Courtesy Westfield State Sports Information

Alicia Gardner (Athol, Mass.), a 2011 graduate of Westfield State University, has been nominated for the 2011 NCAA Woman of the Year Award by the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC).

The NCAA Woman of the Year Award honors graduating student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership. The award has been given annually since 1991.

Gardner was recently named the 2011 Westfield State University Female Athlete of the Year. The two-sport standout was a softball four-time all-conference infielder, the MASCAC player of the year in 2010, and the MASCAC rookie of the year in 2008. She was an All-New England and All-ECAC first-team all-star during her junior season.

Gardner owns a .356 career batting average and ranks highly in the following career school record categories: at bats (2nd, 419), hits (3rd, 149), doubles (5th, 23), triples (2nd, 17), RBI (5th, 76), and walks (1st, 67).

In field hockey Gardner was a first-team all-conference selection in 2007 and 2010 and selected the team’s most outstanding contributor in 2009. She holds the school record with 28 assists and ranks seventh on the university’s all-time scoring list with 60 points.

Gardner also excelled academically with a 3.84 cumulative grade point average, majoring in business management with a marketing concentration. She received the Westfield State academic achievement award in management in 2011 and was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Beta Delta Honor Societies. During his four years at Westfield she was a recipient of the Paul Tsongas and John and Abigail Adams MCAS scholarships. In 2010 she was selected to the ESPN the Magazine District 1 All-Academic softball first team.

Gardner’s service to the university and community were also commendable. She worked full time during the summer of 2009 as an unpaid volunteer in the Westfield State athletics department. She served as a volunteer coach for the youth field hockey program in her hometown of Athol and was a softball clinician for four months at Winchester (Mass.) High School.

During the summer of 2010, Gardner was a paid intern at Hamilton Sundstrand in Windsor Locks, Conn. This past academic year she tutored Westfield State business management majors 10 hours per week.

“We are very proud of Alicia’s accomplishments at Westfield State University; she was an outstanding student-athlete the past four years,” said Westfield State associate athletics director/senior women’s administrator Nancy Bals.