2022 NCAA Woman of the Year School Nominees

INDIANAPOLIS -- Following their graduation from Academy of Art University this past year, two highly decorated Urban Knights have been nominated for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award. This year, Anahi Servin of women's golf and Lauryn Henderson of softball serve as ART U's dual nominees for one of the most prestigious annual honors the NCAA has to offer.

Now in its 32nd installment, the Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service, and leadership. Previous Academy of Art nominees include softball student-athletes Brenna Youngquist (2019), Haily MacDonald (2016), and Elyse Cordova (2015), women's golfers Sterling Hawkins (2019), Andrea Nieto (a top finalist in 2014), and Crystal Superal (2013), basketball/track & field standout Jasmin Guinn (2017), track & field student-athlete Camille Jouanno (2021), and tennis student-athletes Mariacristina Andrisani (2021), Alma Thell-Lenntorp & Klara Thell-Lenntorp (2020), Michelle Dandik Zaale (2017), Nina Gajdosikova (2016), and Jenny Johansson (2015). 

Servin closed out one of the most decorated ART U student-athlete careers to date this past spring. After becoming the first Pacific West Conference women's golf student-athlete to win the NCAA Division II National Championship and just the third student-athlete to do so from the NCAA West Super Region, Servin collected the conference's most prestigious individual honor as the 2022 PacWest Female Athlete of the Year. Along with a 3.18 cumulative GPA in the School of Architecture, widely regarded as one of the toughest majors at Academy of Art, she finished the season as a WGCA All-American for the fourth time in her career after first earning such an honor during her sophomore season in 2019, then adding honorable mention in 2020, and capturing the award once again last year in 2021 with a ninth place tie at the National Championship. 

While she would end just one stroke shy of going 4-for-4 at the PacWest Championship in individual titles, finishing as the runner-up despite lowering her score by one stroke in each round, Servin still won four separate tournaments this season to further increase her ART U record to 14 for her career. Additionally, she also collected seven top-3 finishes (over half the number of tournaments played) and recorded an average round score with a 73.64 across a total of 28 rounds in 2021-22. Her lowest round of the year was an 8-under-par 63 which she turned in during the opening round of Birdie Fest and broke her own program record.

The only women's golfer in PacWest history to be named the Golfer of the Year in four collegiate seasons, Servin this year became just the third student-athlete in PacWest history across all sports to win a Golfer/Runner/Player of the Year award four times, joining BYU-Hawaii's Nannan "Dallas" Zhang (women's tennis) and Shih Ting "Stella" Chen (women's volleyball). Servin, the 2018 PacWest Freshman of the Year, also boasted four WGCA All-Region honors, four PacWest All-Tournament Team awards, four All-PacWest First Team accolades, and five Academic All-PacWest selections across her career all while offering more than 20 community service hours.

"If you truly love your sport, stick with it, because it's such a rewarding experience," Servin said. "The experience of athletic competition offers additional life lessons in teamwork, leadership, discipline, and perseverance. The road isn't always easy for those who strive to excel both on and off the field of play, from early-morning classes and even earlier workout sessions to afternoon practices, but the reward at the finish line is priceless. Being a student-athlete has been a fun and unique experience that I wouldn't change for anything."

Henderson finished her Academy of Art career this past spring, going out as one of the most prolific power hitters in program history. The second All-American from ART U softball, she batted over .300 with double-digit doubles and 20+ runs batted in three times over the course of her career. Henderson finished with a 3.47 cumulative GPA in the School of Game Development and became the first student-athlete to appear in Academy of Art's Spring Show five times, serving as a concept art lead for a puzzle platformer game that was playable at the 2022 showcase of top work across all majors.

Entering her swan song season having been a Tournament of Champions Batting Champion in 2019 and within reach of multiple program career records, Henderson delivered as she had done since debuting with ART U in 2018. An impressive month of April began with her hitting a game-winning home run on Apr. 1 (one of a pair of two-run shots in two days) en route to being named Tournament of Champions All-Tournament Team then, while the Urban Knights were on their Hawaii roadtrip, she broke the program's career home runs record with her 23rd blast in a 6-3 victory over Chaminade on Apr. 18.

Henderson would later be named PacWest Player of the Week for the third time in her career after she went 4-for-6 with three extra-base hits (including two doubles to tie the ART U career record with 42) and three runs scored (including the game-winning run) on Senior Day versus Holy Names. Over the final four games of the season, Henderson walked five times to break the program's career walks record (82) and fittingly homered to start what would end up being a 7-5 win for Academy of Art over Biola in the year's finale.

Along with being among the program's top 10 in every major career statistical hitting category except for triples, Henderson's 2022 All-PacWest Second Team honor was her third time on the All-PacWest Team after she earned First Team in 2021 and was Third Team in 2019. In addition to being a five-time Academic All-PacWest honoree, Henderson contributed over 70 community service hours.

"The first years of my college career were tough, but they laid an impenetrable foundation for who I am now," Henderson said. "My last years were full of learning work-life balance, a proper sleep schedule, and self-care. As I look back at all the lessons I've learned from college sports, I'm excited to pass them down to others while building on them in the future."

The NCAA Woman of the Year nominations are now under review by each school's conference office and two individuals will be submitted as the conference nominees to the NCAA. A selection committee then chooses the Top 30 nominees (10 from each division) before narrowing it down to three finalists from each division. The Committee on Women's Athletics selects the winner from the top nine. The 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced, and the top 30 honorees celebrated, this fall.