While she may not have won the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year award, Belmont women’s soccer alumna and School of Nursing graduate Alison Alcott stood tall with the other Top 30 winners from around the country, spanning all three NCAA Divisions.
Earlier this month, the NCAA hosted a dinner in Indianapolis to recognize the 2015 Top 30 honorees. ESPN analyst Jessica Mendoza served as host for the evening and introduced each of the Top 30 to the crowd gathered at the Westin. Clarion University’s Kristin Day was named the NCAA Woman of the Year at the end of the evening.
A busy weekend awaited Alcott, who completed her nursing night shift at Vanderbilt Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit at 8 a.m., only to climb right into her boyfriend’s car for the four-plus hour ride to Indianapolis. She even used one of her socks from her days on the pitch as a sleep mask for her nap during the drive.
Once she arrived in Indianapolis, she hit the ground running. The weekend schedule for the honorees was packed for Alcott and her fellow honorees with numerous events including meet and greets with NCAA officials and other dignitaries. The group capped the pre-award events with a community service event with a local Boys and Girls Club.
“This night is unreal,” Alcott said after the ceremony. “The ladies here have been so awesome. Everyone is so talented and all-around amazing women. I can’t believe I’m included in this. I’m so blessed to be here and so happy. I couldn’t imagine a better weekend.”
Alcott becomes the first NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 selection from the Ohio Valley Conference and the first from Belmont University. She was also tabbed the 2015 Woman of the Year Conference Honoree for the OVC, joining a record 146 other NCAA female student-athletes out of a pool of nearly 500 nominations who were also named Woman of the Year honorees by their respective conferences and independent schools. Alcott is just the second Belmont student-athlete to garner a conference nomination for the prestigious award, the first going to Brittany Thune in 2010 while BU was still a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
In May, the Dallas, Texas native was presented the prestigious 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 and the second consecutive Belmont student-athlete to garner the honor.
Alcott played in every game of her collegiate career for Belmont, including starting all but 10 of those contests. She was a two-time All-OVC selection and was named Third Team NSCAA All-South Region as a senior. 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 was also an OVC Medal of Honor and Commissioner’s Honor Roll selection and a member of the Dean’s List as a nursing major who graduated with a 3.96 GPA. She was also one of just 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 as a senior. 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.
To be eligible for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, a female student-athlete must have completed intercollegiate eligibility in her primary sport by the end of the 2015 spring season, graduated no later than the end of the summer 2015 term and achieved a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.5.