Holtan Nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year Award

INDIANAPOLIS – Recent Gustavus Adolphus College graduate Nora Holtan (Rochester, Minn.) has been selected as a candidate for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Holtan was a three-time First Team All-American for the Gustavus volleyball team and the NCAA Woman of the Year nomination adds to a long list of accolades for the Rochester product.

For 29 years, this program has honored the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of outstanding female college athletes. Rooted in Title IX and directed by the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics, the NCAA Woman of the Year program celebrates the accomplishments of female college athletes across all three NCAA divisions. In 2019, more than 200,000 women are playing college sports, and the NCAA received a program record of 585 nominations for this prestigious award.

Holtan recently became the first student-athlete to be awarded Gustavus Athlete of the Year three times after receiving the honor the past two years. It was a season of thirds for the Gusties’ standout setter as she earned AVCA First Team All-America and MIAC Player of the Year for the third straight season. The Rochester native garnered her second consecutive CoSIDA Academic All-America honor after being named to the Second Team. The AVCA named Holtan the Central Region Player of the Year and she was the Division III Player of the Week on Oct. 23 – both firsts in program history.

Holtan played a key role in Gustavus capturing its second MIAC regular season championship in the past four years with a perfect 11-0 record in the league and the third MIAC playoff championship in the past four years. Holtan, the most decorated student-athlete in 50 years of Gustavus volleyball, finished her career as the program’s all-time assists leader with 4,528 during her four seasons. She also ended her career with 1,194 digs (7th/program history) and 650 kills (32nd/program history). Holtan is the only player to wear the Black and Gold with at least 4,000 assists, 1,000 digs, and 500 kills.

Next, conference offices will select their conference nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year. Each conference nominee will be notified by the NCAA, and all conference-round nominees will be announced on ncaa.org in early August.

Conference nominations are forwarded to the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, which identifies the top 10 honorees in each of the three NCAA divisions. From those 30 candidates, the selection committee then determines the three finalists in each division for a total of nine finalists.

The Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year from the nine finalists. The 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced Sunday, Oct. 20, at an awards dinner in Indianapolis.