Bryant's Carly Muise and Mike Williams Honored By NCAA

Bryant's Carly Muise and Mike Williams Recipients of Prestigious NCAA Awards

SMITHFIELD, RI -- Former softball standout Carly Muise and men's basketball graduate Mike Williams were recent recipients of national awards handed out by the NCAA.   Muise, a 2005 graduate and native of Hanson, Mass. was recently named the NCAA Woman of the Year for the State of Rhode Island while Williams, a 2004 graduate and native of Ellington, Conn. was awarded the NCAA Sportsmanship Award for Division II.  The NCAA Woman of the Year recognizes outstanding female student-athletes who have excelled in academic and community leadership. 

A native of Hanson, Mass., Muise becomes the second Bryant student-athlete to be honored as Woman of the Year from the state of Rhode Island.  Volleyball standout Meribah Dean was selected in 1996.  Chosen by a committee of representatives from member institutions, 29 of the 2005 state honorees are from Division I, while 16 represent Division II and six from Division III.  All represent 15 different sports.  She is the only female student-athlete from the state of Rhode Island representing all divisions.

A 2005 graduate of Bryant, Muise was a four-year letterwinner with the Bulldog softball team, earning First Team All-Northest-10 Conference honors this past spring with a .304 batting average and .980 fielding percentage at second-base.  A standout student-athlete, Muise was one of just 33 softball student-athletes nationwide to earn Academic All-America honors in 2005.  In addition, she is a four-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) and Northeast-10 Conference Scholar-Athlete.  This past spring, Muise was named Bryant’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year with a 3.93 grade point average in Applied Actuarial Mathematics.  

Williams, who earned his master's degree from Bryant in one year, helped lead the Bryant men's basketball team to the NCAA National Championship game this past season and concluded his career with 1,277 career points (13th all-time) and 987 career rebounds (3rd).  He set Bryant's school record with 301 career blocks - including a record 90 during his sophomore season.

Academically, Williams was inducted into the Bryant Chi Alpha Sigma honor society in 2004 and was a Northeast-10 Conference All-Academic and NE-10 Scholar-Athlete in 2005.  He is currently playing professionally in Italy.  Earlier this summer, Williams played in the William Jones Basketball Camp in Taiwan for a team representing the United States.

The NCAA Sportsmanship Award was chosen by a committee on sportsmanship and ethical conduct and awarded to those who exemplified good sportsmanship that characterizes the highest level of respect, caring, fairness, civility, honest, integrity, and responsibility during competition.