NEW ROCHELLE, NY – Iona College women's lacrosse recent graduate Gabriella Di Domizio has been nominated for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year award, it was announced Thursday afternoon. Di Domizio is one of nine female student-athletes nominated in the MAAC.
 
The NCAA Woman of the Year award, established in 1991, honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
 
NCAA member schools have nominated a record 581 female college athletes for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year award. The nominees competed in 20 different women's sports across all three NCAA divisions, including 251 from Division I, 131 from Division II and 199 from Division III. A program-record 170 were multi-sport athletes in college.
 
On the field, Di Domizio was a two-year captain and four-year starter for the Iona women's lacrosse program. She set program records in games played, caused turnovers, caused turnovers per game, and caused turnovers in a single season. In 2018, she ranked second in the NCAA and set a new program record with 2.94 caused turnovers per game.
 
Di Domizio was voted to the All-MAAC First Team and earned the prestigious Joseph E. O'Connell Award, which recognizes the most outstanding female student-athlete at Iona. Over the course of her four years, Di Domizio was a two-time All-MAAC Second Team and one time All-MAAC First Team honoree. She was voted the MAAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2016.
 
Di Domizio, an ACS Chemistry major with a 3.98 cumulative GPA, was the Iona College class of 2018 Valedictorian and Iona College Scholar Athlete of the Year. She became the first Iona student-athlete since 2009 to be selected to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Division I First Team. She is a two-time CoSIDA All-District First Team selection and a three-time MAAC All-Academic Team selection. The Lansdale, Pennsylvania native is also a member of Gamma Sigma Epsilon chemistry and Delta Epsilon Sigma national honor societies. Earlier in the year, Di Domizio was named the recipient of the Dr. Henry L. Logan Medal for Excellence in Science.
 
This scholastic year, Di Domizio also participated in Project Symphony, where she trained and recruited incoming research students. She also took part in philanthropic and community service efforts Light The Night Walk and a Midnight Run.
 
Conferences now will select up to two nominees each from the pool of school nominees. Then, the Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.
 
From the Top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year from those nine.
 
The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 28 in Indianapolis.