FLORENCE, SC – Francis Marion University junior outside hitter Madilyn Gartner has been selected as the Conference Carolinas Player of the Year for 2025, FMU head coach Lauren Baufield-Edwards was voted the Coach of the Year, and two Patriots earned All-Conference honors as the league announced its post-season awards on Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 18).

Joining Gartner on the first team was senior middleblocker Caroline Lucas, marking a fifth-straight year the Patriots have featured multiple players on the all-conference team. For a consecutive year, Francis Marion has placed two individuals on the first team.

Baufield-Edwards guided the Patriots to a 21-9 regular-season record, a conference-best 18-2 mark, the Conference Carolinas East Division crown, and the No. 1 overall seed in the league tournament. She garnered the Coach of the Year accolade for the second time in her career. The 21-win campaign matches her highest win total in nine seasons at the helm. Additionally, FMU was featured eighth in the latest NCAA Division II Southeast Regional rankings, released last Wednesday (Nov. 12). This season, Baufield-Edwards has climbed to second in all-time coaching wins in program history, currently sitting at 135 victories.

Francis Marion advanced to the semifinals of the tournament and will next play on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 5 p.m. in Bristol, Tenn.

Gartner, a native of Albertville, Minn., is the first Conference Carolinas Player of the Year in program history. After missing a majority of the 2024 season due to the injury, she returned with a breakout junior campaign that has led the Patriots to the top of the Conference Carolinas. Gartner is the only player in the league averaging better than 4.00 kills per set at 4.01. She paced the Conference Carolinas and ranked 11th in NCAA Division II with 437 total kills, while also leading the league with 4.39 points per set. She registered seven kill/dig double-doubles in 2025, including three matches with at least 20 kills. She posted 21 kills and 20 digs against the University of Mount Olive and tallied a career-high 24 kills against Converse University. Gartner earned all-conference honors for the first time in her career and was named the Conference Carolinas Player of the Week three times this season.

Lucas, a native of Easley, S.C., received all-conference honors for a third consecutive year, including two straight appearances on the first team. She delivered another dominant season after pacing the conference with a .383 hitting percentage, while ranking among the top five in the league with 93 total blocks, 3.87 points per set, and 0.85 blocks per set. Lucas reached double-digit kills in 18 matches in 2025 while recording at least five blocks in seven contests. In Conference Carolinas play, she led all players with an impressive .420 hitting percentage and ranks fourth in the points per set (4.23). This season, she has moved to within four of entering the Top 5 on the FMU career kills list with 1,162, while also climbing into a tie for 13th position on the career blocks list with 296. Lucas was voted the Conference Carolinas Player of the Week in the final week of the regular season.

Gartner is majoring in biology and is a product of St. Michael-Albertville High School, while Lucas is majoring in biology and is a product of Pickens High School.