School records, a winning pedigree, excellent leadership, outstanding academics and commitment to her community are all traits that Jordan Manno displayed in her four years and for that, she received a high honor as the University of Detroit Mercy softball standout was named a candidate for NCAA Woman of the Year.
Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
“The best way to describe my experience as a student-athlete at the University of Detroit Mercy would be that it was the time of my life,” said Manno. “I can truly say that the Detroit Mercy community shaped me into a better ‘Jordan’ than when I arrived on campus four years ago, and that the encouragement and support from the community allowed me to grow spiritually, socially, and to be successful, both in the classroom and on the field.”
A team captain, she led the Titans to a Horizon League Championship this past season for the first time since 1992 and secure Detroit Mercy’s first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. The Titans also posted 30 wins – the most since 1991 – and this was after helping Detroit Mercy reach the HL semifinals in 2017 after the program had failed to make the postseason since the league went to a six-team format in 2010.
She was named to the Horizon League All-Freshman Team in 2016 and then earned Second-Team accolades as a sophomore and junior and First Team recognition as a senior.
She ended her career as the school record holder in runs (120), games played (210) and games started (208) and third in hits (196), RBI (90) and walks (72). Defensively, she was in charge of the best pitching staff in the Horizon League as a senior and threw out an incredible 44.8 percent (48-107) of runners attempting to steal on her in her career.
In the classroom, she registered a 3.96 GPA in Bio-Chemistry and was a four-time member of the Detroit Mercy Athletic Director’s honor roll, a three-time member of the Horizon League fall and spring academic honor rolls and a three-time Horizon League All-Academic Team selection. As a senior, she was tabbed to the CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-American Second Team.
Outside of school, she was a member of SAAC and took part in community service projects with the organization and the school. During the summer, she also volunteered at the New Mexico Cancer Center, attending to patient needs and to provide comfort and conversation, and helped coach her former club team.
The award is presented annually to the outstanding male and female seniors who best typify the image of the complete student-athlete and have been true Titans in every way, exhibiting great character and leadership along with pride in their team and their teammates, as well as academic and athletic success, during their careers.
A record 585 female college athletes have been nominated by NCAA member schools for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
The nominees competed in 23 different sports across all three NCAA divisions, including 262 from Division I, 131 from Division II and 192 from Division III. Multisport student-athletes account for 144 of the nominees.
Next, conferences will select up to two nominees each from the pool of school nominees. Then, the Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.
The selection committee will determine the top three honorees from each division from the Top 30 and announce the nine finalists in September. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics then will choose the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual award ceremony Oct. 20 in Indianapolis.
— Original story by Detroit Mercy Titan Athletics.