WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State seniors Julianne Kelly (Natick, Mass.) and Mercedes Rozzi (South Burlington, Vt.) were both recipients of the 2026 Peter Mazza Athletics Award and were honored at the Student Athlete Advisory Committee Senior and Awards night on May 4.

The Peter Mazza Athletics Award recipient must excel in academics, athletic ability, sportsmanship, character, service, leadership, and personal development. The award is named in honor of Peter Mazza, the retired vice-president of student affairs at Westfield State who was and remains a big proponent of the student-athlete experience.

Kelly is a member of both the cross country and women's track and field team. She is the president of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Student Athlete Advisory Committee, where she aided in the Special Olympics basketball clinic, and organized the donation of over 1000 books to local schools in the MASCAC. Kelly helped modernize the student athlete All Conference awards and at Westfield she spearheaded the creation of the weekly student athlete fueling station.

Kelly is a four-time MASCAC champion as well as a four-time all-conference honoree in cross country. In the spring, Kelly was a conference champion in track and field defended her conference title in the steeplechase by winning at the MASCAC title meet, then went on to win All-New England honors in the event as well.

Rozzi, who is a team captain on the women's lacrosse team, has championed the Morgan's Message group on campus, helping spread awareness about the importance of mental health as well as physical health for student athletes, and eliminating any stigma surrounding mental health in athletics, annually staffing games in each season to promote awareness, and running the Morgan's Message basketball tournament and mental health walk. She has been a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and a MASCAC SAAC representative. 

On the field, Rozzi earned MASCAC all-conference first team honors as a midfielder, contributing more than 100 career points with 86 goals and 33 assists, helping the Owls to two NCAA tournaments, and two MASCAC finals in her four-year career.

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