Former Eastern soccer player Kaylin Lorbert’s work on and off the field has culminated in a nomination for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

The Woman of the Year Award honors graduating student-ahtletes who have excelled in both athletics and academics.

Each conference in the NCAA nominates two women for the award.

The goalkeeper and biology major graduated this past spring with a 4.0 grade point average and a school-record 0.093 career goals against average.

Lorbert said she did not expect to be nominated for the award and called her nomination a really nice honor.

Eastern women’s soccer head coach Summer Perala said Lorbert’s academic success surpassed the requirements to be nominated for her reward. Lorbert’s athletic success in her junior and senior years was also a deciding factor in her nomination.

Perala said Lorbert was very deserving of the award and described Lorbert as one of the hardest working members of the team, both on and off the field.

“She is the epitome of what it takes to be a Division I athlete,” Perala said.

Lorbert said it was very time consuming to keep a 4.0 GPA while also playing a sport.

“You have to keep your priorities straight,” Lorbert said. “It was worth it in the end to graduate with a 4.0.”

Lorbert is currently in the process of applying to dental school. She is looking into several schools with the closest being in Kansas City, Mo. and the furthest being in Las Vegas.

Knowing that her goal was dental school helped Lorbert keep a focus on maintaining a high GPA.

“I knew dentistry was something I wanted to go into and it’s a very competitive field,” Lorbert said. “You have to have a strong GPA to apply and be a competitive applicant so I kind of knew what I wanted to do and had my mind set in the right direction.”

While working hard at keeping a high GPA Lorbert also led the Panther defense.

Perala said Lorbert’s skills between the goal posts were a big part of the defense’s improvement the last two seasons.

“For lack of a better term, she was the human wall last season,” Perala said. “She was a big part of directing the defense that brought down the goals against (statistic) the past two years.”

Lorbert said being a goalkeeper is like being the last line of defense. However, she does not shortchange her teammates.

“The defense and the rest of the team all had a lot to do with it, not just me,” Lorbert said. “I might have made the saves but all the other opportunities like the shots that didn’t make it on goal were a big part of the defense.”

Lorbert said balancing her time between academics and athletics at Eastern was a great learning experience.

In August the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will announce their top ten nominees per division. From that group the CWA will select the top three finalists per division and announce them in September.

Jordan Boner can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected]