INDIANAPOLIS – The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the conference nominations for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award, with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference selecting East Stroudsburg University women's lacrosse defender Kayleigh Pokrivka as one of its two nominees for the prestigious honor.

Joining Pokrivka from the PSAC is Shippensburg field hockey student-athlete and CWSA Division II Honda Athlete of the year Jazmin Petrantonio. Starting at 577 nominations from all levels of the NCAA, just 156 student-athletes remain in contention for NCAA Woman of the Year.

Now in its 32nd year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academic, athletics, service and leadership.

Along with being one of 156 total nominees remaining, Pokrivka is one of 39 nominations representing NCAA Division II institutions. Conference nominations are forwarded to the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, which identifies the top-10 honorees in each of the three NCAA divisions.

From those 30 honorees, the selection committee then determines the three finalists in each division for a total of nine finalists. The Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year from the nine finalists.

While being a full-time nurse at Lehigh Valley Hospital with a 3.92 GPA, Pokrivka led the Warrior defense with a tremendous graduate student season, ranking third nationally in caused turnovers per game and eighth in the country in ground balls per game. She was a major factor in ESU's defense leading the nation in ground balls per game, while the Warriors ranked third in caused turnovers per game and sixth in scoring defense among the 100-plus NCAA Division II women's lacrosse teams.

Following the impressive season defensively, Pokrivka was named to the IWLCA All-America First Team, IWLCA All-Region First Team, PSAC East Defender of the Year, All-PSAC East First Team, the PSAC Top 10 and earned a roster spot at the IWLCA Senior All-Star Game.

ESU advanced to its first-ever NCAA DII National Championship game in 2022 with back-to-back dramatic 13-12 overtime victories, before suffering just its second loss of the season to the University of Indianapolis in the national title game by a score of 11-9. The Warriors closed the season with a program record 20 wins and just two losses.

She closes her Warrior career by starting in all 74 games she appeared in, causing 179 turnovers and scooping 232 ground balls. Among active career leaders among all three NCAA divisions, she ranks second in caused turnovers and third in ground balls. She was a starter during all three of ESU's NCAA Semifinal appearances in 2018, 2021 and 2022.

As 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, this year's NCAA Woman of the Year award provides an important opportunity to honor incredible women and reflect on the impact of women on intercollegiate sports. In 2022, nearly 220,000 women are competing in college sports, and the NCAA received 577 nominations for this prestigious award.

You can learn more about the award program, next steps and previous winners by visiting ncaa.org/woty.