INDIANAPOLIS – Former Southern Conference women’s golfer Natalie Srinivasan of Furman and women’s basketball player Alexis Pitchford of UNCG are among the 161 conference-level nominees for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
 
Selected from a program-record pool of 605 school nominees, the 161 conference-level nominees represent student-athletes from 21 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those nominated, 59 nominees competed in Division I, 39 in Division II and 63 in Division III.
 
The NCAA Woman of the Year program is rooted in Title IX and has recognized graduating female college athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991.
 
Conferences can recognize two nominees if at least one is a woman of color or international student-athlete. All nominees who compete in a sport not sponsored by their school’s primary conference, as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, were placed in a separate pool to be considered by a selection committee. Four nominees from the pool were selected to move forward in the process with the conference nominees.
 
The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will now choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division — from the conference-level nominees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in September. From there, the selection committee will narrow the pool to three finalists from each division. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2020 Woman of the Year from the nine finalists.
 
The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named this fall.
 
The national player of the year and SoCon Female Athlete of the Year, Furman’s Srinivasan was named a first-team All-American by both Golfweek and the Women’s Golf Coaches Association as a senior in 2019-20. Srinivasan was named the PING WGCA National Player of the Year; 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; and 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, South Carolina, 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, which was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic: the Glass City Invitational, the Lady Paladin Invitational and the Moon Golf Open. Srinivasan also posted a runner-up finish at the Darius Rucker Invitational and turned in 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 a second invitation to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
 
The SoCon tournament champion and freshman of the year in 2017 and SoCon Player of the Year in 2018, Srinivasan graduated summa cum laude with a degree in health sciences, finishing with a 3.90 grade point average. A four-time member of the WGCA All-American Scholar Team and SoCon Academic Honor Roll and a three-time Academic All-Southern Conference selection, she posted a 4.0 GPA in her final year at Furman, earning the third Commissioner’s Medal (3.8 GPA or higher for the year) of her career.
 
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.
 
Srinivasan, who turned pro in June, received an exemption into the 2021 Evian Championship, one of the five LPGA Tour majors, with her ANNIKA Award win.
 
In 2019-20, 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, its first since 2001-02, and its first appearance in the championship final since 2006. The Spartans won 23 games, a school record at the Division I level. Pitchford started 17 of UNCG’s 32 contests on the year, including 11 of 14 SoCon games, and led the squad with 94 assists and an average of 2.9 per game. 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.
 
A Southern Conference Presidential Scholarship recipient in 2020, 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 four-time member of the SoCon Academic Honor Roll and a three-time Academic All-SoCon selection in her career. Pitchford, who graduated in May with a degree in media studies and a minor in communication studies, served as a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative from 2017-20 and was also a sportswriter/copy editor for the UNCG 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.
 
Pitchford 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 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.

For the NCAA's full release and list of nominees, click here.