COLONIA, N.J. – Former Daemen University women's volleyball standout Maggie Burns (Louisville, Ky.) has been named the East Coast Conference's nominee for the 2024 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Woman of the Year Award. Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

The NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee, comprised of representatives from the NCAA membership, will next choose the top 30 honorees - 10 from each division. The field will be further narrowed with the announcement of nine finalists (three from each division). The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will choose the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year, to be named at January's NCAA Convention.

"Representing the ECC as a volleyball player, Team Impact fellow, SAAC President, and human-being was an absolute privilege and honor," said Burns. "I’m so proud to be an alumni from the ECC and will always cherish my time representing such an amazing conference as an athlete, leader, and person."

Burns concluded her undergraduate tenure with a 3.78 GPA, graduating this spring with a degree in adolescence & special education. An academic standout, Burns conducted her own independent study on pedagogical documentation, which required the collection of data on perfection, student motivation, teacher habits, and other factors that lead to tough conversations on societal norms, stereotypes and education. Her academic excellence led to a pair of College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District selections.

In addition to her academic successes, Burns' list of athletic accomplishments and community involvement epitomize balance. On the court, she was the a three-time All-ECC selection, the 2023 ECC Tournament Most Outstanding Performer and the 2022 ECC Player of the Year. Burns transferred to Daemen after spending her freshman season at Urbana University and helped the Wildcats to a combined 74-23 record, three ECC Tournament titles and three NCAA Tournament appearances over her four years at Daemen (her sophomore season was cut short due to COVID-19). The Wildcats also went undefeated in conference play (34-0) over the past three seasons. Daemen claimed its first-ever NCAA Tournament regional title her junior year and this past fall advanced to the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA Tournament.

In the community, she was highly involved as Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) President, where she planned a pre/post game anxiety panel with sport coaches and a mental health performance coach and was responsible for coordinating volunteers for three Habitat for Humanity build sites.

She has served as a Team Impact fellow on Daemen's campus since 2022, helping Daemen earn the Team Impact Division II Campus of the Year Award in 2023. Her service in this role helped Daemen to fulfill and expand upon its own Team Impact partnership, including the development and installation of a Team Impact Hall of Fame display, making Daemen only the second institution in the country to celebrate their Team Impact partnership in this way. She was extremely passionate about the experience of her team's Team Impact child and she carried that passion into a fellowship position where she was able to branch that passion out to more Team Impact children. She also played a leading role in developing a commercial to highlight the ECC's Team Impact partnership.

Burns took advantage of the resources available to her as a student-athlete during her time at Daemen. She is a graduate of both Level 1 and 2 of the Wildcat Will Lead program, Daemen's own, in-house leadership development program for student-athletes. She was also selected and attended the 2023 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum. She was also recently awarded Daemen's C.L.A.W. Award during Daemen's 2024 Wildcat Night Of Honors, a annual event held on campus to recognize the achievements of the university's intercollegiate teams and student-athletes. The C.L.A.W. Award is given to the graduating student-athlete who best exemplifies the traits of character, leadership, academic achievement and work ethic.

A pair of student-athletes have advanced to the top nine in ECC history - LIU Post women's lacrosse standouts Bridgett Soares in 2013 and Jackie Sileo in 2024. Molloy softball's Tracey Balinskas and Daemen women's basketball's Katie Titus advanced to the top 30 in 2016 and 2022, respectively.