Kalin will be making her return to the court this season after redshirting during the 2011-12 season due to injury. Kalin was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA in March. Before her injury, Kalin was the 2010-11 Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the year. She averaged 15.3 points per game and is on track to become UNI's all-time leading scorer.

"This is a tremendous and well deserved honor for Jacqui," head coach Tanya Warren said. "The Senior CLASS Award is highly recognized as one of the most prestigious honors in our game and to be one of 30 finalist shows all the hard work she has done on and off the court in her career. We are very proud and excited to have her back this year"

Kalin also excels off the court with her work in the community and in the classroom.

She graduated with her undergraduate degree "Summa Cum Laude" in Sport Psychology in 2010 and is currently working on defending her thesis for her masters in Kinesiology and Sport Psychology.

She is an active member and the MVC representative for the NCAA Division I National Student Athlete Advisory Committee and is an active member of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Issues Committee. Kalin was the UNI Co-President of the SAAC from the spring of 2010 to the spring of 2012 and is a member of the UNI Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Council.

Kalin has volunteered as a Big Sister for the Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Northeast Iowa program along with the Global Forum for Physical Education. She has also been a part of Relay for Like, Habitat for Humanity, House of Hope, CharacterCounts, the Special Olympics and Just Read.

To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition.

CLASS is an acronym 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.

The women's Senior Class Award winner will be announced during the NCAA Women's Final Four in New Orleans April 7 and 9.

The candidate classes will be narrowed to 10 women's finalists midway through the regular season, and those 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 women's finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition. 


For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.

Women's Candidates
Kayla Alexander, Syracuse
Anne Marie Armstrong, Georgia
Alex Bentley, Penn State
Brittany Chambers, Kansas State
Layshia Clarendon, California
Tiffany Clarke, Vanderbilt
Elena Delle Donne, Delaware
Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame
Caroline Durbin, New Mexico
Shante Evans, Hofstra
Jennifer George, Florida
Angel Goodrich, Kansas
Lily Grenci, Siena
Brittney Griner, Baylor
Whitney Hand, Oklahoma
Tayler Hill, Ohio State
Jacqui Kalin, Northern Iowa
Marissa Kastanek, North Carolina State
Kevi Luper, Oral Roberts
Anna Martin, DePaul
A'dia Mathies, Kentucky
Victoria McGowan, Stetson
Drey Mingo, Purdue
Ta'Kenya Nixon, Eastern Illinois
Kaela Oakes, Idaho State
Chelsea Poppens, Iowa State
Jaime Printy, Iowa
Sugar Rodgers, Georgetown
Rachel Semansky, Montana State
Naama Shafir, Toledo