BOSTON, Mass. – Senior two-sport standout Sam Curran (Quincy, Mass.) may have concluded her playing career, however she continues to earn major awards as today she was named as the Commonwealth Coast Conference’s 2015 Woman of the Year. With her selection, Curran joins a record 147 female student-athletes who have been named woman of the year by their conference or from an independent school.
These honorees, selected from the record 480 school nominees, represent college athletes from 18 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 57 honorees competed in Division I, 39 competed in Division II and 51 competed in Division III.
Curran left her mark on both the volleyball court and the softball diamond, combining both academic and athletic excellence throughout her career. She is a three-time Capital One Academic All-America®, who was the Division III softball Academic All-America® of the Year this past spring after being named to the first team. She also earned first team honors in volleyball this past fall and was selected to the second team in softball in 2014.
A two-time All-CCC honoree in softball, Curran earned CCC Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors and was named first team all-conference after batting .424 (36-for-85) with eight doubles, two triples, two home runs, 10 stolen bases, and 14 RBI while having an on-base percentage of .479 and a slugging percentage of .635. She had a career-high four hits twice this past season, including three doubles in a 20-14 win over Bay Path on April 15. Curran also was the winning pitcher in two of the Leopards' four victories this season. For her career Curran started 128 of 128 games and batted .358 (126-for-352) with 98 runs scored, 32 doubles, eight triples, six home runs, 31 stolen bases (in 31 attempts), and 50 RBI. She had a career on-base percentage of .442 and a career slugging percentage of .545. She is second in program history in runs scored, doubles, and triples, third in hits, total bases, walks, and stolen bases, and fourth in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and games played.
On the volleyball court, Curran played in 95 of a possible 95 sets over 28 matches this past season for the Leopards and established a program record for digs in a season with 427, breaking her own record of 404 set as a junior. She also led the team with 51 service aces, which placed her among Wentworth's single-season leaders. Over her career she played in 106 matches (371 sets) and is the program's all-time leader with 1,414 digs, while ranking fifth all-time in service aces with 154. She is also the program leader in digs per set (3.81) and is eighth with 0.59 service aces per set. The 371 sets she played in over her career is second in program history, while she ranks third among Leopard players with 106 career matches played.
Curran’s credentials in the classroom are equally as impressive. A Biomedical Engineering major with a near-perfect GPA, she earned Academic All-CCC honors six times, is a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the national student-athlete honor society, was the 2014-15 recipient of the Wentworth Bowl, the highest honor a student can receive in recognition of outstanding, overall participation in Wentworth activities and was also the 2015 recipient of the President's Award for Biomedical Engineering.
The NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee will next select the top 10 honorees in each division. These top 30 honorees will be announced in early September. The selection committee will then choose and announce the top nine finalists (three from each division) at the end of September. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will vote from amongst those nine finalists to determine the 2015 Woman of the Year.
The top 30 honorees will be honored and the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual ceremony in Indianapolis on Oct. 18.
Now in its 25th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership.
To view the list of conference nominees, click here.