Andrea Howard Chosen as MW NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— Following the announcement earlier this month that UNM Softball’s Andrea Howard was named a UNM nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, the Mountain West has selected Howard to represent the conference.
In total, conference offices named 151 athletes as their nominees, according to the NCAA announcement released Monday, with 53 nominees from Division I. The Lobo will be the lone nominee from the Mountain West.
As the MW nominee, Howard will now move on to the next stage with the Woman of the Year Selection Committee, comprised of representatives from the NCAA membership, at which point the committee will choose 10 nominees from each division to make up the national Top 30 honorees. The Top 30 will be announced in October, and from there, the selection committee will narrow the pool down to three finalists from each division.
The Woman of the Year award highlights four pillars: academics, athletics, service and leadership, and has awarded women for the past 32 years.
The Albuquerque native fits all of the criteria for consideration, coming off of her super senior season in which the outfielder was named a CoSIDA Academic First Team All-American, becoming the first two-time, first-team All-American in UNM Softball history. In addition, she maintained a 4.12 GPA and graduated with a double major in biology and psychology.
Academically, Howard also closes her career as a four-time member of the MW All-Academic Team and four-time MW Scholar-Athlete.
On the field, Howard capped her career by producing unparalleled numbers for her best season as a Lobo. Starting all 53 games in center, Howard tallied 57 hits, that included eight doubles and three triples, and finished the regular season with a conference-best 18 home runs, 43 walks (21 intentional), .403 batting average,.875 slugging percentage and .531 on-base percentage. Further, her 57 RBI ranked second in the Mountain West.
Her 18 home runs and 126 total bases both ranked third all-time in program history for a single season and her 57 RBI and 43 walks ranked second in program history for a single season. In addition, her .875 slugging percentage was the second-best in program history for a single season and her on-base percentage of .531 was the best in program record.
This season, Howard also broke the program record for career home runs, finishing with 47, as well as career total bases with 380.
When it comes to community involvement, Howard held an MDA charity fundraiser softball clinic in October, with all proceeds donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. When she wasn’t on the field or in class, Howard worked as a research assistant at UNM Hospital and the Department of Emergency Medicine, and spent time shadowing physicians. As part of her research work, Howard assisted in enrolling participants in research studies.