STANFORD, Calif. – Maggie Steffens, a three-time NCAA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time Olympic MVP, has been nominated for the 2017 Woman of the Year award.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership. Next, conferences assess their member school nominees and select up to two conference nominees. The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will then choose the top 30 honorees – 10 from each division.
It was a banner senior year for Steffens. In addition to being named ACWPC and MPSF Player of the Year, she also was named a Pac-12 Tom Hansen Conference Medal winner and became the first Stanford women's water polo player to receive academic All-America recognition from CoSIDA when she was named to the Academic All-America At-Large second team. She earned her bachelor's from Stanford in science, technology and society with a concentration in innovations and organizations and will be on campus next year to pursue her master's in management science and engineering.
Steffens has twice been recognized as the world's best, winning FINA Women's Water Polo Athlete of the Year honors in both 2012 and 2014. She collected her second ACWPC Player of the Year award this season after leading Stanford to its sixth NCAA championship in Indianapolis in mid-May. In the final against UCLA Steffens forced a Bruin turnover with 14 seconds left and scored the game winner with nine seconds remaining to power the Cardinal to its crown.
Also a two-time MPSF Player of the Year and two-time NCAA Tournament MVP, Steffens led Stanford with a career-high 65 goals this season, tied for the fifth-most in Stanford single-season history, and was third in the MPSF in goals per game (2.50). She scored in a team-high 23 games and had a personal-best 15 hat tricks as part of her 17 multi-goal performances.
Steffens, who is Stanford's only four-time, first-team All-American, finished her career third in program history and 20th in MPSF history in goals scored (229). In four seasons on The Farm, Steffens and the Cardinal went 102-9 overall, 23-1 in conference play and won three national championships. She finished her career with a goals per game average of 2.06 and was best when it mattered most, scoring 30 times in 12 career NCAA Tournament games (2.50 goals per game).
