10:32 am | October 2, 2018 | Go to Source | Author:
October 02, 2018
Former Oklahoma State softball student-athlete Vanessa Shippy has advanced as one of the top nine finalists for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership. Selected from a record 581 school nominees — a group that was then narrowed to 154 nominees by conference offices — the Top 30 honorees include 10 from each of the three NCAA divisions. The honorees competed in 13 sports and studied a broad range of academic majors, including finance, biochemistry, microbiology, kinesiology, nursing and communication.
Shippy spent three years as a member of the campus Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She volunteered for four years at the Stillwater animal welfare shelter and for two years leading camp games at the local YMCA, and she coached for two years with the Stillwater Steele youth softball organization. Shippy also worked with the Stillwater domestic violence shelter, visited patients at The Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City and spoke at local elementary schools.
Shippy graduated with dual degrees in finance and marketing and a minor in accounting. She was the first Oklahoma State softball player and just the third Oklahoma State student-athlete to earn three Google Cloud Academic All-America honors. Shippy also is a three-time Academic All-Big 12 team member and seven-time President’s Honor Roll qualifier. She was named the Big 12 Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year for two consecutive years (2017, 2018).
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-American was twice recognized as the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year (once in 2018 and once as a co-player of the year in 2016). In her senior season, Shippy led the conference in walks, runs scored, on-base percentage and batting average. Her career performance helped her team reach three NCAA regional appearances. Shippy holds 12 career and single-season Oklahoma State softball records, including most games played, most games started, highest career on-base percentage, most career walks and most career runs. She was drafted 11th overall by the Cleveland Comets in the National Pro Fastpitch college draft.
The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year from the nine finalists. The Top 30 will be celebrated and the Woman of the Year will be named October 28 at a ceremony in Indianapolis.
Shippy is the ninth finalist from the Big 12 and the third consecutive student-athlete from the Conference to advance to this stage. Former Texas Tech track and field student-athlete Ifeatu Okafor earned the prestigious honor in 2013.
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