De Marchi named nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year
HOUGHTON, Mich. – Michigan Tech volleyball student-athlete Laura De Marchi has been selected as a nominee for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year Award the organization announced on Thursday (July 14). She will now be a candidate to represent the GLIAC for the national award which will be presented at the NCAA Convention in January 2023.
De Marchi is a three-time All-American, two-time Academic All-American, five-time GLIAC Setter of the Year, and five-time All-GLIAC First Team member. She was also named the 2021 Midwest Region Player of the Year and the spring 2021 GLIAC Player of the Year.
De Marchi, a native of Milan, Italy, led the Huskies to four straight NCAA Tournaments and reset the school and GLIAC record for career assists (5,532). She also holds the school record for career assists per set (11.75) and ranks seventh in program history in career digs (1,390).
De Marchi held a 3.73 grade-point average and received bachelor's degrees in biomedical engineering, and electrical engineering, with a minor in German. She was named the 2020-21 GLIAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, a three-time recipient of the GLIAC Commissioner's Award, and was a four-time GLIAC All-Academic Excellence team member.
De Marchi was named the 2022 Graduating Scholar from Michigan Tech's Biomedical Engineering department, was a leader in the university's LEarning with Academic Partners, and volunteered in the Biomedical Engineering lab, analyzing the effects of Nitric Oxide on HDFa cells (human skin cells). De Marchi also was a student employee in the SDC Central Ticket Office.
The NCAA's Woman of the Year award is in its 32nd year, honoring academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service, and leadership of outstanding female college athletes. Rooted in Title IX and directed by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics, the NCAA Woman of the Year program celebrates the accomplishments of female college athletes across all three NCAA divisions.
The next step is for conference offices to select their nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year. Each conference nominee will be notified by the NCAA, and all conference-round nominees will be announced in August. After that, conference nominations are put forth to the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, which identifies the top 10 honorees in each of the three NCAA divisions. The selection committee then determines the three finalists in each division. The Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year from the nine finalists.
For the first time in the award's history, the award ceremony will take place during the NCAA Convention in January, giving the Top 30 honorees a chance to celebrate their achievements alongside their families, coaches, and administrators attending the 2023 NCAA Convention.