June 27, 2017
INDIANAPOLIS - Penn State women's soccer alumna Raquel Rodriguez (San Jose, Costa Rica) has been nominated for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award, as announced by the NCAA Tuesday.
Now in its 27th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.
A three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, Rodriguez graduated from Penn State this past spring with an overall grade point average of 3.78 as a recreation, park, and tourism management major.
Leading the Penn State women's soccer program to its first national title in 2015, Rodriguez capped off her collegiate career by receiving the 2015 MAC Hermann Trophy, which is given annually to the top collegiate soccer player.
A team co-captain in 2015, Rodriguez brought home numerous honors during her senior year, which included: Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year Finalist, Honda Sport Award winner, CONCACAF Female Player of the Year nominee, Most Outstanding Player on Offense of the Women's College Cup, Women's College Cup All-Tournament Team, NSCAA Scholar Player of the Year, NSCAA Scholar First Team All-American, NSCAA All-Great Lakes First Team, NSCAA First Team All-American, All-Big Ten First Team, Academic All-Big Ten, TopDrawerSoccer Best XI First Team, TopDrawerSoccer's Player of the Year, Penn State Athletics Female Athlete of the Year and CoSIDA Academic All-District first team.
NCAA member colleges and universities have nominated 543 female student-athletes -- the most ever in the history of the program -- for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Rodriguez is one of 38 Division I women's soccer student-athletes nominated.
Of the nominees, 229 competed in Division I, 117 competed in Division II and 197 competed in Division III athletics. The NCAA encourages member schools to honor its top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year Award. Then, conferences assess each nominee's eligibility and select up to two conference nominees. All conference nominees are forwarded to the Woman of the Year selection committee, which chooses the top 30 honorees -- 10 from each division.
From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three nominees from each division and announces the top nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced, and the Top 30 honorees celebrated, at the annual award ceremony on Oct. 22 in Indianapolis.