Bethany Arabe's four years in a Point Loma soccer uniform has storybook written all over it, with all-conference, all-region honors and a 2023 NCAA national championship, just for starters. 

She also had a 3.91 grade point average in her double major of Spanish and Biology-Chemistry. She participated in numerous missions trips, served as a Study Abroad mobile journalist in Ecuador, and was a special needs volunteer at her church.

Arabe is the first two-time winner of the Sea Lion of the Year award, given to a student-athlete who showcases a combination of excellence in academic success, athletic performance, spiritual leadership and community service.

With all of that and so much more in her trophy case, this latest honor after her college days are done is the perfect cherry on top to an amazing four years.

Arabe is a Pacific West Conference nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year. She will be listed among the most elite student-athletes in each of the three divisions of the NCAA. Next, the Woman of the Year Selection Committee will choose the Top 30 honorees - 10 from each division - from the conference-level nominees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in the fall. Joining her this year as a PacWest nominee is fellow soccer standout Jaci Maze of Azusa Pacific (look for her story next Friday, Sept. 26).

Arabe is the first-ever PacWest nominee from Point Loma. This past month, she began a four-year journey at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine where ultimately she may continue the theme of service as a physician in the US Navy, or serving as a doctor in underserved areas around the world.

"It is a great honor to be the first PLNU athlete nominated for this award," Arabe said. "There are many accomplished, talented and amazing female athletes at Point Loma who are worthy of this recognition, so I wholeheartedly see this as an opportunity to represent them as well. It was a privilege to train alongside some of the best female athletes in college sports, but more importantly, they are amazing women outside of their sport too. I am so grateful to be able to represent Point Loma with this honor, as well as the incredible female athletes at PLNU and on the women’s soccer team."

The Fullerton native arrived at Point Loma in 2020 and made a soccer splash right away. She was a starter immediately through a pair of shortened Covid seasons, and then began four standout years that each finished with an All-Pacific West Conference honors. 

In 2023, she helped lead the Sea Lions to its first NCAA National Championship and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team. Last Fall (2024), the 5-foot-4 forward earned D2CCA All-West Region honors, led the PacWest in game-winning goals (5) and was named the PacWest tournament Most Valuable Player. Point Loma won the conference regular season title, the PacWest tournament crown and advanced to the NCAA West Region final with Arabe as the team captain.

She was twice named the Sea Lion of the Year and was selected as the S.L.A.M Sea Lion of the Year across all sports on campus. She finishes her career 11th on the PacWest all-time assist list with 17.

Arabe graduated Summa Cum Laude. She was a NCAA DII 50th Anniversary Scholarship receipient, and earned the PLNU Biology-Chemistry Department Molecular Sciences Award. During her undergrad time at Point Loma she was a biology research assistant, working on a project aimed to assemble bacteriophage lambda procapsids in vitro to eventually encapsulate drugs for targeted delivery to sites of disease such as cancer. She was also a laboratory teaching assistant.

As impressive as that is, her list of volunteer work reaches another level.

During her time in San Diego, she was involved in Tijuana medical outreach, was a integrative-healing-through-arts volunteer (working one-on-one with hospital patients on art projects), and was a tutor of African refugee students. Additionally, she was a homeless outreach volunteer, a health clinic volunteer and a Vacation Bible School volunteer. 

Arabe was also a leader on a PLNU missions trip to Africa and was on a Mexico outreach team that built a church in Tijuana.

"Somehow Bethany holds so many things at one time," said her coach Kristi Kiely. "It's tremendous. Her ability to not only be present in so many different spaces but to intentionally make those spaces better is what she is most known for and is the legacy she leaves.

"I walked into the locker room the other day and she had left the team a note of encouragement for this year. She is always thinking of how to encourage people because she's constantly thinking about the people she's in relationship with and what they might need. And that will include our team, our staff, roommates, other athletes...the list is endless. I remember when I experienced a great loss in my family, I found on my doorstep a note she dropped off expressing her sadness and offering to meet whatever need our family had." 

The NCAA Woman of the Year program honors the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three divisions. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by Summer 2025.

The NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee identifies the Top 30 – 10 from each division – and from there selects three finalists from each division. From the nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then selects the NCAA Woman of the Year, who is named during the NCAA Convention in January 2026 in Washington, D.C.

The NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized graduating female student-athletes since 1991 for excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership throughout their college careers. For more information about the program and previous winners, please visit ncaa.org/woty.