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The Big West celebrates eight school nominees for 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year. The impressive lineup includes two-sport athletes, a multitude of Big West Players of the Year, Scholar-Athletes of the Year and Service & Leadership Award winners. Six conference-sponsored sports and seven Big West member-institutions are represented in the 577 nominees from schools across all three NCAA divisions. 

The Big West institutional nominees for 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year are:

• Sydney Brown, UC San Diego basketball
• Ciara Franke, UC San Diego water polo and swimming & diving
• Carolyn Gill, Cal State Fullerton basketball
• Shakhnoza Khatamova, UC Santa Barbara tennis
• Elena Kotanchyan, Long Beach State water polo
• Tara Prentice, UC Irvine water polo
• Brooke Van Sickle, Hawai'i indoor and beach volleyball
• Sophie Yanez, CSUN soccer

In its 32nd year of the NCAA Woman of the Year program, there are 248 Division I women dotting the list with 125 multisport student-athletes. The average grade-point average of the nominee pool is an impressive 3.8. Not only is academics a vital pillar of the Woman of the Year award, candidates are also high achievers in their respective sport as well as through service and leadership.

Next, conferences will select up to two nominees each from their pool of nominees, if at least one of the nominees is a woman of color or international student-athlete. The Woman of the Year selection committee will then choose 10 women from each division to make up the Top 30, to be announced this fall. The selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division from the Top 30, and the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will determine the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year. For the first time in the award's history, the Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the Woman of the Year will be named at the NCAA Convention, taking place in January 2023 in San Antonio.

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.

Sydney Brown

UC San Diego women's basketball

Graduated from UCSD with a degree in human 
developmental sciences and a minor in psychology

UC San Diego All-Triton Scholar-Athlete Team (2021 & 22)

2022 Big West Service & Leadership Award winner

Carrying on her mother's legacy through Love4K bags 
and the Lungevity Walk on campus to raise 
money for research funding for lung cancer

Ciara Franke

UC San Diego women's water polo

Graduated from UCSD with a degree in human developmental 
sciences and minors in business & psychology

UCSD Outstanding Senior Scholar-Athlete (2022)

Two-sport student-athlete (women's water polo & swimming) 
and captain of the Tritons' women's water polo team

On the ACWPC All-American teams each of the last four seasons

2021 Big West Women's Water Polo Player of the Year

Carolyn Gill

Cal State Fullerton women's basketball

Graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 2020 
with a bachelor's degree in communications, entertainment and tourism; 
currently pursuing an MBA in marketing 

Two-time Big West Service & Leadership Award honoree

Two-time Big West Best Hustle Player awardee (2020 & '22)

Member of The Big West Undivided committee and
Cal State Fullerton Athletics Equity Committee representative

Shakhnoza Khatamova

UC Santa Barbara women's tennis

Graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree 
in communications and a minor in art

Led the Gauchos for four straight regular-season titles and 
back-to-back championship crowns as the two-time Big West Player of the Year

Two-time NCAA Singles Championship participant; 
helped UCSB to their second NCAA Tournament win in history in 2022

2021 Big West Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Spent the summer of 2019 volunteering at an orphanage in her native Uzbekistan

Elena Kotanchyan

Long Beach State women's water polo

Graduated summa cum laude from Hartwick College after 
double-majoring in business administration and economics 
with a minor in sociology; maintains a 4.0 while pursuing a master's 
in public administration and economics from Long Beach State

Two-time Big West Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Three-time All-Big West performer and two-time 
ACWPC honorable mention All-American while at the Beach

Graduate assistant at Long Beach State and co-author of white paper 
for Port Solutions Summit held in Long Beach in September 2021

Tara Prentice

UC Irvine women's water polo

Earned bachelor's degree in psychological sciences and
criminology, law, & society; pursuing master's degrees in innovation 
and entrepreneurship and demographic and social analysis 

2022 FINA World Champion with Team USA

Two-time Big West Scholar-Athlete of the Year honoree

2022 Big West Player of the Year helped her team 
to the 2022 Big West Championship crown and NCAA Tournament

Two-time first-team ACWPC All-American (2020, '22)

All-time leading goal-scorer in The Big West and at UC Irvine (242)

Brooke Van Sickle

Hawai'i women's volleyball

Earned bachelor's degree in economics and is now pursuing
an MBA in marketing at Hawai'i

Two-sport student-athlete both indoors and on the sand; 
first Big West Player of the Year in both sports in the same academic year

2022 Big West Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipient

Competed in the NCAA Tournament in both disciplines in 2021-22, 
leading the Rainbow Wahine to a first-round victory indoors

Member of the USA Collegiate National Beach Volleyball Team

Sophie Yanez

CSUN women's soccer

Earned degree in business law with a minor in political science

2022 CSUN Business Law Distinguished Scholar

Volunteering with Los Angeles Parks and Recreation and working
with children who lacked her opportunity influenced Yanez
to search for a more substantial way to make a difference
in her community.

That search pointed toward a career in the law, and
Yanez will be attending Harvard Law School where she
will bring her love of camaraderie, competition, and learning into 
a community of legal thinkers.