2015 NCAA Woman of the Year Honorees (by conference)
GREENWOOD, Ind. – Cedarville University women’s tennis student-athlete Maryssa Herbert has been selected as the Great Midwest Athletic Conference honoree for the 25th anniversary of the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
Herbert follows in the footsteps of institutional peer Deanne Bradshaw, a Cedarville alum/women’s soccer student-athlete who advanced as a 2014 NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 honoree.
There are a total of 147 conference nominees in contention for the Woman of the Year Award, the most received since the NCAA moved from state to conference honorees in 2006.
The NCAA Woman of the Year Award recognizes the following four pillars: academics, athletics, service and leadership.
The NCAA announced a total of 39 conference nominees from Division II on Thursday.
A senior from Milford, Mich., Herbert was a four-year letterwinner for the Yellow Jackets and double majored in special education and early childhood education at Cedarville.
Herbert graduated from Cedarville with a GPA of 3.89. She was on the G-MAC Academic All-Conference team and was a two-time NCCAA Scholar-Athlete while landing on the Cedarville Dean’s List for all possible eight semesters.
On the court, Herbert helped produce two G-MAC women’s tennis championship titles in 2013 and 2015. In three years of G-MAC competition, she assembled a singles record of 48-14 and served as a team captain this past spring.
Her efforts resulted in three selections to the G-MAC All-Conference team, including first-team honors in her final year as a senior. She was also a member of Cedarville’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for two years.
Herbert’s impact spread throughout the Cedarville community as she volunteered her time with several ministries. She went on a missions trip to Haiti and has helped the homeless, elderly, widowed individuals and children, through various projects over her career.
The NCAA will announce the Top 30 honorees on NCAA.org in early September. The 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced on Sunday, October 15, in Indianapolis.
The NCAA established the Woman of the Year Award in 1991 to celebrate the achievements of women in intercollegiate athletics. Now in its 25th year, the award is unique because it recognizes not only the athletics achievements of outstanding young women, but also their academic achievements, community service and leadership.
Annually, NCAA member schools from all three divisions nominate their own woman of the year. To be eligible, these women must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have completed eligibility in their primary sport. Conferences then select a conference honoree from their list of school nominees.