Russell named U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian

Acadia Axewomen fifth-year wing Samantha Russell was named a U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian on Wednesday night at the All-Canadian Awards Night, held as part of the 2026 U SPORTS Women’s Basketball Championship.

Russell becomes one of the top five players in the country to earn first team recognition following a dominant 2025-26 season.

A finance student from Dartmouth, N.S., Russell previously earned Atlantic University Sport most valuable player honours after leading the conference in scoring at 16.4 points per game. She also led the Axewomen in rebounding at 8.4 boards per contest and added 3.9 assists per game.

Russell started all 20 regular season games and averaged 33.1 minutes per outing. Defensively, she ranked second in the AUS with 70 steals, averaging 3.5 per game, and finished fourth in the conference with 26 blocks.

Her all-around performance helped Acadia finish the regular season with a 15-5 record and second place in the conference standings.

Russell was also named an AUS first team all-star for the second consecutive season, marking her third straight year earning conference all-star recognition.

She entered the national awards ceremony as the AUS nominee for the Nan Copp Award, presented annually to the U SPORTS women’s basketball player of the year. The award was won Wednesday night by Madalyn Weinert of Brock University.

Russell’s first team All-Canadian selection marks one of the highest individual honours in Canadian university basketball and caps a standout career with the Axewomen.