Akubuilo Named Senior CLASS Award Candidate
Senior defender Chidera Akubuilo is one of 30 players in Division I Women’s Soccer to be selected as a candidate for the prestigious award.
Sept. 25, 2017
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. In total, sixty NCAA® men’s and women’s soccer student-athletes who excel both on and off the field were selected as candidates for the award. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
Akubuilo, a Torrance, Calif., native, is the reigning Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-Conference honoree. The senior has made 64 starts over the last four years, including all 10 games she has played in this year. Her performance in 2016 helped the Rebels win Mountain West regular season and tournament championships in the same year for the first time in program history en route to their first NCAA appearance in 10 years. Her stellar play has continued this season as the Rebels finished non-conference play 8-1 – a program-best through the first nine games.
Each of the two candidate classes will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one male candidate and one female candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
The Senior CLASS Award winners will be announced during the 2017 NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Cup® championships in December.
For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.
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