Women's Soccer | November 16, 2017

USC senior midfielder Nicole Molen is the first Trojan women's soccer player to be selected as the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the annual award from the conference to recognize its outstanding senior student-athletes. 

Molen has been an anchor in the midfield for the Trojans for four years now, having helped USC to the 2016 NCAA Championship and now captaining the Trojans through another NCAA run that has USC currently in College Station, Texas, for the NCAA Second and Third Rounds. 

A human biology major out of Westlake Village, Calif., Molen was also recently named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Second Team after previously earned back-to-back spots on the First Team. Also a three-time Pac-12 All-Academic First Team pick, Molen boasts a 3.92 cumulative GPA. 

A full-time starter for the past three years as a Trojan, Molen has racked up 12 career goals — including her first career two-goal game this season — to go along with nine career assists. Also this season, Molen landed a spot on the All-Pac-12 Third Team before the Trojans picked up a No. 3 seed into the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

The Pac-12 has also released its All-Academic honorees, with Molen deservedly standing tall on the Pac-12 All-Academic First Team for the third straight season. She leads a group of 12 Trojans on the honor roll. Landing on the Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention list are Ashleigh Plumptre, Alex Anthony, Sydney Sladek, Sydney Johnson, Jalen Woodward, Taylor McMorrow, Sydney Myers, Kaylie Collins, Amanda Rooney, Julia Bingham and Samantha Bruder. It's the first career academic honor for Anthony, Bingham, Bruder, Collins, McMorrow, Myers, Plumptre and Woodward and the second for Rooney. For Johnson, Molen and Sladek, they close down their USC careers as three-time academic honorees.