Aug. 1, 2017
INDIANAPOLIS - Penn State women's soccer alumna Raquel Rodriguez (San Jose, Costa Rica) has been selected by the Big Ten conference as one of two nominees for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award, as announced by the NCAA Tuesday. Rodriguez joins Zoe Stukenberg (women's lacrosse) from the University of Maryland as the two Big Ten nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
From a program-record pool of 543 school nominees, 145 female student-athletes have been nominated by conferences and an independent selection committee for consideration for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
The nominees represent college athletes from 16 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 58 nominees competed in Division I, 34 in Division II and 53 in Division III. Rodriguez is one of 19 women's soccer student-athlete nominees.
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.
In early September, the Woman of the Year selection committee will name the Top 30 honorees, representing the top-10 which include 10 women from each division. At the end of September, the selection committee will then select choose and announce the nine finalists, with three from each division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year from those finalists.
The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual banquet Oct. 22 in Indianapolis.
The NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991.