NCAA Release
NAU Release
SUU Release
OGDEN, Utah (July 23, 2015) - The Big Sky Conference had two athletes named 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year honorees Thursday. Northern Arizona tennis player Johanna Vang and Southern Utah track & field athlete/gymnast Erin Stone were each nominated by the conference.
A record 147 NCAA female student-athletes have been named 2015 Woman of the Year honorees by conferences and independent schools.
The honorees were selected from a record 480 school nominees, representing college athletes from 18 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 57 honorees competed in Division I, 39 in Division II and 51 in Division III.
Both Vang and Stone were named the conference’s Female Scholar Athlete of the Year for their respective institutions.
Vang graduated in May with a perfect 4.0 GPA in marketing with a business economics certificate. Last month, she was voted to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District 8 First Team for the first time in her career. Along with being a four-time Golden Eagle scholar, she received four All-Academic honors from the conference and three from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The three-year team captain from Sollentuna, Sweden was a four-time All-Big Sky honoree on the tennis court and served as the Lumberjacks’ No. 1 player in the lineup over her final two seasons. She concluded her career with 45 singles wins and 50 doubles wins.
Stone was named the female scholar athlete for SUU. Stone competed in the pole vault for the track and field team this past year and was the class of 2015 valedictorian. Stone matched her career best of 3.40 meters twice this past season. Stone maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout college while competing on two collegiate sports teams – gymnastics and track and field. Originally from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, Stone plans to pursue her doctorate degree in physical therapy at Eastern Washington University.
The Woman of the Year selection committee will next select the top 10 honorees in each division. These top 30 honorees will be announced in early September. The selection committee will then choose and announce the nine finalists (three from each division) at the end of September. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will cast votes among the nine finalists to determine the 2015 Woman of the Year.
The top 30 will be honored and the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual ceremony in Indianapolis on Oct. 18.
Now in its 25
th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.