IRVINE, Calif. - Recent UC Irvine women's soccer graduate
Alyssa Moore has been nominated for the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
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Moore spent five years as an Anteater but fought through recovery from a torn ACL prior to her freshman season and saw her second season at UC Irvine canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The forward finally reached the pitch in 2021 and made an instant impact with six goals, four assists, and 16 points in over 1,000 minutes for the first of her three All-Big West honors in her career and a Big West Championship three-peat for her and the Anteaters. Her most notable strike was a game-winner in a 1-0 victory over No. 3 UCLA in the NCAA First Round upset win over the Bruins.
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Moore's consistency shown through in her 2022 and 2023 seasons with six more goals, four game-winners, and 12 points in 2022 leading to second-team honors and the Anteaters scoring another NCAA First Round upset and reaching the Sweet Sixteen for the second time in program history. Moore topped everything with a seven-goal, 19-point season for first-team honors, and was again the beneficiary of an NCAA First Round game-winning goal to upset top-seed UCLA and boost the 'Eaters through to the Sweet Sixteen culminating in United Soccer Coaches All-West Region Third Team status.
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Moore's impact was felt far beyond the soccer pitch as an exemplary student-athlete earning Dean's List status 11 times, honored on the Big West Commissioner's Honor Roll, as a Big West Fall All-Academic Team honoree, and CSC Academic All-District in her fifth year.
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Moore learned to not take her position as a student athlete for granted using her platform to benefit teammates, other student-athletes, and community members as Student-Athlete Advisory Committee President encouraging engagement in community service programs to benefit the less fortunate, from toy drives at children's hospitals to blood drives for a teammate battling cancer. She also created the first-ever athletic awards banquet to recognize and cherish all that student-athletes accomplished simply for their involvement in college athletics. Moore herself was awarded the 2023 UCI Athletics Leadership Award.
Moore's community outreach included an internship at KidWorks in Santa Ana serving as a college mentor in an after-school program that used sports balls as a tool for developing a posture of love, prayer, and integrity in underprivileged youth. This resulted in disadvantaged children of a neighboring community being able to pursue their athletic and academic dreams by demonstrating the mindset necessary to overcome any challenge along the way. She was also a contributor to three build sites as a team lead for Habitat for Humanity.
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Conference offices will now select up to two nominees from the institutional pool to move forward in the process. The Woman of the Year Selection Committee will then choose the top-30 honorees (10 from each division) from the conference-level nominees. The selection committee will then determine the top three in each division with the nine finalists being announced in November.
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Since 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized graduating student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership throughout their college careers.
A record-breaking 619 student-athletes were nominated by NCAA member schools for the 2023 Woman of the Year award. This year's nominees represent a diverse set of well-rounded student-athletes with 24 different sports across all three NCAA divisions. Within that nomination pool, 264 competed in Division I, 128 in Division II and 227 in Division III.
