BOONE, N.C. – App State's Rachel Gaines is a candidate for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
The NCAA announced the list of nominees Tuesday. Gaines excelled in goal for App State's field hockey team and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in environmental science and minors in sport science and coaching in August 2019. She maintains a 4.0 GPA in her master's program in renewable energy engineering and will begin pursuit of her doctorate at the University of Illinois this fall.
Last month, Gaines became the first App State field hockey student-athlete to be named an Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), earning a spot on the women's third team.