INDIANAPOLIS – A pair of University of Hawai'i student-athletes, beach volleyball's Katie Spieler and track and field's Alex Porlier Langlois were announced on Tuesday as the Hawai'i representatives for the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. NCAA schools from all three of its divisions nominated 517 individuals for the prestigious national award which honors graduating female senior student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership.
 
This pool of school honorees marks the largest in the 26-year history of the award. Of the nominees for the national award, 231 competed in Division I, 117 competed in Division II and 169 competed in Division III athletics. The nominees also represent 21 different women's sports, and 127 of the nominees competed in more than one sport in college.
 
The Big West Conference will review each conference school's nomination and select up to two league representatives for consideration among the top 30, with 10 chosen from each division by the Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership. The top 30 will be announced in August.
 
From among those 30 candidates, the selection committee determines the top three in each division and will announce the top nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year. The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the annual award ceremony, Oct. 16 in Indianapolis.
 
Spieler finished her beach volleyball career this spring as the program's all-time individual wins leader at 102 victories and a .713 career win percentage, leading the Rainbow Wahine to the inaugural NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships this past season, while maintaining a perfect 4.0 grade point average as a graduate student in the Shidler College of Business. This spring, she also earned an accelerated master's degree in Accounting, after maintaining a perfect GPA in her undergraduate Accounting studies, graduating Summa Cum Laude in only three years.
 
The Santa Barbara, Calif. native was the centerpiece in a 2016 Rainbow Wahine season that saw an 18-10 team record for UH, an inaugural Big West Championship and a fourth-place NCAA finish.
 
After capping off her second degree at UH this spring, she was awarded the NCAA Beach Volleyball Elite 90 Award for the highest GPA among the championship field, was named the Jack Bonham Award, presented to the top UH senior female student-athlete and was named second-team CoSIDA Academic All-America this month. She also earned the Jennifer Matsuda Award for highest UH student-athlete GPA in consecutive seasons. In addition, she was part of the Big West Pairs Team of the Year and received her second American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America nod. She currently ranks among the top three female players in the California Beach Volleyball Association and is beginning her professional career this summer in Sweden.
 
UH's first shot put thrower at the NCAA Track and Field Championships (2015), Porlier Langlois made her third consecutive appearance representing the Rainbow Wahine at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships last month. This season, Porlier Langlois broke her own outdoor shot put record with a mark of 54-2.75 (16.53m), sitting in third in the program discus standings and fifth in the hammer throw, while also holding the indoor shot put school record. She finished second at the Big West Championships in both the shot put and discus, ending the season ranking 33rd and 54th in the nation, respectively.
 
Last season, she finished 19th at the national meet, earning U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-America honorable mention. The St.-Cesaire, Quebec native capped off a season in which she was named Hawai'i's female Big West Scholar-Athlete with an appearance representing her home country at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea, earning seventh in the shot put. She finished her career with one Big West gold, on top of four silver medals.
 
She too is a proven student-athlete off the throwing ring. A member of the UH Dean's List in all but one semester, she has received four academic all-conference honors, is a four-time Big West Scholar-Athlete and is a two-time USTFCCCA Academic All-American, graduating this spring with her degree in Animal Science. After extensive student research on animal nutrition, she's moving to an advanced degree in either Veterinary or Medicine, but still has her sights set on representing Team Canada again in an Olympic games.

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