Lincoln, Neb. - Nebraska senior outside hitter Gina Mancuso was named one of 10 finalists for the 2012 Senior CLASS Award for women's volleyball on Friday, Oct. 19.
A 2011 AVCA All-American, Mancuso leads the Huskers with 220 total kills in 2012 and an average of 3.44 kills per set. She has five double-doubles on the year and has recorded at least 10 kills in all of the Huskers' matches against ranked teams this year.
Mancuso was named a second-team CoSIDA Academic All-District VII selection in 2011, also earning academic All-Big Ten accolades. She is a three-year member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, serving as the community outreach officer for the 2011-12 school year. She was a Hero Leadership Award recipient in 2012 and has spent numerous hours volunteering in the community with various organizations.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The finalists were chosen by a media committee from the list of 30 candidates announced in September. Nationwide fan voting begins immediately to help select the winner. Fans are encouraged to vote on the Senior CLASS Award website through November 26. Fan votes will be combined with media and Division I head coaches' votes to determine the winner.
The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship, which will take place December 13 and 15 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Fan balloting consists of one-third of the total vote and is available right now on the award's official web site: www.seniorclassaward.com, while Mancuso's profile is listed here: www.seniorclassaward.com/athletes/gina_mancuso/. Fans can vote as many times as they want, but are limited to one entry per day.
The other nine finalists include Alaina Bergsma (Oregon), Dana Cranston (Colorado State), Ashley Frazier (Kentucky), Altrese Hawkins (Memphis), Rachel Iaquaniello (Eastern Michigan), Rachael Kidder (UCLA), Rachel Krabacher (Dayton), Sam Serley (UAB) and Ariel Turner (Purdue).