Canadian international defender Kadeisha Buchanan a nominee for Honda Award

TORONTO – Canadian international Kadeisha Buchanan is one of four nominees for the Honda Sport Award for Women’s Soccer.

The 21-year-old from Brampton, Ont., helped top-ranked West Virginia to the NCAA tournament final, where the Mountaineers were beaten by 3-1 by No. 7 USC.

The other nominees are Savannah McCaskill of the University of South Carolina, Ashley Hatch of Brigham Young and Cassie Miller of Florida State. The nominees were chosen by a panel of coaches representing the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).

The winner will be announced next week after voting by administrators from more than 1,000 NCAA member schools. Each NCAA member institution has a vote.

The Honda Sport Award has been presented annually by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards for the last 41 years to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA- sanctioned sports. The winner of the sport award becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and 2017 Honda Cup which will be presented on June 26, 2017, in Los Angeles.

Buchanan, a centre back, is a three-time first-team NSCAA all-American and the first player in Mountaineer history to earn all-America status in each season. She won Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year honours for four straight years and is a 2016 MAC Hermann semifinalist.