Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Alicia Ratay Named Candidate For Senior CLASS Award

Nov. 18, 2002

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – University of Notre Dame senior guard Alicia Ratay (Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich HS) has been selected as one of 30 candidates for the second annual Senior CLASS Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s senior Player of the Year by the Senior CLASS Organizing Committee. Ratay is one of three BIG EAST Conference student-athletes on the list of Senior CLASS Award “Players to Watch,” joining Villanova’s Trish Juhline and Brianne Stepherson of Boston College. Connecticut guard Sue Bird received the inaugural award last year.

Ratay is a two-time Associated Press honorable mention All-American and was a first-team all-BIG EAST selection last season. She ranks ninth in school history with 1,375 points and is among the top perimeter shooters in the country, connecting at a school-record .480 clip from behind the three-point line in her career. She also has made a school-record 86.7 percent of her free throws at Notre Dame, and both her free throw and three-point percentages currently stand among the top 10 in NCAA history.

Ratay also is an exemplary student, owning a 3.46 cumulative grade-point average while pursuing a double major in psychology and education. She has been named to the BIG EAST Academic All-Star Team each of the last three years, and she has garnered Dean’s List honors three times.

The Senior CLASS Award — the acronym stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School — is based on a number of factors, the most important being that the recipient must have exhausted their four years of eligibility and have fulfilled their commitment to their respective university. In addition, the recipient must be working toward their degree, be in good academic standing and be of sound moral character. The award was developed last season in response to the recent trend of college basketball players leaving early to turn professional.

The performances of the 30 “Players to Watch” will be tracked during the season, and from that pool of players, a group of 10 finalists will be selected by a national committee of sportscasters and sportswriters that cover Division I college basketball. The finalists then will appear on the official ballot which will be voted upon in March by the national media committee and Division I college basketball coaches. The winner will be announced during the Women’s Final Four, to be held April 6-8 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

Ratay and her Notre Dame teammates will play their second exhibition game Tuesday at 7 p.m. (EST) against the Ohio Girls Basketball Magazine Legends at the Joyce Center. Earlier on Monday, the Irish moved up one spot to ninth in the latest AP poll — they are currently 12th in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

A list of the 30 Women’s Basketball “Players To Watch” for the Senior CLASS Award follows:

Jordan Adams, New Mexico
Chantelle Anderson, Vanderbilt
Kristine Austgulen, Virginia Commonwealth
Gunta Basko, Siena
Tamara Bowie, Ball State
Syretta Bromfield, Michigan State
Coretta Brown, North Carolina
Courtney Coleman, Ohio State
Molly Creamer, Bucknell
Angela Davidson, Northwestern State (La.)
Tamika Dudley, Long Island
Crissy Floyd, Clemson
Cheryl Ford, Louisiana Tech
Caton Hill, Oklahoma
Constance Jinks, UNLV
Trish Juhline, Villanova
Kara Lawson, Tennessee
Sonja Mallory, Georgia Tech
Ashley McElhiney, Vanderbilt
Loree Payne, Washington
Jocelyn Penn, South Carolina
ALICIA RATAY, NOTRE DAME
Ayisha Smith, LSU
Kate Smith, Nevada
Brianne Stepherson, Boston College
LaToya Thomas, Mississippi State
Erin Thorn, BYU
Shaquala Williams, Oregon
Lindsay Wilson, Iowa State
Katie Wolfe, Oakland

— ND —