More player honors for Naperville's Parker

University of Tennessee star Candace Parker has been voted the 2008 Honda Sports Award winner for the second year in a row as the nation's top collegiate female basketball player.

The honor was based on the results of national balloting among 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program, now in its 32nd year.

"I have been fortunate to be surrounded by teammates and coaches who make our team a success," said Parker, who helped Tennessee win two National Championships in women's basketball. "I am honored to win the Honda Sports Award again this year, but I know nothing this season would have been possible without my teammates. I am thankful my classmates and I could leave here with back-to-back NCAA titles and I know neither of the championships would have been possible without a full team effort."

The Honda Sports Award is given annually to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports, along with automatic nomination for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year.

With this award, Parker, a former Naperville Central star and No. 1 draft pick of the Los Angeles Sparks, becomes the seventh all-time back-to-back winner in basketball.

She was selected over three other nominees: Sylvia Fowles, a senior at Louisiana State University and Chicago Sky draft pick; Maya Moore, a freshman at the University of Connecticut; and Candice Wiggins, a senior at Stanford University.

The nominees were selected by the NCAA Women's Basketball Coaches Association.

Parker, a 6-foot-4 junior who is expected to graduate this year, was recognized for the second time as Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four, only the fourth player ever to do so. A three-time all-American, she was also named Player of the Year by AP and ESPN.com.

Parker is the third winner of the Honda Sports Award in basketball from the University of Tennessee, joining Bridgette Gordon (1989) and two-time winner Chamique Holdsclaw (1997, '98.)

The Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year will be determined by separate balloting involving all NCAA-member institutions and the winner will receive the Honda-Broderick Cup at Columbia University in New York in late June.