University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa indoor and beach volleyball standout Brooke Van Sickle was announced as one of two Big West Conference nominees for the 2021–22 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Van Sickle is one of 151 conference-level nominees from across all three NCAA divisions vying for the national award. She and water polo athlete Ciara Franke from the University of California San Diego were selected from the Big West Conference (BWC) member schools to represent the conference.
This year’s conference nominees include 53 student-athletes from Division I, 39 from Division II and 59 from Division III. Within the 151 nominations from conference offices, 17 sports are represented, with 42 student-athletes competing in multiple sports. The average GPA of this year’s nominee pool is 3.8.
Van Sickle is the first woman to earn both Big West Player and Pair of the Year honors in indoor volleyball and beach volleyball in the same academic year. She earned American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-America honorable mention honors for indoors, while earning AVCA All-America first team honors for beach volleyball with partner Kaylee Glagau. Van Sickle and Glagau were also named a 2022 AVCA Top Flight duo for the second-straight year, and Van Sickle earned a spot on the U.S. Beach Collegiate National Team.
During the fall indoor volleyball season, the senior outside hitter helped lead Hawaiʻi to its second-straight Big West title and its 39th appearance in the NCAA tournament (UH did not play in 2020 because of COVID-19). Van Sickle averaged a conference-best 4.47 points per set (points=kills + aces + blocks) and led UH in kills (384), kill/set (3.73), service aces (38), aces/set (0.37) and points (460.5). She was second on the team with 324 digs and third with 63 total blocks.
In the spring, Van Sickle, a native of Battle Ground, Washington, helped UH advance to its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in her third season with the BeachBows. The duo of Van Sickle and Glagau finished the season at 30–10 (.750) overall, becoming just the sixth UH pair to win 30 matches in a season.
Van Sickle graduated in spring 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in marketing. This past fall, she earned College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-District honors for indoor volleyball.
NCAA member schools nominated 577 women for this year’s Woman of the Year award. Conference offices then reviewed all the nominees from their member schools. The Big West selected Van Sickle as a nominee because of her outstanding achievements during her collegiate career.
The NCAA Women of the Year Selection Committee will choose the top 10 honorees in each of the three divisions in October. From those 30 candidates, the committee will narrow it down to nine finalists and announce the 2022 Woman of the Year during a ceremony at the NCAA Convention in January 2023.
