Sept. 18, 2012

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Stanford senior midfielder Mariah Nogueira has been selected as a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award for women's soccer.

The award honors student-athletes who excel in the classroom, in the community, and on the field. Nogueira certainly fits that description.

A senior midfielder, Nogueira impressed the selection committee with her abilities, accomplishments, and contributions in these four areas:

Academics
Nogueira carries a 3.63 cumulative GPA and is a two-year NSCAA Scholar All-West and Pac-10/12 All-Academic honorable mention selection. She also has helped Stanford to three consecutive NSCAA Team Academic Awards and is on track to graduate in spring, 2013.

Character
A team captain, Nogueira is truly the heart of the Stanford team. Nogueira holds herself to high moral standards, abstaining from any alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Community
Nogueira has used her character to volunteer her time and talents. At Stanford, she has been involved with Special Olympics, the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, weekly tutoring for young students from East Palo Alto, working the Halloween Carnival in East Palo Alto, visiting the elderly, and being involved in Kappa Alpha Theta sorority philanthropy events. Nogueira has also served as a Sunday School teacher and is the LDS-Single Adults co-President.

When home, she has assisted in developing young soccer players in camps throughout Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Pacific Palisades and feeds the homeless during the holidays. In the spring of 2011, Nogueira traveled to the Dominican Republic with an organization called Kids Alive, serving children by helping build their school and teaching PE classes.

Competition
In her fourth season as a starting holding midfielder, Nogueira has helped Stanford to three NCAA College Cup finals appearances, three Pac-10/Pac-12 titles and the 2011 national championship. She was both an NSCAA third-team All-America and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 2009 and has won all-conference honors each year. A force in the air, Nogueira had 14 goals and 14 assists heading into this season. All four of her goals in 2011 were game-winners. She also has been active with the U.S. Under-20 and U-23 national teams.

The "CLASS" in the award's name stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School ®. The Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

Nogueira is the fourth Stanford player in as many years to be a candidate for the award, following Kelley O'Hara, Christen Press, and Teresa Noyola. Each was among the 10 finalists.

Nogueira is among 30 candidates. The list, however, will be whittled to 10 finalists midway through the regular season. Those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one male candidate and one female candidate who best exemplify excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.