Emily Postlethwait Selected as Goucher NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee

INDIANAPOLIS - Emily Postlethwait (Herndon, Va./Herndon), a recently graduated member of the Goucher College field hockey team, was announced as Goucher's nominee for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award, it was announced on Friday.

The NCAA Woman of the Year program was established in 1991 and honors the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three divisions. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by Summer 2022.

Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their member school. Each conference office then reviews the nominations from its core member schools (and sponsored sports) and submits its conference nominee(s) to the NCAA. All nominees who compete in a sport that is not sponsored by their school's primary conference, as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, will be sent to a separate pool to be considered by a committee. Then, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee identifies the Top 30 – 10 from each division –and from there selects three finalists from each division. From the nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then selects the NCAA Woman of the Year, who will be named later this fall.

"It is an honor to be nominated as Goucher's NCAA Woman of the Year. I never would have imagined when I started field hockey eight years ago that I would be here, but I am so grateful for this opportunity and for the athletics staff for selecting me," said Postlethwait.  "I owe this nomination to my incredible teammates and brothers, our GA Maya Belin, Coach Eversley, and the athletics staff, especially the trainers, who helped me survive and excel this past season. Thank you all for always believing in me, even when I didn't believe in myself. Truly the best support an athlete can have, and I wouldn't be who I am today, both on and off the field, without you."

Postlethwait was a four-year member of the Gopher field hockey program.  In 41 career games over three seasons (the 2020 season was cancelled due to the CoVID-19 pandemic), Postlethwait was in the starting lineup 31 times, including every game in which she appeared over her final two seasons.  She totaled four goals and a pair of assists and was a Landmark Conference Second Team All-Conference selection as a senior.

Postlethwait graduated Summa Cum Laude in May, 2022 with a degree in Psychology.  She was a four-time NFHCA National Academic Squad member and was named a NFHCA Scholar of Distinction in the spring of 2022.  A member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the national student-athlete honor society, Postlethwait was also inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Chi honor societies this spring.  

Off the field, Postlethwait was involved with a mentored research team that developed and administered a study and wrote a manuscript for publication on Zoom's effect on cognitive load.  She was involved with the Gophers Vote Initiative in 2020 that encouraged and aided every student-athlete on campus to vote in the 2020 elections as well as with the Gopher Ally Coalition that along with the Black Gophers helped to combat racial and other injustices present on campus in surrounding areas.  Postlethwait also served as a supplemental instructor for Statistical Methods in Psychology  as a senior.