HONOLULU — University of Hawai'i women's water polo standout Bernadette Doyle has been named one of the Big West's nominees for the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
 
The award, established in 1991, honors academic achievements, athletic excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three NCAA divisions. Each conference forwards their top nominees for the award and from those the top 30 honorees — 10 from each division — are selected and will be announced in October. Three finalists are selected from each division and the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then selects the NCAA Woman of the Year, who will be recognized at the NCAA Convention in January. 

Doyle and Cal State Fullerton soccer player Isabella Cruz were the Big West's two nominees for the award.
 
Doyle's selection marks the second time in the last three years that the Big West nominated a member of the UH water polo program for the award. The conference nominated former Rainbow Wahine standout Emma Van Rossum in 2023. Chloe Barr was also nominated by the conference in 2018.
 
Over her career in Mānoa, Doyle was a part of three Big West championship teams and helped lead the Rainbow Wahine to back-to-back appearances in the National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship semifinals in her junior and senior seasons.
 
Doyle first joined the UH program for the 2019 season before returning home to New Zealand during the pandemic to help support her family. She headed back to Mānoa prior to the 2024 season and earned second-team All-America honors from the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches each of the last two seasons. A dynamic playmaker on both ends of the pool, the left-hander completed her UH career ranked 17^th in program history with 132 goals, fifth in assists (104) and eighth in steals (133) and became just the second player in program history to reach triple digits in all three categories.
 
She was a first-team All-Big West selection as a junior and senior and was the Most Valuable Player of the Big West Championship in 2024. She followed up by earning the Big West Player of the Year award in 2025 after helping the 'Bows complete a second straight undefeated run through the conference schedule.
 
In the classroom, Doyle earned Big West and ACWPC All-Academic recognition each of the last two years. She earned a master's in marketing management this spring with a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average. She was also recognized on the UH-Manoa Exemplary Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll with Gold Honors (highest level) in 2024-25, and Bronze Honors in 2023-24. She's also a member of the 2024-25 UH Athletics 4.0 Club and multiple-year UH-Manoa Scholar-Athlete honoree. 

She also served in the community in coaching youth water polo, assisting with wildfire relief efforts on Maui alongside her teammates, and working with children dealing with retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer.