INDIANAPOLIS – Southwest Minnesota State University graduate
Claire Sames has been selected by the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and is among 141 nominees for the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year, announced today by the NCAA.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.
Last month, Sames was nominated by SMSU and was one of 517 nominees overall—the most ever in the 26-year history of the Woman of the Year program—spanning all three NCAA divisions. The 141 nominees remaining include 54 from Division I, 36 from Division II and 51 from Division III.
In early September, the Woman of the Year selection committee will name the Top 30 honorees, representing the top 10 women in each division. The selection committee will then choose and announce the nine finalists, with three from each division, at the end of September. Then, from the pool of nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will determine the 2016 Woman of the Year.
The top 30 honorees will be honored and the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual ceremony in Indianapolis on Oct. 16.
Sames, a 2016 graduate of SMSU with a degree in biology and chemistry, recently concluded an impressive four-year collegiate volleyball career. A native of Shakopee, Minn., Sames recorded a 4.0 grade point average as a member of the SMSU volleyball team from 2012-15.
Sames was named to the SMSU Dean's List every semester and was a three-time NSIC All-Academic Team member. She was part of the Mustang volleyball program that boasted the highest team GPA at the 2014 National Championships where she earned the NCAA Elite 89 Award. Sames was also the recipient of multiple scholarships including the NSIC Butch Raymond Scholarship, while also earning the NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award honoree.
Sames capped her academic career in April by earning the NSIC's Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award as the top female student-athlete in the conference.
