BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Four Saint Benedict hockey student-athletes earned 2025-26 Winter Academic All-MIAC recognition on Thursday, June 25.

CSB ranked third in the MIAC in female honorees for winter and spring, following Gustavus Adolphus (114) and St. Olaf (99). Saint Benedict finished third in the conference in overall female honorees with a total of 137, behind St. Olaf (156) and Gustavus Adolphus (149). The Bennies had 39 fall honorees in cross country, soccer and volleyball.

Those honored (listed alphabetically) include:

-Senior defender Jamie Bimberg (Chanhassen, Minn.), an accounting and finance double-major with a 3.99 GPA; 
-Sophomore defender Merrill Delich (Andover, Minn.), a finance and economics double-major with a 3.93 GPA; 
-Senior forward Mia Lopez (Plymouth, Minn./Orono), a global business leadership major with a 3.81 GPA; 
-Junior forward Shae Stinnett (North Oaks, Minn./Hill-Murray), an accounting and finance double-major with a 3.94 GPA.

Student-athletes must be a sophomore, junior or senior academically with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.50 on a 4.00 scale to qualify for Academic All-MIAC recognition. Transfers, like first-years, must complete a full academic year to be eligible the following season. 

Athletically, student-athletes must be a member of a MIAC-sponsored, varsity team and be academically and athletically eligible. The student-athlete must have utilized a season of participation (per NCAA and MIAC definitions) and have remained on the sports roster through the conclusion of the sports season.

The Academic All-MIAC honor is the third for Bimberg and Lopez and second for Stinnett. 

Three of the four – Bimberg, Delich and Stinnett – were named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District at-large team June 16.

Bimberg earned the 2025-26 MIAC Elite 22 Award for women's hockey, which is given to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA on the active postseason roster of a playoff-qualifying team.

CSB (16-8-4, 9-6-3 MIAC) won the MIAC Playoff Championship for the first time in program history in 2025-26. The Bennies advanced to their first NCAA Division III Tournament, where they fell to No. 3 Amherst (Mass.) in 2-1 in overtime. 

Individually, first-year goaltender Lexi Badali (Lake Central/St. John, Ind.) became the program's first All-American, earning first-team honors from DIIIHockeyNews.com. The Bennies finished No. 15 in the DIIIHockeyNews.com rankings, the first national ranking in program history.

CSB ended the season in the top 25 in eight statistical categories: ninth in short-handed goals (4); 21st in goals (76) and scoring offense (2.71 gpg); 22nd in winning percentage (0.643); 23rd in assists (104) and team points (180); and 24th in scoring margin (+0.82) and team shutouts (4).