SEC Advances Avery Skinner as NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Former Kentucky Volleyball player Avery Skinner has been selected by administrative representatives of the Southeastern Conference as one of its two nominees for the 2020-21 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
 
There are only 153 conference-level nominees that advanced into the next round of the nomination process, and Skinner joined that elite group Monday afternoon, as announced by the NCAA.
 
Skinner was part of Kentucky’s 2020-21 NCAA National Championship winning team, going 24-1 overall and capturing the Wildcats’ fourth-straight SEC championship. Skinner was named an American Volleyball Coaches’ Association All-American, member of the NCAA All-Tournament Team, SEC Community Service Team and one of the best academic students on the roster.
 
The NCAA Woman of the Year program was established in 1991 and honors the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three divisions. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by Summer 2020 (or demonstrate that she would have earned her degree if not for the COVID-19 pandemic).
 
Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their member school. Each conference office then reviews the nominations from its core member schools (and sponsored sports) and submits its conference nominee(s) to the NCAA. All nominees who compete in a sport that is not sponsored by their school’s primary conference, as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, will be sent to a separate pool to be considered by a committee. Then, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee identifies the Top 30 – 10 from each division – and from there selects three finalists from each division. From the nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics then selects the NCAA Woman of the Year, who will be named this fall.
 
Asia Seidt — a former swimmer at Kentucky who majored in kinesiology — is the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year.
 
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