Bethany’s Mouch selected as PAC's NCAA Woman of the Year nominee 7/27/2016 2:00:23 PM INDIANAPOLIS (pacathletics.org) - Former Bethany College women's volleyball standout Julia Mouch (Toledo, Ohio / Sylvania Southview) has been selected as the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) nominee for this year's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Woman of the Year Award. The NCAA 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. One hundred and forty two conference honorees were announced Wednesday. Of those 142 recognized, 54 competed in Division I, 37 competed in Division II and 51 competed in Division III. "The NCAA's Woman of the Year program annually honors the 'Best of the Best' in college athletics, and Julia (Mouch) undoubtedly qualifies," said PAC commissioner Joe Onderko. "Her athletic successes as a women's volleyball player, paired with her outstanding academic accomplishments and her extensive resume of campus leadership and community service activities, make her an ideal choice to represent the Presidents' Athletic Conference in this prestigious national award program." The Woman of the Year selection committee will next select the top 10 honorees in each division. These top 30 honorees will be announced in September. The selection committee will then choose and announce the top nine finalists (three from each division) in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) will vote from amongst those nine finalists to determine the 2016 Woman of the Year. The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the annual award ceremony October 16 in Indianapolis. "For Julia to earn the PAC's nomination for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year award is a perfect completion to her career at Bethany," said Bethany Director of Athletics Brian Rose. "Julia made her mark in so many ways during the last four years and deserved every one of the honors she has received. Bethany has a extensive history of NCAA Woman of the Year winners when it was awarded on the state level and Julia's long list of achievements on the volleyball court, on campus and in the community makes her more than qualified to etch her name with those outstanding women." Mouch, a four-year starter with Bethany's women's volleyball team, helped guide the Bison to an overall record of 118-42 and a 62-10 mark in the PAC - the best four-year run in program history. She is second on the school's all-time digs list (2,644) and is just the fourth player in program history to be named an All-PAC selection in each of her four years. She also helped Bethany to a pair of Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III South Championships. Mouch is a three-time College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District honoree, was named to the Presidents' List eight times and landed on the PAC Academic Honor Roll four times. A chemistry major, Mouch finished her undergraduate career at Bethany with a 3.96 grade-point average (GPA) and graduated summa cum laude as a member of the Class of 2016. She was also honored as Bethany's female representative at the Third Annual PAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Banquet in May. A participant in Bethany's Kalon Leaders Scholarship Program, a program that serves as an extension of the College's commitment to the recognition of students who possess special leadership potential and will contribute to the Bethany community, she is an active member of Alpha Epsilon Delta, a health pre-professional honorary, Kappa Mu Epsilon, a national mathematics honorary, Gamma Sigma Epsilon, a national chemistry honorary and Beta Beta Beta, a national biology honorary and Gamma Sigma Kappa, a scholastic society founded at Bethany. Mouch was awarded with the Jerry R. Allison Chemistry Award, given to the top graduating chemistry student at the College, and served as a fellow in the chemistry department. She is a member of Bethany's branch of the American Chemical Society (ACS), serving as the organization's vice president, and the Pre-Health Professions Club, serving as treasurer. She was also active with the College's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).