The top honors in collegiate rugby were confirmed this week, as Tiahna Padilla and Solomon Williams were named the MA Sorensen and Rudy Scholz Award winners respectively for 2026.
Harvard flyhalf/center and playmaker Tiahna Padilla has won the 2026 MA Sorensen Award as the nation's top woman collegiate rugby player. Padilla already reached a milestone this season as she has been a finalist for the Sorensen Award an astonishing four straight times, a testament to her consistently high performance.
A product of the Fallbrook HS program in Southern California, which also produced 2021 Sorensen Award winner Richelle Stephens, Padilla is the captain at Harvard and helped lead the Crimson to three straight NIRA DI titles in the fall of 2023, 2024, and 2025. Her offensive capabilities are undeniable, but Padilla is also one of Harvard's most consistent and most punishing tacklers.
"I feel like this is a team award as much as anything," Padilla told Goff Rugby Report. "All I have wanted to do is do my best for the players around me."
Moving from center, where she was a slicing runner and constant attacking threat, to flyhalf, where she was asked to open up space for others, was an adjustment for Padilla. And yet she remained in the upper-upper echelon of the game regardless.
"It as an adjustment, and I just had to trust that Mel [Denham] and the coaches knew what was best," said Padilla. "I had to trust them, and learn to be a creator and set up my teammates."
This she did at a high level.
Padilla credits her coaching from the beginning in getting to this place. She looks up to Stephens, who was an Olympian as a teenager, and who returned to Fallbrook to coach Padilla in her senior year in high school.
"To learn the skills and the game in a low-stakes environment really helped me," she said. "I was surrounded by coaches and players of a high caliber, just like at Harvard, so I am really grateful."
Padilla will officially receive her MA Sorensen Award on June 13 at a gala event at the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle, Wash. She was chosen from a list of hugely deserving finalists by a selection committee of coaches and media professionals.
Tiahna Padilla, Harvard
Freda Tafuna, Lindenwood
Yesenia Morales, West Point
Telesi Uhatafe, Southern Nazarene
2016: Hope Rogers, Penn State
2017: Ilona Maher, Quinnipiac
2018: McKenzie Hawkins, Lindenwood
2019: Emily Henrich, Dartmouth
2020: Alexandria Sedrick, Life University
2021: Richelle Stephens, Lindenwood
2022: Idia Ihensekhien, Dartmouth
2023: Keia Mae Sagapolu, Central Washington
2024: Freda Tafuna, Lindenwood
2025: Freda Tafuna, Lindenwood
2026: Tiahna Padillia, Harvard
Solomon Williams has been named as the 2026 Rudy Scholz Award winner as the best men’s collegiate rugby player in the United States.
Williams, the scrumhalf and one of the field generals of the two-time D1A champion Cal Bears, won the vote from a panel of seven coaches and media.
“This was very, very close,” said Goff Rugby Report Editor Alex Goff, who oversees the nomination and selection process in partnership with the Washington Athletic Club in Seattle, “That is an indication of how many good players there are in the collegiate game. The process for getting our finalists was very close. Congratulations to Solomon, because he had to get past some excellent talent.”
Along with Williams, the finalists were Roanin Krieger of Navy, Dom Besag of Saint Mary’s, and Logan Ballinger of Life University.
Williams was the spark for the Cal offensive engine which went 17-0, scoring 1,130 points in the process, which is 66 per game. With the scrumhalf’s ability to keep teams off-balance with his quick taps, his fitness allowing him to get ball into the hands of attacking plays quickly, and his support running, Williams was instrumental to Cal’s offensive performance.
Add to that his kicking and defensive abilities, and Williams proved to be an excellent choice.
A product of the Thunder Rugby program in Southern California, which he helped lead to a HS Club National Championship in 2021, Williams was notified Saturday night after the D1A final of the award, and his response was typical of how he talks about his role within the Cal team.
“That is a blessing, but, you know, to do it with this group right here, it makes it that much more special.”
Both Padilla and Williams will attend the annual awarding Gala at the Washington Athletic Club, June 13 in Seattle Washington.
