Lady Topper basketball senior Alexis Govan has managed to return to the form she was enjoying her sophomore season that saw her average 20.3 points per game.  

Govan played just 11 games in her junior campaign before missing two-thirds of the season due to a fracture in her left tibia. 

She currently leads WKU with an average of 17.1 points per game, and has helped her team to a 17-3 record and its first spot in the Associated Press top 25 since the 1997-98 season. 

Her sophomore season was one for the record books, with her 20.3 PPG ranking fourth in program history while her 671 points ranked sixth. 

But her progression as an athlete has been equally matched as a student and as a role model for WKU fans. 

Govan has earned a nomination for the 2014-15 Senior CLASS Award, making her one of just 30 Division I players selected as a women’s basketball candidate this season.

The only women’s player from the Conference USA or the state of Kentucky to earn the nomination, she did so by being a NCAA Division I athlete and having “notable achievements” in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.

The All-American candidate is working on her graduate degree after completing her bachelor’s degree in sports management in just three and a half years.

In her hometown of San Antonio, Govan has worked with Operation Warm Heart, collected money at the San Antonio Military Car Show for military families and the Wounded Warriors Project, worked at the Lackland Christmas Gift Wrapping and the Lackland Angel Tree, collected trash through Adopt-a-Highway, worked Kelly Air Force Base Air Shows and helped rebuild a kids playground at an elementary school.

Locally, she has participated in the annual Stuff the Bus drive to collect school supplies for area children and worked with the annual United Way Day of Caring.

The Lady Topper captain’s determination and progression in each facet outlined in the CLASS award exemplifies what Head Coach Michelle Clark-Heard pushes to get out of each of her student athletes. 

“I think it just speaks to the kind of kids Coach Heard brings in,” Govan said of receiving the nomination. “We all do a lot for our communities back at home but we try to give back to Bowling Green because Bowling Green has given so much to us.”

The Senior CLASS (Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School) Award winners will be announced during the 2015 NCAA Men’s Final Four and NCAA Women’s Final Four. Each of the 30 candidate classes will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the regular season, and those names will be placed on the official ballot.

Govan becomes the sixth WKU athlete since 2010 to earn candidacy for the Senior CLASS Award, joining volleyball’s Ashley Potts (2013), soccer’s Chrissy Tchoula (2013), baseball’s Matt Rice (2011) and Matt Payton (2010) and football’s Cam Clemmons (2014). Both Potts and Payton were finalists for the award in their respective sports.