COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – San José State golfer Lucia Lopez Ortega and Wyoming basketball player Allyson Fertig have been selected as the Mountain West nominees for the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

Since its establishment in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized excellence in academics, athletics, community service, and leadership in graduating female student-athletes. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by the summer of 2025.

The Mountain West Golfer of the Year and individual champion in 2025, Ortega closed her career with her fourth straight All-Mountain West selection. The Sa Coma, Mallorca, Spain, native shot a 5-under-par 211 at the 2025 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Women’s Golf Championship for her first career MW title. She helped San José State to five top-five finishes on the season, including at the MW tournament, where the Spartans fell in a playoff.

Individually, she posted three top-10 finishes on the season and turned in 11 rounds of par or better, including six rounds in the 60s en route to a team-best 73.03 stroke average.

Ortega helped SJSU to NCAA Regional berths in each of her four years on the squad, with the Spartans advancing to the NCAA Championship three times in that span. She was the NCAA stroke-play runner-up as a sophomore in 2023, earning All-America honorable mention that season, and was the MW Freshman of the Year in 2022. Ortega helped San José State claim MW team titles in 2022 and 2024.

Ortega graduated summa cum laude with a degree in biological sciences, posting a 3.91 GPA. She was a four-time member of the Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar Team as well as earning Academic All-Mountain West and MW Scholar-Athlete honors four times each. She claimed College Sports Communicators Academic All-District honors in 2025.

Ortega served as a teaching assistant for three semesters, mentoring fellow students and coordinating a team of teaching assistants. She was also one of the SJSU women’s golf team’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representatives, worked clinics of First Tee and at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate, and volunteered with the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, introducing young girls to sports and sharing her journey as a female athlete while promoting the values of confidence, teamwork and staying active. Ortega, who aspires to be a physician-scientist, also volunteered at local county hospitals.

One of 21 female spring student-athletes across all three divisions to receive a $10,000 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, Ortega will continue her education at San José State as she pursues a master’s degree in biology.

The Mountain West Player of the Year in 2024-25, Fertig led the league with 18.9 points per game, 11.6 rebounds per game and a .574 field-goal percentage. The center from Glendo, Wyoming, capped her career with her third All-Mountain West selection. She was also the 2021-22 MW Freshman of the Year and earned a spot on the MW All-Defensive Team as a senior in 2024-25. One of 20 players nationally selected to the 2025 Women’s College All-Star Game presented by Lilly, Fertig signed a professional contract with BC Pharmaserv of the Bundesliga in Marburg, Germany, in June.

Fertig finished her illustrious collegiate career with several Mountain West records to her name, including career rebounds (1,216), career rebounds in MW games (656), single-season rebounds (383, 2024-25) and career double-doubles (48). She also holds the Conference records for field-goal percentage in MW games in a career (.596) and in a season (.634, 2022-23).

She helped the Cowgirls to a pair of Mountain West tournament title games, in 2023 and 2025, earning All-Tournament Team honors both times. Fertig led Wyoming to four postseason appearances, including a run to the WNIT Great 8 in 2024 and hosting duties in the WBIT in 2025. The Cowgirls also played in the WNIT in 2022 and 2023, winning at least one game both years.

Fertig joined the Cowgirls’ outdoor track & field program in the spring of 2025, finishing sixth at the Credit Union 1 Mountain West Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the shot put and moving into 10th in program history in the event.

A four-time Academic All-Mountain West and MW Scholar-Athlete selection, Fertig earned CSC Academic All-District honors three times, advancing to the CSC Academic All-America ballot in 2024 and 2025. The math education major graduated with a 3.75 GPA and earned Wyoming’s College of Education’s Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award for Significant Accomplishments in 2025.

In addition to excelling the classroom, Fertig kept busy on campus and in her community. A four-year member of Wyoming’s chapter of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, she served as president in 2024-25 and was a two-year representative for the MW’s SAAC. Among the SAAC initiatives Fertig championed, she and Colorado State’s chapter president created the inaugural Border War Clothing Drive ahead of the schools’ football game in fall 2024. She also planned, organized and executed Wyoming’s annual SAAC dodgeball tournament/canned food drive. Additionally, Fertig volunteered with Toys for Tots, helped organize the annual Pokes Halloween Bash benefiting community youth and participated in first-day-of-school outreach, where Wyoming student-athletes greeted and cheered on elementary students on the first day of school. The team captain was also a member of Wyoming’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes Leadership Team and worked with the Boys & Girls Club Basketball Camp.

Conference offices could nominate up to two student-athletes from among their school nominations if at least one was an international student-athlete or student-athlete of color. All conference-level nominees will be forwarded to the Woman of the Year selection committee. The selection committee will choose the top 10 honorees in each division. From among those 30 honorees, the selection committee will determine the 2025 NCAA Woman of the Year.

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