LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Former UC Davis women's volleyball standout and 2022 graduate Mahalia White recently received the 2023 Honda Inspiration Award, announced by THE Collegiate Women's Sports Awards (CWSA) presented by Honda.
 
CWSA RELEASE
 
Her story will be highlighted in a Honda Inspiration Award special on CBS Sports Network, Defying the Odds: The 2023 Honda Inspiration Award. This special will air Monday, June 26, at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) leading into the Collegiate Women Sports Award presented by Honda.
 
This award has been handed out for 35 years, an honor given to a female student-athlete who has overcome extraordinary hardship during her collegiate playing career.

Mahalia's Story
A recipient of the 2022 Sarah Sumpter Perseverance Award during last year's Launch Day, there is no more deserving candidate than Mahalia White.
 
In 2017, White put together a debut season that saw her named the Big West Freshman of the Year, All-Big West Conference First Team and Big West Conference All-Freshman Team while winning six Freshman of the Week awards - including five consecutive weeks. She was the first in program history to make the all-conference first team as a freshman.
 
Then on Dec. 4, 2017, what White had been feeling as back pain was diagnosed as Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
 
White underwent chemotherapy treatment from January to April of 2018 and after entering remission, she redshirted the 2018 season. White returned for the 2019 season and ranked eighth in the Big West in kills per set and in her first match back since her diagnosis, tied the school's single-match hitting percentage mark. She was named All-Big West Conference First Team in 2019 and to the 2019 Big West Conference All-Academic Team.

After the 2020 season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, White faced another hardship as she suffered a torn ACL in 2021. However, White showed her incredible resilience once again, graduating from UC Davis before transferring to North Florida where she enjoyed a solid comeback season that saw her earn All-Conference recognition.
 
Per the CWSA Website
The Honda Inspiration Award is given to a female athlete who has overcome hardship and was able to return to play at the collegiate level. A call for nominations to all SWAs, Sports Information Directors and Athletic Directors of all NCAA-sanctioned schools provides the candidates for this award. A special committee of the CWSA Board reads all the submitted materials for these candidates and narrows down the field to the most worthy candidates. Then the entire Board of Directors went on to select White as the Inspiration Award winner.

For those wishing to watch a re-air of the feature or the upcoming CWSA presentation, a number of times are listed:


Re-Air Schedule
Defying the Odds: The 2023 Honda Inspiration Award
6/19      8:00 PM
6/19      11:30 PM
6/20      10:00 AM
6/20      11:30 PM
6/20      6:30 PM
6/22      6:30 PM
6/26      8:00 PM
6/27      10:00 AM
6/27      4:30 PM
6/30      6:30 PM
7/1        7:30 AM

2023 Collegiate Women Sports Awards
6/26      8:30 PM
6/26      12:00 AM
6/27      10:30 AM
6/27      6:30 PM
6/28      4:30 PM
7/1        8:00 AM