Williamsburg, KY – Coming on the heels of another successful season in which 11 women's teams qualified for their respective NAIA National Championship, the Patriots have four student-athletes garner CoSIDA At-Large All-District honors, announced Thursday by CoSIDA Officials.  It marks the second consecutive season that all four of UC's nominees have landed on the All-District team.  

Leading the way is women's tennis standout Tomomi Nagao, who earned her third CoSIDA All-District selection, while women's lacrosse player Bella Ricchiazzi is a repeat winner of this honor.  The duo was joined by newcomers Hanne te Velthuis (women's swimming) and women's wrestler Jesse Kirby on the list.

Nagao becomes the first Patriot to be named to the CoSIDA All-District team four times earning the honor in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.  Nagao, a two-time First-Team CoSIDA Academic All-America, posted a 24-1 singles record at #1 singles this season, while going 17-8 at #1 doubles. The grad student is a two-time Mid-South Conference Player of the Year, while being a first team all-conference selection for the fourth time.  The Gifu, Japan native is a three-time NAIA All-American, a 2020 ITA Singles and Doubles All-American, and a two-time ITA Cup Qualifier.  She has also been part of four UC tennis teams that have qualified for the NAIA National Championships and the 2022 MSC Tournament championship and the 2021 MSC Conference Championship team.  Nagao is the Patriots career singles and doubles leader and became the first Patriot to earn at least 50 singles and doubles matches over their career.

Ricchiazzi garnered CoSIDA All-District honors after another stellar season on the field.  The Framingham, MA native recorded 100 goals, 61 assists, and 161 points en route to being named the NAIA Player of the Year.  Ricchiazzi was the MSC Player of the Year as well as a first team all-conference selection, which builds upon a resume that already had the 2021 MSC Offensive Player of the Year, 2019 MSC Freshman of the Year, and a three-time All-American.  The junior has rewritten the Patriots record books as she became the program's all-time leader in points and with 422 and 158, respectively, while closing out the season ranked second in program history for assists and points, while becoming just the third Patriot to surpass the century mark in goals for a season.

Kirby becoming the first Patriots women's wrestler to earn this distinction. The junior went 36-7 on the season at the 191 lbs. weight class, which was the second most wins in program history.  Kirby earned MSC first team all-conference honors after capturing the conference title and placed fourth at the NAIA National Championships to earn All-American honors.  She rewrote the record books becoming the first wrestler in the MSC to be named wrestler of the week in consecutive weeks and she rose to be ranked #1 in the 191 class in the season.  Kirby success in the classroom also aided her in being named the 2022 HESS Department Award recipient. 
 
Te Velthuis becomes the fourth Patriot swimmer to earn CoSIDA All-District honors as UC has had at least one swimmer in each of the past five years named to the list.  The sophomore led the Patriots as a seven-time NAIA All-American and a seven-time MSC First Team All-Conference selection.  Te Velthuis won all three of her individual events during conference to be named the MSC Swimmer of the Year, while setting three records on the season.  The Beerzarveld, Netherlands native has been a 14 time all-conference selection over her career and helped UC to a pair of conference titles and a fourth place finish at nationals.

Earning CoSIDA Academic All-District honors makes these student-athletes eligible to earn Academic All-American First-team honors as all Academic All-District® honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-America® ballot. First-, second- and third-team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced in early August.
 
The 2021-22 Academic All-District At-Large Teams, selected by CoSIDA, recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the field and in the classroom. The CoSIDA Academic All-America program separately recognizes at-large honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.
 
The At-Large category consist of student-athletes across a variety of sports including women's beach volleyball, men's & women's bowling, cheerleading, dance, men's & women's golf, men's & women's lacrosse, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, men's volleyball, men's wrestling. Each school can nominate up to four men and four women in this category.
 
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