CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Loyola University Maryland recent women's lacrosse graduate Kristen Yanchoris was announced as one of the Patriot League's two nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year in a release by the conference office on Tuesday afternoon.

Yanchoris, who was chosen along with Rafaela Rubas from American's field hockey program, was named the Patriot League's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year back in July. She is now part of the final 58 Division I nominees on the ballot for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, which was originally established in 1991.

Yanchoris and Rubas were selected through a vote by the Patriot League's Senior Woman Administrators. Nominees were picked based on their strength in four pillars, including academics, athletics, service and leadership.

A two-time Patriot League Women's Lacrosse Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Yanchoris graduated from Loyola with a 3.97 grade-point average which ranked second among all student-athletes in this year's class. She majored in business administration, with a concentration in marketing and a minor in information systems. 

Yanchoris was previously named a two-time Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District At-Large honoree, and she was a three-time selection to the Academic All-Patriot League Team. At Loyola, she earned the University's Class of 2019 Business Achievement Award, a Magis Scholar Award for achieving strong grades in a rigorous program of study, the Student Choice A.L.I.V.E. Award for demonstrating Action, Loyalty, Integrity, Values and Excellence and the women's lacrosse program's Diane Geppi-Aikens Endowed Scholarship Award for sharing the values, characteristics and traits that Geppi-Aikens did for family, competitiveness, advocacy for sports and lacrosse, and toughness.

On the field, Yanchoris became the first women's lacrosse player in Patriot League history to earn four-straight all-conference honors, achieving first team status as a defender in each of her final three seasons. She was additionally a second team IWLCA All-Mid Atlantic Region honoree in 2019 after starting all 21 games and totaling 27 ground balls and 19 caused turnovers. As a junior, Yanchoris was named the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year and an ILWomen All-America selection.

Yanchoris earned starts in each of her 79 collegiate appearances, recording 114 ground balls and 83 caused turnovers at Loyola. The Greyhounds went 57-24 during her four years with the program, reaching the NCAA tournament three times, winning two Patriot League championships and going a perfect 36-0 against conference opponents during the regular season.

The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will next choose the top 30 honorees – 10 from each division. These selections will be recognized and the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the annual award ceremony on Sunday, October 20 in Indianapolis, Ind.