August 11, 2025

Meredith Nye selected as OVC's NCAA Woman of the Year nominee

Former Tennessee Tech women's soccer player Meredith Nye has been selected as the nominee from the Ohio Valley Conference for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Established in 1991, the award recognizes female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership throughout their college careers. The NCAA Woman of the Year program is an important opportunity to honor and reflect on the impact of women on intercollegiate sports.

By OVC Media Relations and TTU Athletics Media Relations

• NCAA Woman of the Year Website

Former Tennessee Tech women's soccer player Meredith Nye has been selected as the nominee from the Ohio Valley Conference for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

Established in 1991, the award recognizes female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership throughout their college careers. The NCAA Woman of the Year program is an important opportunity to honor and reflect on the impact of women on intercollegiate sports.

Nye capped her career by earning the OVC's Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award in May. The award is given annually to an OVC male or female student-athlete of junior or senior standing who best exemplifies the characteristics of the late Morehead State student-athlete, coach and administrator Steve Hamilton. Criteria include significant athletic performance along with good sportsmanship and citizenship. The award is voted on by the Conference's athletics directors and sports information directors.

On the field, Nye was the first OVC soccer student-athlete to earn All-OVC honors five times. A team captain for two seasons, the native of Jackson, Tenn., was a second-team All-OVC pick in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024 and a first-team selection in 2023. Additionally, she was an OVC All-Tournament pick in 2023 and 2024. Her play helped the Golden Eagles to back-to-back-to-back OVC regular season championships from 2022-24, as the team compiled an 18-3-5 Conference record over that time.

In the classroom, she was an eight-time selection for the Dean's List, a nine-time member of the Tech Athletic Director's Honor Roll and three times was named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll. In her academic efforts, Nye spent three years as an Athletics academic tutor, an engineering department tutor, Nye earned the Ned McWherter Scholarship and the James A. and Roberta Hill Carlen Endowed Memorial Scholarship in Engineering. She also received the Engineering Department's Eminence Award for Distinguished Design in 2023 for her team's project to win the award was to design two tables for a nine-year-old girl in need.

She served two terms as the president for TTU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) during her four-year tenure and three seasons as an OVC representative. She has been active in several advisory roles, serving three seasons on the OVC Awareness Committee, one year on the University Ad Hoc Calendar Committee and one year on the OVC Sport Management Cabinet. She was also selected as Tech Athletics' nominee for the Derryberry Award – the University's top student honor named for long-time University President Everett Derryberry, an inaugural inductee into the OVC Hall of Fame – as well as the program's Woman of the Year Award winner.

Nye was a 2024 Maverick Innovators Fellow through the Clouse-Elrod Foundation and worked four years as a leader for the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp through Rotary International. She also worked with the TTU Food Pantry, Upper Cumberland Habitat for Humanity, Tech's Window on the World event, the FIRST LEGO League, a Remote Area Medical clinic at Cookeville High School, and as an engineering lab assistant; organized a clothing drive throughout Tech Athletics.

Each year, NCAA member schools are encouraged to celebrate their top graduating female student-athletes by nominating them for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Up to two female student-athletes can be recognized from each school if at least one of them is an international student-athlete or student-athlete of color.

The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division — from the conference-level nominees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in the fall. The selection committee will then determine the top three honorees in each division from the Top 30, and the nine finalists will be announced later in the fall. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will choose the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year. The honorees will be celebrated at the Woman of the Year Award Presentation at the NCAA Convention in January.