A basketball player and tennis standout are the Pacific West Conference's nominations to the national ballot for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
Azusa Pacific's Alex Lowden and Academy of Art's Yun "Nicole" Shiau were selected from a pool of applicants by the conference office. Lowden is a recent graduate and outstanding four-year basketball player for the Cougars, while Shiau just finished her career on the tennis courts for the Urban Knights and is a former PacWest Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The nomination is based on outstanding achievement on the courts, classroom and in the community. The NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will now choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 each from division I, II and III—from the conference-level nominees.
Yun "Nicole" Shiau, a native of Taichung, Taiwan, earned her bachelor’s degree in Communications & Media Technologies after transferring to the San Francisco campus from Elon University. Finishing with a 3.98 grade point average, she was a producer for ART U's weekly live stream program, worked with the San Francisco Parks and Recreation youth tennis clinics and served on the Urban Knights' event staff for home athletics events. She also participated in food drives for the Third Parent Family and Youth Service.
She was a three-time ITA Scholar-Athlete and the winner of the 2022 PacWest Women's Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Shiau twice was named to the CoSIDA/CSC All-District Academic Team and on campus was a two-time ART U School of Communications & Media Technologies Producer of the Year.
On the court, she was a 2022 First Team All-PacWest Doubles selection, was twice named All-PacWest Second Team in Singles and teamed with Sofia Ragona to win the 2021 ITA Regional Title in Doubles. She was a two-time team captain and the 2022 Urban Knight of the Year, given to the ART U student-athlete who best combines athletics, academics and community service.
Alex Lowden graduated from Azusa Pacific in 2023 with a major in Biology with an Organismal Concentration and also a Business Management minor. The Glendora, Calif. native had a 3.70 GPA and graduated Cum Laude.
Lowden was APU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) President, after serving as Vice President and women's basketball representative. She was a part of two APU Research Team projects--one, on a team which studied the role of higher education in business affected the sustainability of Singapore, and the other was research of the regenerative properties of axolotls. She also participated on a missions trip with her basketball team to the Philippines.
The versatile guard was a team captain, was a 2021 CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American and was also a two-time CoSIDA All-District Academic selection. Lowden was the PacWest Defender of the Year in 2022 and was named to the All-PacWest team three times. She helped lead two Cougar teams that won the PacWest regular season titles and the conference tournament titles.
The Top 30 honorees will be announced this Fall. From there, the selection committee will narrow the pool to three finalists from each division. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2023 Woman of the Year from the nine finalists, which will be announced at the 2024 NCAA Convention.