Sept. 16, 2009

Indianapolis, Ind. - Grand Valley State women's soccer player Katy Tafler was named one of the nine finalists for the 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year award, as announced on Wednesday, Sept. 16. The annual honor, which recognizes female student-athletes who have excelled in athletics, academics, and service and leadership, will be presented Oct. 18 during a banquet in Indianapolis.

Along with Tafler, other finalists include Duke's Amanda Blumenherst (golf), LSU's Ashleigh Clare-Kearney (gymnastics), Fredonia State's Julia Hopson (track and field), Emory's Dani Huffman (volleyball), Pittsburg State's Venessa Lee (cross country/track and field), Kenyon's Tracy Menzel (swimming and diving), Arizona's Lacey Nymeyer (swimming and diving), and Northwest Nazarene's Ashley Puga (cross country/track and field).

During Tafler's four-year career at GVSU, she has received numerous awards. She is a two-time Daktronics, Inc. Division II Player of the year (2006, '07) and has been a Daktronics, Inc. Midwest Region First Team honoree for the past three seasons. Tafler has earned Datronics, Inc. First Team All-American status in each of her last three years. She was an National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Second Team All-American her senior year after being an NSCAA First Team All-American her sophomore and junior years. In both 2006 and 2007, she was named to the NSCAA Division II Final Four All-Tournament team. Tafler is a two-time GLIAC Commissioners Award winner as well as one of 174 recipients to be awarded the NCAA postgraduate scholarship.

In the classroom, Tafler earned a 3.91 GPA (4.0 scale) while majoring in biomedical science. She was recently honored with the prestigious NCAA Top VIII award and was named the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American of the Year following a season in which she scored 20 goals and recorded 13 assists for 53 points.

The nine finalists advanced from an initial pool of 132 nominees from conferences and independent institutions and then was narrowed down to 30 semifinalists, 10 each from Divisions I, II, and II.