ST. GEORGE, Utah — Dixie State senior women’s soccer player Nichole Mertz has been selected as the university’s nominee for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Mertz is one of a record 585 female student-athlete nominees from across all three NCAA divisions for the annual award.
Mertz (senior, 5-10, defender; Springville, Utah/Springville HS), who graduated this past May with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, carried a 3.99 GPA and earned 2018 First Team CoSIDA-Google Cloud Academic All-America honors. In addition, she collected First Team Academic All-RMAC and CoSIDA-Google Cloud All-District 6 recognition.
The senior captain started in all 19 matches last season and anchored a record-breaking Trailblazer defensive back field, which surrendered a record-low 10 goals and posted a school-record 11 shutout victories, which earned her RMAC honorable mention honors recognition. As a unit, DSU’s defense allowed just 7.8 shots per match (149 total shots), which included a paltry 3.2 shots on goal (61 total), and posted a school record 0.53 GAA to help propel the Trailblazers to a 13-6-0 overall record, which included an 8-5-0 RMAC (tied for 4th) finish.
On the offensive side, Mertz collected one goal and two assists on the year, including a goal in her final home regular season match vs. Western Colorado (4-0, 10/27/18). Mertz, who was named RMAC Defensive Player of the Week Oct. 29, also finished her four-year career in a DSU kit as the program’s all-time leader in matches played (79).
In addition to her excellence on the pitch and the classroom, Mertz was an active member on DSU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and she provided hundreds of hours of community service through AmeriCorps and other programs.
For 29 years, the NCAA’s Woman of the Year 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, including more than 200,000 women who played in college sports during the 2018-19 academic year.
Athletic conference offices from around the country will select their respective nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year award. 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.
For more information about the NCAA Woman of the Year awards program and previous winners, visit ncaa.org/woty.