LA JOLLA, Calif. – Sherriah Harrington, former UC San Diego softball first baseman, has been named a 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year nominee. She is one of eight Big West student-athletes nominated and one of 535 nationwide. The NCAA announced its full list of potential award winners on Thursday afternoon.
 
Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
 
The nominees competed in 24 sports across all three NCAA divisions, including 251 nominees from Division I, 107 from Division II and 177 from Division III. 
 
Harrington, UC San Diego's 2021 Most Outstanding Senior Scholar-Athlete, continues to add to her list of accolades following her four years in a Triton uniform. The highly decorated individual is a National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-America Third Team selection and a four-time all-conference recipient, including her most recent All-Big West Honorable Mention designation. The team captain led UC San Diego – in its inaugural Division I season – to a fourth-place finish in conference play. Hailing from Chula Vista, Harrington graduated from the program ranked seventh in career batting average (.361), sixth in home runs (16) and tied for eighth in RBIs (97).
 
Additionally, Harrington was a standout in the classroom. The human biology major and global health minor was recently named to the Big West Spring All-Academic team, generating a cumulative GPA of 3.53. In 12 out of 16 quarters, she earned Athletic Director's Honor Roll recognition. Harrington currently serves as a Palomar Pathmaker Intern where she assists in patient care in the acute surgical care department and will begin as a medical scribe at San Ysidro Health in August.
 
An active member of the community, Harrington was a Tritons Rise-Up (TRU) Scholar-Athlete Committee Member in which she helped create a space for respectful and open dialogue regarding social justice across the La Jolla-based campus. She also volunteered in Team-Up at Del Mar Elementary School and the Miracle League of San Diego.

Harrington is one of two UC San Diego scholar-athletes to receive the Woman of the Year nomination. Former rowing co-captain Taylor Iantosca was also on the list of nominees.
 
The Big West nominees are as follows:
 

Name	Institution	Sport
Vanessa Austin	CSU Bakersfield	Basketball
Renata Bath	UC Riverside	Indoor Volleyball
Haley Brown	Cal State Fullerton	Soccer
Emily Hansen	CSU Bakersfield	Indoor & Beach Volleyball
Sherriah Harrington	UC San Diego	Softball
Sydney Holmes	UC Davis	Track & Field
Petra Melounova	Hawai'i	Tennis
Brianna Villanueva	UC Irvine	Track & Field

For a full list of the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year nominees and details on the next steps of the selection process, click here.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.