Oct. 31, 2004
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - UC Davis All-American lacrosse player Kelly Albin was selected as the recipient of the 14th-annual NCAA Woman of the Year award, it was announced at an awards banquet at the Westin Hotel Sunday evening. Albin is the third UC Davis student-athlete to capture this award. Track and field standouts Jamila Demby and Tanisha Silas won the honor in 1999 and 2002, respectively.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes women in intercollegiate athletics for their outstanding achievements in athletics, academics and community service. After selecting one student-athlete from each of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the NCAA pared the list down to 10 finalists on September 17.
"The first word of my speech was `wow', which pretty much says it all," said Albin. "I feel like a PGA Tour golfer who just won the Masters green jacket. I'm very flattered and honored to be chosen among such an amazing group of people with such long lists of accomplishments."
The Fort Bragg, Calif. native was the fifth Aggie to reach the top 10 and the sixth to represent California in the 14-year history of NCAA Woman of the Year program. In addition to the three UC Davis winners, track and field athlete Kameelah Elarms and softball player Susan Churchwell were honored as finalists in 2001 and 2003, respectively. Soccer star Kim Haskell was the first Aggie student-athlete to be honored. She was the California state winner in 1997.
The awards banquet concluded a three-day celebration that featured visits by all 52 competitors to Indianapolis-area schools as part of the NCAA's Youth Education through Sports (YES) program. Former UCLA softball player Dot Richardson and Oklahoma head women's basketball coach Sherri Coale served as event hosts.
"When you think about the national scope of this award and the more than 350 institutions is represents, to have three winners is enormous," said UC Davis senior associate athletics director Pam Gill-Fisher, who has served on past selection committees for the award. "It is a statement for what the university stands for philosophically, from the Chancellor on down. It's an honor both for Kelly as an individual and for UC Davis as an institution."
Albin graduated magna cum laude from UC Davis in March, earning her degree in food science. She was awarded a UC Davis Department Citation as the top graduating senior, finishing with a 3.95 composite grade-point average. She recently begun her work toward a master's degree in food science at UC Davis.
As a scholar-athlete, Albin claimed nearly every possible award during her senior year. She was selected as the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Division II Scholar-Athlete of the Year on the very day that she won the university's W.P. Lindley Award, bestowed upon the campus's top scholar-athlete. Albin also won her second straight CoSIDA Academic All-America award and was selected to both the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Academic All-Conference team and the IWLCA All-Academic Team.
"To have Kelly win the NCAA Woman of the Year award tells us that the university focuses on the right thing, which is the balance of achievement not just on the field, but also in the classroom and in the community," said Judy Sakaki, UC Davis Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.
On the field, Albin appeared on three All-America first teams: by Inside Lacrosse magazine, the IWLCA and the webzine womenslacrosse.com. She set a school record of 29 assists to go with her career-best 43 goals, helping lead the Aggies to a 12-5 record and a No. 2 ranking in the final IL Division II Power Poll. She holds school career records of 71 assists and 147 ground balls, and ranks among UC Davis' all-time leaders in goals, points, shots, draw controls and shooting percentage.
Albin also served as coordinator for UC Davis' Peer Counselors in Athletics, supervising and training more than 20 interns and organizing all PCA events. Additionally, she spent the Fall 2003 academic quarter in Urubamba, Peru as a volunteer for the ProPERU Service Corps. Accomplished as a musican, she was a flautist for both a university septet and an ensemble in her hometown, the latter of which performed at churches and senior citizen homes.
Albin was one of two lacrosse players to reach the final 10, joining Melissa Block of Virginia's Mary Washington College. The other finalists comprised swimmers Julie Hardt from Georgia, Megan Grunert of Indianapolis and Kayla Heising from College of Wooster (Ohio); track and field athletes Abbey Elsberry of Boise State, Sherita Williams of Michigan State, Shana Robinson from Tulsa and Kinsey Coles of North Dakota State; and soccer player Imani Dorsey of the University of Portland.
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