INDIANAPOLIS – Penn State Harrisburg women's volleyball player Brittany Ebaugh has been nominated for the NCAA's 2020 Woman of the Year award.

Rooted in Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award was established in 1991 to recognize graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service, and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

Ebaugh joins 605 total female student-athletes, an all-time high, as nominees for the award across all divisions. She is one of 220 NCAA Division III student-athletes nominated for the honor.

Ebaugh's nomination comes on the heels of the completion of one of the strongest careers in program history. The senior capped her impressive four-year body of work by being named the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Defensive Player of the Year, picking up an ECAC Division III First-Team All-Conference accolade, and earning NEAC First-Team All-Conference recognition. In addition to leading all of NCAA Division III in block solos (70), Ebaugh also ranked fifth in the nation in total blocks (145) and blocks per set (1.25). The team captain led the NEAC with a .364 hitting percentage, ranked sixth among conference players with 416.5 total points and finished seventh in the league with 305 kills. The middle blocker is the program's all-time leader in kills and blocks and the Stewartstown, Pa. native became the first player in school history to surpass 1,000 points for her career. The three-year team captain was named the NEAC Player of the Week (9/16) and NEAC Defensive Player of the Week (11/4) earlier this fall.

In addition to her outstanding achievements on the court, Ebaugh has also earned a bevy of academic honors during her career. She was named a NEAC Scholar-Athlete following her senior season after being selected to the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) All-Academic Team three times. A member of the Capital College Honors Program, she recently graduated early with a Communications degree after achieving an impressive 3.89 cumulative GPA. Ebaugh was chosen as the student marshal for the Penn State Harrisburg School of Humanities at the college's fall 2019 commencement ceremony.

In the community, Ebaugh served as a volunteer with the Ronald McDonald House of Hershey, the nearby Middletown Home, the Adopt-a-Family program, and at Southeast Elementary School in the Lebanon School District. She's also served as a four-year member on Penn State Harrisburg's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and was a key contributor to the college's student newspaper INKED. 

The four pillars of the NCAA Woman of the Year Award include academics, athletics, service, and leadership. Each year, the NCAA encourages schools to honor its top graduating female student-athletes by submitting them for consideration for the Woman of the Year award. Conferences assess each nominee's eligibility and select up to two conference nominees. All conference nominees are forwarded to the NCAA's Woman of the Year selection committee. From there, 30 honorees are chosen – 10 from each division.

The committee then determines the top three nominees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will select from the final nine to choose the 2020 Woman of the Year.

The 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award winner will be announced, and the top 30 honorees celebrated, later this fall.