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Wednesday News
Sports Update
BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott softball student-athlete Samantha DiBella (Danvers, Mass.) has been chosen as Endicott’s NCAA Woman of the Year nominee.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.
DiBella and four other nominees from the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) – which includes Jordon Grays (Eastern Nazarene), Lauren Hayden (University of New England), Hadiatou Barry and Chelsea Vujs (Western New England University) – are now eligible to be selected as the conference nominee in July.
All five student-athletes previously mentioned are among a record-setting group of 517 total student-athletes who have been honored across all three NCAA Divisions this year as their schools respective NCAA Woman of the Year nominee. This year’s pool is the largest pool of candidates in the awards’ 26-year history. 231 competed in Division I, while 117 competed in Division II, and 169 of the nominees competed in Division III. The 517 nominees also represent 21 different women’s sports, and 127 of the nominees competed in more than one sport in college.
In four years at Endicott, DiBella produced an impressive career as a student-athlete with highlights both on and off the softball field. She was a three-time All-CCC First Team honoree and was twice recognized by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) as a member of the All-Region Second Team. She helped her team to the CCC Championship in 2014, a year in which the Gulls advanced to the Regional Final in the NCAA tournament.
DiBella was also recognized as a CCC Academic All-Conference member three times and was a 2014-15 CoSIDA Capital One Academic All-District First Teamer. The nursing major, who was on the Dean’s List for eight semesters, also added the 2016 CCC Softball Senior Scholar-Athlete award to her list of accolades this spring. The recent graduate was also named the Endicott College Senior Athlete of the Year.
In addition to those accolades, DiBella participated in a number of community service and campus activities. She served as a team leader with Toys for Tots from 2012 to 2016 and also served as the team leader/point of contact with Team Impact from 2014 to 2016.
