BOSTON - Ten institutional nominees for the America East Woman of the Year award were announced by the conference office Monday afternoon. University at Albany’s Rachel Bowles (lacrosse) and Kelly Costello (softball), Binghamton University’s Kim Albrecht (basketball), University of Hartford’s Emma Donnelly (soccer), University of Maine’s Liz Wood (basketball), UMBC’s Nicole Boretti (soccer), UMass Lowell’s Kelly Freitas (field hockey), University of New Hampshire’s Victoria Forrest (volleyball), Stony Brook University’s Brittany Snow (basketball) and University of Vermont’s Vanessa VanderZalm (lacrosse) have been chosen as the senior female student-athletes on their respective campuses that best exemplified a commitment to service, leadership, athletics and academics during their collegiate careers.

To be nominated, student-athletes must have completed intercollegiate eligibility in her primary sport by the end of the 2016 spring season or received her undergraduate degree prior to the conclusion of the summer 2016 term and have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.500 (4.000 scale).

The nominees will be narrowed down to three finalists, who will be announced via a release on the conference web site on Monday, May 23. The 2016 America East Man of the Year will be unveiled at the conference’s Annual Meeting in Burlington, Vt. on Tuesday, June 7.

The America East Woman of the Year will then be forwarded to the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee. The selection committee will select the top 10 winners in each NCAA division (I, II and III). From among those 30 honorees, the selection committee will determine the top three in each division. Finally, the members of the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics (CWA) will vote from among the top nine to determine the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year. 

In conjunction with the changes in the nomination process for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, the America East Woman of the Year award was established for the 2005-06 athletic season. Beginning in 2006, the CWA started receiving conference-designated nominees in lieu of the previous institution- and state-based nomination format.