WAVERLY, Iowa-- Senior Lisa Trizzino (Bettendorf) is one of the nominees for the prestigious 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, the NCAA announced Monday. There are 517 female student-athletes from all NCAA divisions that have made the initial list of contenders.
Trizzino was a key member of the defense for the 2015 Iowa Conference regular season and tournament champion Knights. She started all 23 games as the Wartburg defense finished with 11-shutouts and a 0.71 goals against average. The senior defender is a four-time All-Iowa Conference selection earning first team in 2015 and second team in 2012, 2013, and 2014. She was named Third-team CoSIDA Academic All-American in the fall and earned Iowa Conference All-Academic honors three years.
Trizzino was also recently awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. She graduated with a 3.98 grade point average with a biology degree.
This pool of school honorees marks the largest in the 26-year history of the award. Of the nominees for the national award, 231 competed in Division I, 117 competed in Division II and 169 competed in Division III athletics. The nominees also represent 21 different women's sports, and 127 of the nominees competed in more than one sport in college.
The NCAA encourages member schools to honor their top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year award.
Next, conferences assess their member school nominees and select up to two conference nominees. The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will then choose the top 30 honorees – 10 from each division.
From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 16 in Indianapolis.
