NEW YORK –  The BIG EAST announced Connecticut field hockey’s Svea Boker and Marquette volleyball’s Allie Barber as the BIG EAST Conference nominees for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
 
Boker, the 2019 BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year and 2019 BIG EAST Tournament MOP, led the Huskies with 21 goals, 55 points, 91 shots and four game-winning goals. The Bremen, Germany, native earned national attention as a  Longstreth/NFHCA First Team All-American. Her 21 goals and 55 points both ranked fourth in the country. Boker was a first team all-conference performer and finishes her career all over the UConn record books with her 55 career assists (3rd), 163 points (5th) and 55 goals (8th) while helping the Huskies win the 2017 National Championship with a perfect 23-0 record. Boker earned National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Mideast Player of the Year honors and was a finalist for the prestigious Honda Award.  In her career, she was a part of four straight BIG EAST regular season and championship titles and a sophomore on the 2017 National Championship squad.
 
Boker majored in Sport Management with a minor in Psychological Sciences. She finished with an undergraduate GPA of 3.72. Boker was a member of the Connecticut Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and an International Student-Athlete Sub Committee Executive Board member. She made the NFHCA All-Academic Team for four consecutive years and was a consistent member of the Dean’s list. She was named the University of Connecticut Female Student-Athlete of the Year for 2020.
 
Barber enjoyed a decorated career with Marquette and was chosen 2019 BIG EAST Player of the Year, an honor she also earned in 2017, marking just the fourth time in 30 years a player repeated the award. Barber is the first three-time AVCA All-American in Marquette history, which includes a second-team selection in the 2018 season and the only player to earn Senior CLASS Award First Team accolades. The Cedarburg, Wisconsin, native is Marquette’s all-time kills leader with 1,870 career kills.
 
Barber graduated in 2020 with a 3.98 GPA majoring in biomedical sciences. She was the Marquette President’s Award winner for the 2019-20 academic year and earned the MU Athletics 2019-20 Excellence in Athletics Award. Barber was the CoSIDA Academic All-American Team Member of the Year and named First Team CoSIDA Academic All-District. She was extremely engaged in community events, including traveling to Costa Rica to build multi-purpose courts for young athletes in the Courts for Kids student-athlete service trip in 2018.
 
It was the second straight year a volleyball student-athlete was chosen as the BIG EAST’s nominee. It was also the second consecutive year a student-athlete from Marquette was chosen as one of the BIG EAST’s two nominees.
 
Conferences selected up to two nominees each from the pool of school nominees. 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. Boker and Barber were selected from seven school nominations. Additionally nominated were Creighton’s Jaylyn Agnew, Basketball and Brittany Witt, Volleyball; DePaul’s Kelly Campbell, Basketball and Chante Stonewall, Basketball and Georgetown’s Meaghan Nally, Soccer. In total, NCAA member schools nominated a record 605 female college athletes for the 2020 Woman of the year.

The selection committee will determine the top three honorees from each division from the Top 30 and announce the nine finalists in September. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will then choose the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year. The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named this fall.
 
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 2020 (or demonstrate that she would have earned her degree if not for the COVID-19 pandemic).
 
For more on the NCAA Woman of the Year click here.
 

BIG EAST NCAA Woman of the Year Nominees (2014 – Present)
2020	Svea Boker, Connecticut, Field Hockey	Allie Barber, Marquette, Volleyball
2019	Taryn Kloth, Creighton, Volleyball	Allazia Blockton, Marquette, Basketball
2018	Catarina Braz-Rocha, Providence, Cross Country/Track & Field	Siofra Clerigh Buttner, Villanova, Cross Country/Track & Field
2017	Lauren Smith, Creighton, Volleyball	Jessica January, DePaul, Basketball
2016	Rebeca Mitrea, DePaul, Tennis	Katrina Coogan, Georgetown, Cross Country/Track & Field
2015	Patricia Fargas, DePaul, Tennis	Emily Sisson, Providence, Cross Country/Track & Field
2014	Kelly Comolli, Georgetown, Tennis & Basketball	Laura Nagel, Providence, Cross Country/Track & Field