Ferris State's Rachel McInerney Chosen As Nominee For 2018 NCAA Woman Of The Year Award

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Big Rapids, Mich. - Former Ferris State University women's basketball standout Rachel McInerney (Saginaw/Nouvel), who concluded her Bulldog Basketball career as an Academic All-American this past season, has been named as a nominee for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

The NCAA Woman of the Year award, established in 1991, honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

The NCAA encourages member schools to honor their top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year award. A total of 581 female college athletes were nominated for this year's honor.

The nominees competed in 20 different women's sports across all three NCAA divisions, including 251 from Division I, 131 from Division II and 199 from Division III. A program-record 170 were multisport athletes in college.

Conferences now will select up to two nominees each from the pool of school nominees. Then, the Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.

From the Top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year from those nine.

The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 28 in Indianapolis.

McInerney capped off her standout hoops career by being named to the 2018 CoSIDA Academic All-America Team and also received CoSIDA Academic All-District IV First Team recognition. This year, she earned All-GLIAC First Team honors for the second-straight year and served as team captain as the Bulldogs reached the GLIAC Tournament Semifinals for the first time since 2013.

Behind the play of McInerney, Ferris State posted its most wins in six years with 15 this campaign as she averaged 16.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. She tallied 25 double-figure scoring performances and scored 20 points or more nine times this past season while also shooting better than 50% from the floor.

As a senior, McInerney led the GLIAC in rebounding and field goal percentage while placing fourth in scoring. She also garnered GLIAC All-Defensive Team recognition and earned GLIAC North Division Player of Week honors multiple times this past year. A three-time GLIAC All-Academic Team selection, McInerney was also highly active in the team's community service initiatives and held a high GPA in elementary education at FSU.