INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA released its conference and independent school honorees for the 2015 Woman of the Year with Southern Nazarene's Bekah Stewart and Arkansas Tech's Rebecka Surtevall earned the honor for the Great American Conference.
A record 147 NCAA female-student-athletes have been named 2015 Woman of the Year honorees by conferences and independent schools.
These honorees, selected from the record 480 school nominees, represent college athletes from 18 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 57 honorees competed in Division I, 39 competed in Division II and 51 competed in Division III.
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 top nine finalists (three from each division) at the end of September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will vote from amongst those nine finalists to determine the 2015 Woman of the Year.
NCAA Woman of the Year Conference Nominations
The top 30 honorees will be honored and the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual ceremony in Indianapolis on Oct. 18.
Stewart, a 2015 graduate in Psychology and Sociolgy, was named a Capital One Academic All-America and earned the 2015 Loren Gresham Academic Excellence in Athletics, top three for the SNU President's Award and Great American Conference All-Academic Team for the third time. The three-time All-GAC member in women's soccer also earned NSCAA All-Region twice and was an NSCAA All-American as a sophomore. In her final year for the Crimson Storm, she helped lead SNU to its first GAC regular season title in women's soccer.
Surtevall graduated with summa cum laude honors, receiving her Bachelor of Science in business administration. The four-time GAC Player of the Year also became the first two-time winner of the GAC's Female Athlete of the Year award. She helped lead the Golden Suns to a 50-stroke win at the GAC Championships and their second appearance in the NCAA Championships. She captured WGCA First-Team All-America honors for the second straight year and added a place on the Second-Team Capital One Academic All-America Division II At-Large Team.
Now in its 25th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.