SEC nominates Avery Skinner for NCAA Woman of the Year award

The University of Kentucky could be on the verge of having a second-straight NCAA Woman of the Year winner.

Former Kentucky volleyball player Avery Skinner has been selected by the SEC as one of its two nominees for the 2020-21 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Former Kentucky swimmer Asia Seidt was the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year.

There are only 153 conference-level nominees that advanced into the next round of the nomination process, and Skinner joined that group Monday, 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 program’s fourth-straight SEC title. Skinner was an All-American, a member of the NCAA All-Tournament Team, SEC Community Service Team, and one of the best academic students on the team.

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).

The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will now choose the top 30 honorees from the conference-level nominees.

The Top 30 honorees will be announced in September. The selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division from the Top 30, and the nine finalists will be announced this fall.

From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will then choose the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year.

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