Howard Payne University Yellow Jackets

RICHARDSON, Texas –– Howard Payne University basketball player Meia Daniels was selected as the 2007-08 ASC Athlete of the Year, the league office announced on Monday after a vote of the ASC’s sports information directors and Outstanding Media Service Award members.

Daniels (Fort Worth, TX / Fossil Ridge High School) takes the top female award for the second straight year and becomes just the third student-athlete to be honored in back-to-back seasons (Moore, Hardin-Simmons basketball player Kendra Anderson (2001-02, 2002-03).

Daniels, a political science major, led Howard Payne to the NCAA Division III women’s basketball national championship – the first team national title from any sport in the 12-year history of the ASC and the first at the NCAA level for HPU. The All-American also fueled the Lady Jackets’ perfect 33-0 mark – the only collegiate men’s or women’s basketball team to finish the season undefeated. She was named national player of the year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, Texas Basketball Coaches Association and D3hoops.com. Daniels was named Most Valuable Player of the NCAA Final Four and ranked No. 3 in the nation in steals (145). She averaged 19.6 points per game in 2007-08 – scoring an ASC single-season high of 649 points – and passed 2,100 points in her career as a Lady Jacket. Daniels played for three ASC title teams over her four seasons and earned a tryout with the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. Daniels is also a finalist for the 2008 Honda Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. 

The American Southwest Conference Athlete of the Year award, in its ninth year, recognizes the male and female student-athlete whose athletic accomplishments best contributed to their sport, their institution’s overall athletic program and to the conference. Each ASC member institution nominates its campus Athlete of the Year award recipients to the conference-wide ballot.