by Whitney Lloyd, a 2013 Stewartville grad, is in the running for NCAA Woman of the Year. A former University of St. Thomas volleyball standout, Lloyd is one of 30 athletes to make the first cutdown for the prestigious award for 2017-18. A selection committee will announce the nine finalists, including three women from each NCAA division, in early October. From those finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year. The top 30 will be celebrated and the Woman of the Year will be named Oct. 28 at a ceremony in Indianapolis.
Lloyd completed her eligibility as a fifth-year volleyball player in November 2017. She had a 3.86 grade-point average while majoring in biochemistry. She started medical school last month at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
In fall 2017, Lloyd was awarded an elite NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. She was among 42 Division III players named to the 2017 All-America team by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA).
She played in 113 career matches and compiled 905 kills, a .288 attack percentage, 250 digs and 307 blocks. St. Thomas had an 80-40 record in her time there.
As a senior last fall, Lloyd had 73 blocks, 279 kills and a .331 attack percentage. She helped the Tommies (25-7) win the MIAC regular-season title and reach the NCAA playoffs. She played on a summer 2017 USA Division III volleyball team which traveled to Brazil. She was honorable mention All-America as a junior in 2016.
Her undergraduate resume included a variety of research, medical work and tutoring, as well as several campus academic awards in chemistry and biology. It also includes extensive volunteer activities at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, a medical mission trip to Nicaragua, and other church and team-related community service.
“One of the most challenging yet academically rewarding experiences,” Lloyd said in a release, “was doing biochemistry research to identify genes for naturally occurring enzymes in bacteria whose products could have antibacterial, anticancer, and immunosuppressant properties.”
Lloyd has Native American roots as a descendant of Alderville First Nation in Ontario, Canada. She hopes to help serve that community in her medical career.
