Pivec, Lowery Selected as Nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year

CORVALLIS – Oregon State's Mikayla Pivec and Isis Lowery have been selected as a nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award, the NCAA announced this week.

Rooted in Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award was established in 1991 to recognize graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

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 Woman of the Year selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division and announce nine finalists. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then will choose the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year, who will be named this fall.

NCAA member schools have nominated a record 605 female college athletes for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. The nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, including 259 nominees from Division I.

Pivec is the co-founder of Beavs CARE (Corvallis Athletes Reaching Everyone), which aims to bring Oregon State student-athletes together for service initiatives. The guard traveled to the Dominican Republic as part of a service trip with Beavers Without Borders, and has volunteered numerous hours with IMPACT for Life, Community Outreach Incorporated, Corvallis Women's Shelter and the DAM Worth It Campaign.

Pivec was a team captain, and completed her undergraduate degree in three years, majoring in BioHealth Sciences. From there she moved on to work toward a degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics. Pivec has earned Academic All-America honors the last two years, and was tabbed as Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year after her senior year.

For her work on the court, Pivec was selected as an All-America Honorable Mention by both the AP and the USBWA. The senior has been named to the All-Pac-12 team, the Wooden Award Ballot, the Cheryl Miller Award Top-10, and the Naismith Trophy Midseason Team, and was a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award. The guard from Lynnwood, Wash. averaged 14.8 points and 9.3 rebounds per game during her senior season. She set Oregon State's career rebounding record. Pivec finished second in the Pac-12 in rebounding and fifth in the conference in field goal percentage. The guard had 14 double-doubles in 2019-20, and is in the top-10 in Oregon State history for career points, rebounds and assists.

Lowery is heavily involved in Oregon State's SAAC (Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) and served as the Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair. She part of OSU's Real Talk as well as Beavs Be True initiatives, in which students discuss issues and topics surrounding social justice, and LGBTQ+ and allies within the OSU community and beyond. In addition, Lowery was a member of the university's marketing team for the campus-wide, student-led mental health campaign, Dam Worth It and volunteered nearly 150 community service hours since 2016.

A two-year team captain, Lowery graduated in June with a degree in Human Development and Family Sciences, Lowery will begin graduate school at Oregon State in the fall to pursue a career in student-athlete development and wellness.

On the competition floor, Lowery was a fan favorite on the floor exercise everywhere the OSU gymnastics team performed. She tied for the team-lead with seven event titles in 2020 and totaled 12 in her career. A second team All-American on the floor exercise in 2019, Lowery was a driving force for the Beavers, who were preparing to enter the postseason when the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Pivec, Lowery Selected as Nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year

Players Mentioned

Isis Lowery

Mikayla Pivec

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