Carter earns prestigious NCAA award

Former Wildcat named state winner of NCAA award

ABILENE -- Melanie Carter's outstanding Abilene Christian University basketball career might have come to an end more than six months ago, but the honors continue to roll in for one of the most decorated athletes in the history of ACU women's athletics.

On Monday, Carter -- who graduated with honors last May with a degree in communications and a four-year grade-point average of 3.78 -- was named the Texas winner of the NCAA Woman of the Year, joining former ACU all-America basketball player Jennifer  Clarkson and Jackie Bucher as the only ACU athletes to ever win the award.  Clarkson won the state award in 1996, the same year she was named the NCAA Division II Female Athlete of the Year.  Bucher won the state award after the 1999-2000 season.

The prestigious award honors outstanding female student-athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics and community leadership, and have completed their collegiate athletics eligibility.

Colleges and universities nominated 276 student-athletes for this year's award.  A committee comprised of representatives from member schools selected the state winners.   Winners from all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were announced Tuesday.

A national winner -- the NCAA Woman of the Year -- will be selected by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics from among 10 finalists.  The top 10 finalists will be announced Sept. 15.  The national winner will be announced at the 2004 NCAA Woman of the Year dinner Sunday, Oct. 31, at The Indianapolis Westin.  This is the fourteenth year that this award -- one of the top honors the NCAA bestows -- will be given.

Carter was one of only 11 NCAA Division II student-athletes to win the award, and she beat out student-athletes from the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, Baylor University, Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University to win the state award.

Among her numerous community service projects, Carter was actively involved with ACU's Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter (Wildcats for Christ), and she served as a volunteer for thelocal Red Cross, The House That Kerry Built and Habitat for Humanity.

She led a youth group ather home church, and was involved in the Sigma Theta Chi women's social club and the Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, as well as  the "W" Club (ACU's women's honor society).

ACU head coach Shawna Lavender coached Carter during her entire four-year career, and she said she wasn't really surprised that Carter was the winner of the state award.

"Anybody who knows Melanie knows how deserving she is of an award like this," Lavender said.  "She's the type of person who makes everyone around her want to be better people.  She has a huge heart for people, and never puts herself before anyone else, and she is always quick to credit the Lord and others for her success.  She never wants the credit or attention, but she definitely deserves it."

Carter -- a 2000 graduate of Lubbock Monterey High School -- is now living and working in Nashville, Tenn., where she is pursuing her dream of a career as Christian music artist.

"I'm very honored and humbled to be chosen as the winner of this award," Carter said Mondayevening.  "I'm honored first of all that the coaches at ACU thought of me to nominate for the award, and I' m really surprised to have won it.  I haven't really thought about it very much since Shawna (Lavender) told me a few months ago that I was being nominated for the award.  I really didn't think anything would come of it, but I was really very surprised and honored when I found out I had won.  I have to give the credit to the Lord, and to the people at ACU for everything.  Nothing I have done over the last four years would have been possible without them."

What Carter did over a four-year career is enough to make one's head spin.

Carter capped one of the great careers in ACU basketball history last spring by helping the Wildcats return to post-season action for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.  She earned both first team all-Lone Star Conference South Division and first team all-South Central Region for the fourth straight year, and she was also named honorable mention all-America.

Cater finished her career as the third-leading scorer in both ACU and LSC history with 1,962 points, behind former Wildcats Claudia Schleyer (2,770 points) and Jennifer Clarkson (2,463 points) on both lists.  She also set both the LSC and ACU career record for field goal percentage (63.8 percent on 715 of 1,120 shooting), and that mark is tied for fourth all-time NCAA Division II history.

Carter set the NCAA Division II record for field goal percentage by a sophomore (67.9), and her 68-percent shooting performance as a freshman in 2000-01 is the second-best performance by a freshman in NCAA Division II history.  Carter also recorded 949 career rebounds, fifth on the ACU list, and her career average of 17.8 points per game is also fifth on ACU's all-time list behind Schleyer (24.3 ppg), Clarkson (20.9 ppg), Jackie Bucker (20.0 ppg)and Teresa Rubart (18.0 ppg).

She is the only player in ACU basketball history -- male or female -- to earn all-region honors four times.  She's also a three-time academic all-Lone Star Conference and first team academic all-district selection.  Last spring she was named the winner of the Paul Goad Memorial Award, signifying her status as the top female athlete at ACU in 2003-04.

In addition to her conference and regional academic awards, Carter -- a Presidential Scholarship recipient -- was named a winner of an ACU Trustee Award, the highest award given at commencement for leadership and bringing honor to the university.