Sun Belt Nominates Begic for NCAA Woman of the Year

LITTLE ROCK – Former Little Rock volleyball star Edina Begic has been selected as one of two Sun Belt Conference honorees for the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Now in its 25th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.
 
Begic was one of a record 147 NCAA female-student-athletes to have been named a 2015 Woman of the Year honoree by conferences and independent schools. These honorees, selected from the record 480 school nominees, represent college athletes from 18 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 57 honorees competed in Division I, 39 competed in Division II and 51 competed in Division III.
 
"It's honor for Edina to be chosen by the Sun Belt Conference," Little Rock head coach Van Compton said. "She's not only brought recognition to our university, she's brought recognition to the Sun Belt Conference as well. In my opinion, Edina is one of the most qualified players to ever be nominated by the Sun Belt for this award."

Begic won numerous awards and honors in her four-year career at Little Rock. Recently, she was named the Sun Belt's Female Student-Athlete of the Year and signed to play professionally with Volley Soverato in Italy. Begic won the Sun Belt Conference's Offensive Player of the Year for three consecutive seasons while earning First Team honors. Begic was named to the AVCA All-Region Team and earned the status as an AVCA All-American Honorable Mention in 2013 and 2014.
 
In 2014, Begic was named the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week eight times, breaking her own NCAA and Sun Belt record of seven. Over her four-year career, Begic was named the Offensive Player of the Week on 18 different occasions. After her incredible performance at the Sun Belt Tournament in 2014, Begic was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
 
Begic holds the Little Rock record for most career kills at 2,189, fourth-most in Sun Belt history and second-most in the rally-scoring era. Begic ended her career as the NCAA Division I active career kills leader.
 
The Woman of the Year selection committee will next select the top 10 honorees in each division. These top 30 honorees will be announced in early September.  The selection committee will then choose and announce the top nine finalists (three from each division) at the end of September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will vote from amongst those nine finalists to determine the 2015
Woman of the Year.
 
The top 30 honorees will be honored and the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual ceremony in Indianapolis on Oct. 18.