Sydney Skelton announced as Henderson State’s 2017-2018 NCAA Woman of the Year nominee

HSU Athletics
David Kelley, Director of Athletics Communications

ARKADELPHIA — Henderson State volleyball standout Sydney Skelton was announced as the school’s nominee for 2017-18 NCAA Woman of the Year Award on Thursday afternoon.

Skelton, who graduated from Henderson in May, was a three-year starter for the Reddies at libero, where she became a two-time All-Great American Conference selection and helped lead the Reddies to their first ever appearance in the GAC Tournament in 2016. Skelton holds the GAC record for digs in a match with 54 and ranks sixth all-time in school history in defensive digs with 1523 in just 299 career matches.

Off the court, Skelton was the internal operations director for Henderson’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and was the 2017-18 recipient of the India Norman Award — the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a female student-athlete at the university.

The NCAA Woman of the Year award, which began in 1991 and is now in its 28th year, honors graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and have stood out through their work in academics, athletics, service and leadership.

Skelton joins a list of 581 nominees from all three levels of NCAA competition this year, which includes 130 other nominees from DII institutions.

Nominees from each conference will be selected in August and the top 30 nominees overall, which includes 10 from each division of competition and is picked by the NCAA, will be recognized in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Oct. 28. Three finalists from each division will be picked from those 30 and the Committee on Women’s Athletics will then select the winner from the nine finalists.