Feb. 24, 2003

Los Angeles, Calif. - Laura Gustorf, a three-year starter for the Loyola Marymount volleyball team, has been awarded the NCAA Women's Postgraduate Scholarship for Careers in Athletics. Gustorf, who sports a 3.79 grade point average, will graduate this spring in business administration and plans on attending graduate school next fall.

The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics was established at the 1987 NCAA Convention to study and make recommendations regarding opportunities for women in intercollegiate athletics at the institutional, conference, and national levels, as well as other issues directly affecting women's athletics. The committee identified enhancing the careers of women in intercollegiate athletics as its primary focus, specifically in the areas of coaching, athletics administration, officiating, and athletics support services.

Toward that end, the NCAA Women's Enhancement Program has been established to increase the pool of and opportunities for women candidates in intercollegiate athletics through postgraduate scholarships and internships at the NCAA national office.

Applicants must have performed with distinction as student-body members at their respective undergraduate institutions. The applicants' involvement in extracurricular activities, course work, commitment to pursuing a career in intercollegiate athletics, and promise for success in such a career was considered.

Gustorf ranks among the school's top ten in both total digs and digs per game in her career, while being named to three consecutive All-West Coast Conference All-Academic teams. She is also a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an academic honor society at LMU. To be inducted into the society students must be in the top seven percent of their class. Gustorf's list of honors continues, after being selected as a member of the Jesuit honor society, Alpha Sigma Nu.