BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lauren Dellipoali earns recognition from the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) office as the 2023-24 Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Sports Information Director of the Year.
Selected by the CWPA Director of Communications, the SID of the Year award is presented to individuals who “have achieved notable excellence in the field of water polo communications during the past academic year.”
The award marks the sixth honor bestowed exclusively to NWPC institutions following the division of the CWPA men’s teams into the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) and Northeast Water Polo Conference during the Summer of 2016. An award to the NWPC SID was not presented during the 2020-21 academic year due to multiple teams electing not to compete as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She claims her second consecutive honor – following a prior nod in 2022-23 – as MIT earns its third award as Max Berkowitz garnered recognition in 2019. Further, she is the second woman to claim the honor following 2018 recipient Samantha Ralphs of Harvard University since NWPC competition began in 2016.
Since the commencement of the SID of the Year program, Dellipoali (2022, 2023) joins McGorry (2021), Berkowitz (2019), Ralphs (2018), Nicholas Dow (Brown University, 2016 & 2017 NWPC; 2014 CWPA Northern Division), Meg Kelly (Harvard University, 2015 CWPA Northern Division), David Gansell (St. Francis College Brooklyn, 2008 & 2013 CWPA Northern Division), Dan Scotchmer/Brett Moore (Harvard University, 2012 CWPA Northern Division), Scott Kwiatowski (Fordham University, 2010 & 2011 CWPA Northern Division) and Lyndsey Maurer (Brown University, 2009 CWPA Northern Division) among the recipients of CWPA Northern Division/NWPC Sports Information Director of the Year status.
Currently in her fourth season as the communications, promotions and marketing assistant at MIT in 2023-24, Dellipoali previously worked as an athletic communications assistant at Johns Hopkins University from 2017-2019, where she was the primary contact for nine varsity teams.
She began her collegiate athletics career at Wesleyan University (Conn.), where she served as the athletic communications intern from 2015-2017 and assisted with publicizing the department’s 29 varsity programs. Prior to Wesleyan, she served in two roles as ESPN from 2013-2015 and as a highlights intern for NBC Sports for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
A 2012 graduate of Syracuse University (N.Y.), Dellipoali earned her Bachelor of Science degree in television, radio and film. She also earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology, with a minor in management studies.
