O’Day Named MASCAC NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee

Westfield, Mass. - After earning MASCAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors in May, Framingham State's Mary Kate O'Day (Berlin, Mass.) has been also selected as the MASCAC nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year.

The NCAA Woman of the Year Award honors graduating student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership. The award has been given annually since 1991. The 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced on November 1, 2020.

The senior from Berlin, Mass. closed out her Rams career showered in accolades. O'Day is a two-time MASCAC Women's Basketball Player of the Year earning the honor after the 2019-2020 season as a senior and previously in 2017-2018 after her sophomore campaign.  She has been selected to the All-MASCAC First Team three times during her four seasons with the Rams. During the 2017-18 and 2019-20 seasons, she was named to the D3hoops.com All-Northeast Region team while this year she was also a New England Women's Basketball Association (NEWBA) First Team All-Region honoree.

O'Day leaves the program second on the FSU All-Time Women's Basketball Scoring list with 1,557 career points including 502 during her final season for the Rams. At the conclusion of the 2019-20 season, O'Day led the Rams with 17.9 points per game, shooting 45 percent from the floor, 41 percent from three-point range and 83 percent from the line. Averaging over 32 minutes per game O'Day picked up 8.5 rebounds per game dishing out 3.5 assists and swiping 1.4 steals while leading the Rams to a 12-0 record in MASCAC play and the league's regular season and tournament titles.

Her list of academic accolades is comparable to her success she found on the hardwood. O'Day recently graduated with a degree in sociology and minor in criminology. She finished out her collegiate career with a 3.93 GPA and earned Alpha Phi Sigma and Alpha Kappa Delta honors in 2020.

She was recognized by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for her academic success as she was voted an Academic All-American. Along with receiving seven Framingham State Dean's List and six President's List honors, she was a seven-time MASCAC All-Academic honoree.

When she wasn't playing or in the classroom, O'Day was active volunteering. For three semesters, she assisted at the Rams Resource Center stocking shelves and tracking donations of food and supplies as they were received. She also helped students as they came in to fulfill their food needs. She served as a member of the Rams' Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was a group leader for Special Olympics in 2019.

During her free time, she worked with the Framingham State Athletic Department in contest management all four years. She also worked with the MetroWest YMCA Project ABC as an intern. Her job was to assist her supervisor setting up for the playgroup, play with the kids during the group, and clean up once they left. In addition, she worked on promoting Project ABC by looking up local places where she could drop off flyers and information to get the word out to local families.

*Portions courtesy of MASCAC media relations