STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford senior forward Erica McCall was one of 30 NCAA women's basketball student-athletes selected as a candidate for the 2017 Senior CLASS Award® it was announced Thursday.
To be eligible for the award, student-athletes must be classified as NCAA Division I seniors and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. 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 athletic platforms to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. The Senior CLASS Award winners will be announced during the 2017 NCAA Women's Final Four® this spring.
A psychology major with a 3.56 cumulative GPA, McCall has twice landed on the Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention squad and was a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree in 2015-16. She is on track to finish her studies a quarter early and graduate at the end of the winter term.
Stanford's unquestioned leader, McCall has been a team captain each of the past two seasons and has served in the same capacity for her country. The senior co-captained the United States to a perfect 6-0 record and gold at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea, her fourth world championship with USA Basketball teams.
McCall and Stanford are active in charitable causes throughout the community. Among recent service trips, the Cardinal visited Lucile Packard Children's Hospital earlier this week, playing games, interacting and spending time with patients at one of the country's foremost pediatric care facilities. Last season, McCall visited third and fifth-grade classrooms in East Palo Alto for her urban education class and used her visit to pen a paper on teacher-student interaction in the urban school setting.
Since the start of her junior year, McCall is averaging 15.4 points on 51.0 percent shooting and 9.3 rebounds, one of five players in the country with those numbers. She is on watch lists for the Naismith Trophy, Wade Trophy and Wooden Award, and is currently 34th in program history with 1,060 career points.
Her 158 career blocks rank fifth at Stanford and her 27 career double-doubles are tied for 11th among active NCAA players. McCall has had 25 in her last 48 games, the fifth-most in the nation since the start of 2015-16.
No. 10 Stanford (12-2, 2-0) opens its home conference schedule with Oregon (10-4, 0-2) on Friday, Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. Krista Blunk and Tammy Blackburn have the call on Pac-12 Bay Area and Pac-12 Oregon.
