WISE, Va. – Recent UVa-Wise women's tennis graduate Junetta Nuckels has been nominated for the prestigious 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year award. The Richlands, Virginia (Richlands H.S.), native is one of only 117 NCAA Division II female athletes nominated across the nation and joins Urbana University softball player Katelyn Edwards as the only two nominees from the Mountain East Conference.
 
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. Across all division, NCAA member schools nominated a total of 517 student-athletes for the 2016 Woman of the Year award.
 
Nuckels was four-year letter winner for the Cavalier women's tennis team and has been a standout both on and off the court during the entirety of her collegiate career. Named Cavalier of the Year as a junior in 2015, Nuckels twice claimed a Division 2 Athletics Directors Association (D2 ADA) Academic Achievement Award, once as a freshman and then again as a junior, and was placed on the Mid-South Conference All-Academic Team following her freshman season. Most recently, Nuckels earned the UVa-Wise Faculty Athletic Award for graduating seniors this spring. She has been a Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges award recipient from 2013-16 and was named to the UVa-Wise Dean's List every year while a student-athlete at the College. Junetta was also a member in several honor societies, including the Darden Honor Society, Sigma Zeta Honor Society for science and math and Delta Epsilon Iota Academic Honor Society, in addition to being a National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) member.
 
On the court, the righty led the Cavs in singles victories the last two years, compiling a total of 21 singles match wins over her junior and senior seasons. This past season Nuckels also led the team in doubles victories, claiming nine overall wins and teaming up with fellow senior Haley Thacker to go 8-2 and post a 4-1 mark in Mountain East Conference play. The duo was a perfect 3-0 at No. 2 doubles and went 5-2 at No. 3. In singles, Nuckels earned seven match wins at the No. 6 spot and was undefeated (3-0) at the fifth position. As a junior, Junetta posted an impressive 11-3 overall record in singles play, going 5-1 at the fifth spot and 5-2 at No. 6 singles. During that 2014-15 season, Nuckels did not drop a MEC singles match and at one point held an 11-match win streak.
 
During her four years at UVa-Wise, Nuckels has been very active outside of the classroom and off the court as she has given up a lot of her time for worthy causes. A student member of the College Board as a senior, Nuckels attended a medical mission trip to Belize in 2014 and volunteered at the Tri-County Health Clinic that same year. From 2008 to 2014, Junetta was a volunteer at the Historic Crab Orchard Museum in Tazewell, Virginia, and as a junior was an elementary school volunteer with the UVa-Wise women's and men's tennis teams. She has been the women's tennis representative on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) since her freshman year and a member of The National Society of Leadership and Success, holding the Student Networking Team Coordinator position as a sophomore. For her efforts, Nuckels earned the Highland Cavalier Club Rising Senior Award in 2015 and the Outstanding Student Leader Award this past year.
 
A Resident Advisor (RA) as a junior and senior, Nuckels tutored both chemistry and Spanish during the 2014-15 school year. Junetta was also a coordinator for the Baptist Collegiate Ministry on campus all four years as a student, holding various leadership positions and being named president her junior year.
 
Nuckels graduated this past May with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and finished her academic career with a 3.53 cumulative grade point average. She will be attending medical school this fall.
 
Next, conferences assess their member school nominees and select up to two conference nominees. The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will then choose the top 30 honorees - 10 from each NCAA 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 from among those nine to determine the 2016 NCAA 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 Oct. 16 in Indianapolis.
 
To view a full list of the nominees, click here.