Mankato, Minn.  --- Minnesota State women's basketball standout Claire Jordan has been nominated for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Jordan, a native of Green Bay, Wis., started and appeared in 28 games for the Mavericks in her senior season. Jordan, who led the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference in free throw percentage with a 87.8% mark on 98 attempts as a senior, scored in double figures 13 times and had a pair of 20-point games in 2017-18. She netted a career-high 30 points and shot 70.6% from the field against Southwest Minnesota State on Jan. 20 and finished the season with a career-best 291 points, 64 rebounds, and 36 assists.. Jordan received the NSIC Myles Brand Award as a senior and was a two-time NSIC All-Academic Team member.  Named All-NSIC Second Team in 2017-18, Jordan carried a 3.91 grade point average and majored in Biomedical studies.

Next, conference offices will select up to two conference nominees to move forward. Each conference nominee will be notified by the NCAA, and all conference-round nominees will be announced on ncaa.org in early August.

Conference nominations are forwarded to the NCAA Woman of the Year Selection Committee, which identifies the top 10 honorees in each of the three NCAA divisions. From those 30 candidates, the selection committee then determines the three finalists in each division for a total of nine finalists. The Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year from the nine finalists. The 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced Sunday, Oct. 28, at an awards dinner in Indianapolis.

NCAA member schools have nominated a record 581 female college athletes for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year award.

The NCAA Woman of the Year award, established in 1991, honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

The NCAA encourages member schools to honor their top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year award.

The nominees competed in 20 different women's sports across all three NCAA divisions, including 251 from Division I, 131 from Division II and 199 from Division III. A program-record 170 were multisport athletes in college.

Conferences now 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.

From the Top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year from those nine.

The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 28 in Indianapolis.