SHERMAN, Texas - Austin College's Valery Piachonkina, who was a four-year starter for the women's water polo program, has been nominated for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. She is one of 577 graduating student-athletes to have received this honor, and one of just seven women's water polo players to be nominated nationally.

Piachonkina graduated summa cum laude with honor's in history in the spring of 2022, and was a member of Phi Kappa Beta, Sigma Delta Pi, and Chi Alpha Sigma honor's societies. She was also named to the CWPA Outstanding All-Academic tier all four years of her career, and in 2021 was named the recipient of Austin College's Erwin E. Smith Research Fellowship for Oustanding Student in History. She was also the recipient of the Austin College Lemuel Scarbrough Summer Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences that same year, and also earned membership to the Alpha Chi honor's society.

A four-year letterwinner and starting goalie for the Austin College women's water program, Piachonkina helped lead the team to a national ranking and a berth in the first ever Division III Final Four, where the 'Roos placed third in 2022. She was named CWPA All-America three times, including being named second team All-America this past season. Throughout her career, she was named CWPA Defensive Player of the Week nine times, including four times in 2022.

In addition to her excellence both in the pool and the classroom, Piachonkina was a partipant in Austin College's Great Day of Service, and in 2019 spoke at Texas Tech's 35th Annual Conference on the Advancement of Women. She served as an Austin College Writing Center Tutor, and was an Austin College First-Year Seminar Leader in 2020. In 2022, she attended and spoke at the 135th American Historical Association Annual Meeting, presenting a portion of her honor's thesis at what is the world's largest conference for professional historians. 

Established in 1991, the award recognizes female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers.

This year's nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, including 248 from Division I, 127 from Division II, and 202 from Division III. Of the 577 nominations, 23 sports are represented, with 125 student-athletes competing in multiple sports.

Each year, NCAA member schools are encouraged to celebrate their top graduating female student-athletes by nominating them for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Up to two female student-athletes can be recognized from each school if at least one of them is an international student-athlete or student-athlete of color.

The Woman of the Year Selection Committee will select 10 student-athletes from each division, determining the Top 30 honorees. Of the Top 30, the Woman of the Year Selection Committee will announce nine finalists, three from each NCAA division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will review the finalists and name the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year.

For the first time in the award's history, the Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the Woman of the Year will be named at the NCAA Convention. The 2023 Convention will take place in January in San Antonio.