LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska Wesleyan University senior women's soccer player Natalie Graves was selected to receive a $7,500 postgraduate scholarship from the NCAA for the fall 2017 sports season.
 
Nebraska Wesleyan now has 56 athletes that have earned NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships.  Since 2001, NWU ranks sixth among all NCAA schools (all divisions) and second among DIII schools in the number of NCAA postgraduate scholarships with 36 winners.
 
Fifty-eight scholarships (29 women and 29 men) were awarded to fall sports participants in all three NCAA divisions.
 
Graves (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain HS) is just the second NWU women's soccer player to earn a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship joining Megan Littrell, who won the honor in 1999.  Graves has a 3.96 GPA as a political science major.  She was also a CoSIDA Academic All-American this fall.
 
She was a three-time honorable mention All-Conference selection in women's soccer, earning honorable mention All-Iowa Conference the past two years and honorable mention All-GPAC as a sophomore.

Graves played in 64 matches during her four-year career with the Prairie Wolves scoring 10 goals with 12 assists.  As a senior she was second on the team scoring 11 points with a team-leading five assists.
 
To qualify for an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, a student-athlete must meet minimum GPA requirements and have performed with distinction as a member of the varsity team in the sport in which he or she was nominated.  The student-athlete must have behaved, both on and off the field, in a manner that has brought credit to the student-athlete, the institution and intercollegiate athletics. The student-athlete also must intend to continue academic work beyond the baccalaureate degree as a full-time or part-time graduate student.