-- Carly Muise, a former four-year standout softball student-athlete at Bryant University has been named the NCAA Woman of the Year for the State of Rhode Island.  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.  Bryant captured the school’s first-ever NE-10 Conference Championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the second-straight year in 2005. 

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.  

The committee of institutional representatives will select 10 finalists from the 51 state winners, based on grade-point average, athletic achievement and community service. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will choose the national winner from among the 10 finalists at the annual awards dinner October 29 in Indianapolis, IN.  Kelly Albin of UC Davis was recognized as the NCAA Woman of the Year in 2004.