CLAREMONT, Calif. - Senior women's tennis player Ella Brissett was one of two SCIAC nominations for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award, the conference announced following a vote of the SCIAC athletic directors. 

The NCAA Woman of the Year program was established in 1991 and honors the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three divisions. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by summer 2025.

Brissett was a part of two national championship teams with the Athenas during her career, providing the clinching point with a singles win against Chicago in 2022. She also had the pivotal win in the 2023 title run when CMS went back-to-back, coming back for a three-set win for the clinching point in a 5-4 win over Pomona-Pitzer in the regional finals (after also having a key comeback win in doubles). She was a two-time All-American in doubles, and was a three-time All-SCIAC selection, winning first-team honors this past season. 

In addition to her athletic accolades, Brissett was also a first-team Academic All-American selection, earned the ITA Ann Lebedeff Leadership Award, the ITA Division III Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award, and the SCIAC Character Award. 

Brissett also had a tremendous impact in the CMS community and beyond. As a sophomore, she founded the Women's Empowerment in Sports Club (WEIS), which aims to build bridges between female student-athletes both on her campus and the broader community. With this club, Brissett and other members organized alumni panels and National Girls and Women in Sports Day activities aimed at empowering young girls. She has also been a college peer mentor for Women in STEM, a CMS Title IX Peer leader, a Diversity Equity and Inclusion Intern with the Keck Science Department, and a SAAC Representative.

Off campus, Brissett has volunteered with the House of Ruth, as a youth engagement volunteer at elementary schools, as a triage assistant at a free women's health clinic. Her academic pursuits have extended beyond campus as well, conducting neurobiology research into degenerative diseases as a Caltech Amgen Scholar, completing a clinical research internship in oral imagining, and authoring multiple undergraduate research papers.

Brissett and Pomona-Pitzer women's tennis player Angie Zhou will be the two representatives from the SCIAC who will advance to the next round of voting for the NCAA Woman of the Year in the fall, when the top 30 finalists (10 per division) will be announced. A year ago, Cooper McKenna of the CMS women's water polo team was one of the 30 finalists and was invited to the NCAA Convention for the awards ceremony in January.