NAPERVILLE, Ill. – Wheaton College’s Kelsey Graham was named the 2015 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Woman of the Year on Thursday and will now represent the conference as a nominee for the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Graham, a goalkeeper on the Thunder soccer team, was chosen through a process conducted by the CCIW Senior Woman Administrators and Faculty Athletics Representatives. She was chosen among a group of six other nominees including Augustana’s Becca Sund (cross country/track & field), Carthage’s Becca McMullin (track & field), Elmhurst’s Sam Szarmach (volleyball), Illinois Wesleyan’s Allie Boudreau (track & field), North Central’s Elizabeth Composto (track & field) and North Park’s Alexa Baker (track & field).
  A native of Wheaton, Illinois and Wheaton-Warrenville South High School, who holds a 3.64 GPA majoring in Spanish & Christian Education, Graham was a College Sports Information Directors Association of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District recipient this past season. She was also Wheaton’s CCIW Jack Swartz Academic All-Conference winner in the fall of 2014. The award honors one male and one female from each of the eight CCIW institutions from each of the three sports seasons (fall, winter, spring) for their work in the classroom and in their respective sport. This was Graham’s second time receiving this award and she was a four-time member of the CCIW Academic All-Conference Team.

Graham was involved in a number of community service projects including a student-led trip to Honduras that installed a gravity-fed water system. She was an assistant coach for the Chicago Eagles Soccer Ministry, a missions department intern at James River Church, as well as a Sunday School teacher at Wheaton Bible Church. Graham also volunteered at a mobile food pantry and the Feed My Starving Children organization that packages food to countries around the world.

On the field, Graham was a 2014 D3soccer.com First Team All-American and a 2014 National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) First Team All-Central Region recipient, as well as a CCIW First Team All-Conference goalkeeper this past season. She led all NCAA Division III goalkeepers in save percentage (.944) and ranked fifth nationally in goals against average (.283) in 2014. Graham is fourth in school history with 24 career shutouts and fifth in school history with a career goals-against average of 0.57. 

The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors senior female student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.

Graham is one of a record 147 NCAA female-student-athletes that have been named 2015 Woman of the Year honorees by conferences and independent schools. These nominees, selected from the record 480 school nominees, represent college athletes from 18 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 57 honorees competed in Division I, 39 competed in Division II and 51 competed in Division III.

The Woman of the Year selection committee will next select the top 10 honorees in each division. These top 30 honorees will be announced in early September. The selection committee will then choose and announce the top nine finalists (three from each division) at the end of September. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will vote from amongst those nine finalists to determine the 2015 Woman of the Year.

The top 30 honorees will be honored and the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual ceremony in Indianapolis on October 18.

#NCAAWOTY #CCIWWOTY

CCIW Woman of the Year
2014-15 – Kelsey Graham – Wheaton (Soccer)
2013-14 – Lexi Baltes – Illinois Wesleyan (Basketball)
2012-13 – Elise Anderson – Illinois Wesleyan (Cross Country/Track & Field)
2011-12 – Lauren Knaack – Illinois Wesleyan (Soccer)
2010-11 – Elizabeth Ave Maria – Illinois Wesleyan (Cross Country/Track & Field)
2009-10 – Lindsey Haines – Illinois Wesleyan (Golf)
2008-09 – Nicole Spear – Illinois Wesleyan (Golf)
2007-08 – Sarah Richardson – Wheaton (Soccer)
2006-07 – Meghan Voiland – Augustana (Track & Field)
2005-06 – Melinda Sprague – Illinois Wesleyan (Cross Country/Track & Field)

Twitter & Instagram: @CCIW_Athletics

The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services eight member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), Carthage College (Kenosha, WI), Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, IL), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL), Millikin University (Decatur, IL), North Central College (Naperville, IL), North Park University (Chicago, IL) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL). During the 2014-15 academic year, the CCIW honored over 1,500 academic all-conference recipients, 19 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 46 CoSIDA Academic All-District recipients and 102 all-Americans.