INDIANAPOLIS - NCAA member schools have nominated a record 605 female college athletes for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award and Furman's Natalie Srinivasan, UNCG's Alexis Pitchford and VMI's Franklin were among the nominees.
Rooted in Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award was established in 1991 to recognize graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service, and leadership throughout their collegiate careers. This year’s record 605 nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, including 259 nominees from Division I, 126 from Division II and 220 from Division III. Nominees competed in 24 sports, with multi-sport student-athletes accounting for 128 of the nominees.
A first-team All-America selection by both Golfweek and the Women’s Golf Coaches Association, Srinivasan was named the 2020 PING WGCA National Player of the Year and won the ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel, given annually to the top female U.S. collegiate golfer and voted on by players, coaches, and members of the golf media. Srinivasan, who was voted the Southern Conference Female Athlete of the Year, also won the inaugural Juli Inkster Senior Award presented by WorkDay, which recognizes the highest-ranked women’s collegiate golfer in her final year of NCAA eligibility.
The Spartanburg, S.C., native, who led the conference and set a Furman single-season record with a stroke average of 70.78 over 18 rounds, concluded her career as the top-ranked active collegiate golfer according to Golfstat after winning three tournaments during her senior year: the Glass City Invitational, the Lady Paladin Invitational and the Moon Golf Open. Srinivasan also finished as the runner-up at the Darius Rucker Invitational and posted five top-20 finishes over six tournaments. She ended her Paladin career with a program-best 72.6 stroke average over 118 rounds while earning her second-consecutive invitation to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, America’s most prestigious honor society, Srinivasan graduated summa cum laude with a degree in health sciences, finishing with a 3.90 grade point average. The Furman Dean’s list selection is also a three-time member of the WGCA All-American Scholar Team and the SoCon Academic Honor Roll. Srinivasan was the recipient of the Winston Babb Memorial Award, which is given by the Furman Chapter of Omicron Delta Kappa to the woman in each class who has demonstrated the most outstanding qualities of leadership, scholarship, and service to the university. Off the course, she has devoted time volunteering with Prisma Children’s Hospital and LPGA/USGA Girl’s Golf Organization.
UNCG women’s basketball player Alexis Pitchford was the recipient of a 2020 Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship. Pitchford, who played in all 128 UNCG games with 95 starts in her career, helped UNCG to a share of the SoCon regular-season title and an appearance in the championship final in the 2019-20 season. In her junior campaign, she was third in the league for assist-to-turnover ratio and fourth in assists. As a freshman, she helped the Spartans reach the title game of the Women’s Basketball Invitational and post UNCG’s first 20-win campaign since 2006-07. Pitchford was inducted into the Golden Chain Honor Society in 2017, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars in 2018 and the Omnicron Delta Kappa Honor Society and the Lambda Pi Eta Honor Society in 2019.
The Orlando, Florida, native was a three-time member of the SoCon Academic Honor Roll and a two-time Academic All-SoCon selection. Pitchford has served as a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative since 2017 and has also served as a sportswriter/copy editor for the UNG student newspaper, the Carolinian, and a member of the Spartan Sportslink video staff, helping to stream UNCG athletics on ESPN+, for the last three years. She’s volunteered at Dream Camp, a day camp designed for children with social skills and friendship challenges, and for Heads Up For Our Youth, a community partnership to teach, motivate and inspire young people to achieve academic success. Pitchford has served as a promotions assistant for the UNCG Kaplan Center, served as event staff at UNCG athletic events, and was selected as UNCG’s representative at the NCAA Career in Sports Forum. Pitchford will graduate in May with a degree in media studies and a minor in communication studies. Pitchford will be a graduate assistant in video production at North Dakota State.
VMI’s Sam Franklin is was of two recipients of a Bob McCloskey Insurance Scholarship. A midfielder for the Keydets’ women’s soccer team, Franklin started 70 of her 72 career games played, scoring nine points on four goals and an assist, with a career-high three goals as a junior in 2018. A two-year team captain, Franklin earned Southern Conference All-Tournament honors in 2019 and was the 2020 winner of the Three-Legged Stool award, which is presented to the VMI first class cadet-athlete who best exemplifies the three aspects of a VMI education: athletics, academics and military discipline. An Arabic and international studies double-major and a member of the Phi Sigma Iota international languages honor society, Franklin earned VMI Academic Stars for earning a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 from spring 2017 to spring 2020. She also was a recipient of a Project GO Scholarship, which allowed her to study Arabic in Fez, Morocco, in the summer of 2019. Franklin was a three-time member of the SoCon Honor Roll, twice earning the Commissioner’s Medal for posting a GPA of at least 3.8 for the academic year, and also earned Academic All-SoCon honors three times.
She served as the president of VMI’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in 2019, organizing community service events for student-athletes and ensuring maximum support for sporting events at VMI. Franklin was also captain of the VMI Morale and Welfare Group and organized Salvation Army bell-ringing events for VMI SAAC student-athletes in 2018 and 2019. She also twice volunteered with Habitat for Humanity with the VMI women’s soccer team and helped organize a weekly event to read to children at an elementary school in Lexington, Virginia. Franklin, who will serve in the United States Air Force as an intelligence officer after graduating from VMI, plans to pursue a master’s degree in Homeland Security Policy.
NCAA member schools are invited to honor their top graduating female college athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year Award. Conference offices will select up to two nominees each from their pool of member school nominees, then the Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.
From the Top 30, the Woman of the Year selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division and announce nine finalists. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics then will choose the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year, who will be named this fall.
NCAA RELEASE: https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-schools-announce-nominees-2020-ncaa-woman-year
FURMAN RELEASE: https://furmanpaladins.com/news/2020/7/14/womens-golf-furmans-natalie-srinivasan-nominated-for-ncaa-woman-of-the-year-award.aspx
UNCG RELEASE: https://uncgspartans.com/news/2020/7/14/womens-basketball-pitchford-named-uncgs-woman-of-the-year.aspx
VMI RELEASE: