June 16, 2009

Center Valley, Pa. - The Patriot League has forwarded the names of Navy's Lizzie Barnes and Colgate's Curry Knox as its nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year honor. The Patriot League's senior woman administrators chosen Barnes and Knox as nominees due to their excellence in the four areas of importance for the NCAA Woman of the Year award: service, leadership, athletics and academics.

Barnes became the first player in Patriot League history to be named Goalkeeper of the Year twice, claiming the honor in 2006 and again in 2008. She holds the record for career goals-against average (0.65) for both Navy and the Patriot League. In 23 Patriot League games, she allowed just nine goals. She also holds school and League records for single-season shutouts with 13. Between Sept. 17 and Oct. 29, she held her opponents scoreless for a stretch of 859:23, the seventh-longest such streak in NCAA history. The New Orleans native led the Mids to back-to-back Patriot League titles in 2006 and 2007.

The 2009 graduate owned a 3.90 cumulative grade-point average as an information technology and computer science double major. She was named an ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-American twice in her career. She has been named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll in each of her seasons in Annapolis. She was a Lowe's Senior All-American and was named a finalist for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Barnes is the chapter president of the Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society. Within the classes for her two majors, Barnes holds a perfect 4.0 GPA. She was named the 2008 Patriot League Women's Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Barnes ranks 23rd in academic & military performance conduct amongst 1,074 members in Navy's 2009 class.

Knox was a standout for the Colgate track & field team, winning two individual Patriot League championships and anchoring the Raiders' 2009 4x100 meter relay team. She was named the Patriot League Female Track Athlete of the Year following the 2009 Patriot League Outdoor Championships. She has held the school record in six different events during her time in Hamilton. As a senior, she earned First-Team All-Patriot League honors in both indoor and outdoor track & field.

A native of Seattle, Knox graduated from Colgate with a 3.05 cumulative grade-point average as an English major. She received an Upstate Institute Fellowship and served as a four-year member of the Black Student Union. She was a founding member of GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever), a support group for people of color. She worked as an intern for the LBGTQ initiative and brought Jeff Sheng, a renowned photographer of gay and lesbian athletes, to Colgate's campus to display his photo series.

Other student-athletes in the running to be the Patriot League's NCAA Woman of the Year nominee were Holy Cross' Lesley Bautista (track & field), Lafayette's Maggie Condon (field hockey), Colgate's Johanna Johnson (soccer), American's Irene Schickhardt (field hockey), Army's Briana Stremick (volleyball) and Lehigh's Lisa Sweeney (softball).

Bautista competed in the pole vault and sprints for the Crusaders. She was named the team's Field Athlete of the Year during her final three seasons in Worcester. She holds the school record for pole vault and was also part of the school-record-setting 4x100 meter relay team. A recipient of the Wheelan O'Reilly Scholarship, Bautista holds a 3.49 GPA in biology and pre-medicine.

Condon led the Leopards in scoring in each of her final two seasons at Lafayette. She scored a team-high eight game-winning goals as a senior. She was a three-time All-Patriot League honoree and a two-time All-Region performer. She was named Outstanding Female Athlete by the Lehigh Valley Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. A business and economics major, Condon was named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll in 2008.

Johnson lettered all four seasons for the Raiders' soccer team. She was named to the All-Patriot League team twice. As a freshman, she was named Patriot League Rookie of the Year and received All-Region honors from SoccerBuzz. An Alumni Memorial Scholar, she was invited to participate in a research trip to Uganda in January. She has been on the Dean's List in each of her semesters at Colgate. She held a 3.88 GPA in psychology and was a member of both the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society and the Psi Chi National Honor Society.

A native of Germany, Schickhardt's first experience of the United States was with the American field hockey team. She graduated with 3.70 GPA as an economics and international affairs major with a minor in mathematics. She was named Patriot League Field Hockey Scholar-Athlete of the Year as a senior. She was voted to the National Field Hockey Coaches Association's Division I National Academic Squad all four year. A two-time All-American, Schickhardt helped the Eagles win four Patriot League titles during her career.

Stremick was the 2008 Patriot League Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship. She was named an Academic All-American as a senior. She ranked 15th in a class of 1,008 cadets. Stremick was a two-time All-Patriot League selection. She graduated from West Point with a 3.81 GPA in mechanical engineering.

Sweeney became the first student-athlete in League history to be named Patriot League Pitcher of the Year four times. She was also named Patriot League Player of the Year in 2008 and was tabbed Patriot League Tournament MVP three times. She helped lead the Mountain Hawks to three Patriot League crowns. Sweeney graduated from Lehigh with a 3.80 GPA in history and secondary education. She was named the 2009 Patriot League Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

The NCAA Woman of the Year award is in its 19th year and honors senior student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in service, leadership, athletics and academics.