On the heels of being selected as the Belmont University nominee for the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year award, recent Belmont nursing and women’s soccer alumna Alison Alcott (Dallas, Texas) received another honor from the NCAA.  She was named the 2015 Woman of the Year Conference Honoree for the Ohio Valley Conference.

In May, Alcott was presented the 2015 Ohio Valley Conference Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award for her stellar career on the pitch and in the classroom along with good sportsmanship and citizenship, becoming only the second women women’s player to garner the honor.

Alcott played in every game of her collegiate career for the Belmont, including starting all but 10 of those contests.  She was a two-time All-OVC selection and this past season was named Third Team NSCAA All-South Region.  She also served as a co-captain for Belmont during her final season.

In the classroom, Alcott was selected as a CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-American in 2014, making her one of just 33 soccer student-athletes selected nationally at the Division I level.  She has also been an OVC Medal of Honor and Commissioner’s Honor Roll selection and a member of the Dean’s List as a nursing major.  She was also one of six OVC Scholar-Athlete Award winners for 2013-14 and earned the Belmont Presidential Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award for 2015.

On campus, she was a member of the Student-Athletes Advisory Committee (SAAC), serving as the organization’s secretary this past year.  Alcott was a member of the Alpha Chi honor society, the Phi Sigma Iota foreign language honor society and the Student Nurses Association.

In the community, she volunteered with numerous organizations and events including the Nashville Rescue Mission, Special Olympics, Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Camp Bruin and Operation Christmas Child.  Alcott also traveled to Costa Rica, on a medical mission trip and helped set up medical clinics, diagnosed patients and organizing and dispensed medication.

“Ali exemplifies what is means to be a female student-athlete at Belmont,” said Head Coach Heather Henson.  “I am very proud of her for receiving this honor as it allows others to see the intense passion she has to excel as a leader in the classroom, on the soccer field, in the community and now in the nursing profession.

“All of us in the Belmont soccer family want to congratulate Ali on this selection as the Ohio Valley Conference honoree for the 2015 NCAA Women of the Year Award.”

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.

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.

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.

You can learn more about the award and selection process online at www.ncaa.org/WOTY.