. I'm so proud of all of them, but man I'm going to miss them."

The Thunder finish the season with a 46-5 record, tying the program record for most wins, but doing it with one less loss than the 2023 national championship squad. Virginia Wesleyan, softball national champions in 2017, 2018 and 2021, finished 49-6-1 overall.

Luther will be welcomed by the Midwest Conference starting in the fall of 2026. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

The Midwest Conference announced on Tuesday, June 3 that Luther College will join the league beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.
 
The addition of Luther solidifies the MWC’s regional footprint, increasing membership to 10 schools - three in Iowa (Cornell, Grinnell, Luther), four in Illinois (Illinois College, Knox, Lake Forest and Monmouth College) and three in Wisconsin (Beloit, Lawrence and Ripon).
 
“While other leagues in our region are primarily (contained within single states), we truly are the D-III athletic conference of the Midwest,” says executive director Heather Benning. “When the league was formed 104 years ago, the intent was to establish an interstate athletic union of like-minded institutions; what binds our schools isn’t necessarily geographic proximity but rather a shared vision of the role of athletics in the undergraduate experience.”

• More moves in Conference Shuffle

Luther was a charter member of the ARC, dating to 1922. Cornell, also in Iowa, left the ARC (then the IIAC) for the Midwest Conference after the 2011-12 sports season.

Schools in the Midwest Conference give primary attention to the educational purpose of athletics, while maintaining that academic and athletic achievement are not mutually exclusive. Competitive success, academic engagement and the holistic development of student-athletes are at the core of the conference’s mission.
 
“Luther’s interest in the Midwest Conference was met with broad-based enthusiasm by the members of the Presidents’ Council,” said Grinnell president Anne Harris - who also serves as chair of the council. “Its mission and vision for its athletic programs perfectly complement that which we believe to be distinguishing characteristics of the Midwest Conference experience.”
 
Luther sponsors all 18 league sports, in addition to six others - including men’s and women’s golf. The Norse have produced twenty-nine individual national champions and have been recipients of 355 All-America honors. Forty-three student-athletes have received the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and 73 have been awarded a College Sports Communicators (formerly known as CoSIDA) Academic All-America honor. Luther is a Phi Beta Kappa institution, and the athletic department is a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society.
 
On the decision to move from the American Rivers Conference to the Midwest Conference, Luther College president Brad Chamberlain said: “Luther College is a proud Iowa college with a regional presence and a national reputation. At Luther, athletics is about community, character, and competition. Athletics at Luther is part of our holistic approach to learning that develops mind, body, and spirit. In the Midwest Conference, Luther finds partner institutions that share our philosophy towards athletics and that match the geographical diversity of our student body. Luther was honored to receive an invitation from the Midwest Conference, and we look forward to joining the league in 2026.”