DURHAM, N.C. - Duke University women's basketball senior Joy Cheek has been named one of 30 candidates for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.  To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - classroom, character, community and competition.

Cheek, who is a native of Charlotte, N.C., has been a very steady performer for the Blue Devils over her career as she has played in 101 games, while starting 40.  She owns career averages of 7.8 points and 4.6 rebounds, but is coming off averaging a career-best 8.5 points and 4.7 rebounds as a junior.  Over her four years, Cheek has led Duke to 84 victories, three NCAA Tournament appearances and two ACC Championship game appearances.  Duke was a No. 1 seed in the 2009 NCAA Tournament and has finished no lower than third in the ACC each of her three years.

In the classroom, Cheek is coming off posting a 3.10 GPA in the fall of 2008 and earned ACC Honor Roll accolades in 2009.  Over the summer of 2009, Cheek was selected to perform an internship at the White House in the Vice President's Office in Economic Policy.  She was there for 14 weeks and basically got a chance to look from the inside-out at the operations of the White House and the federal government.

The 6-1 forward has been very involved in the community since arriving at Duke four years ago.  She has worked with a group of girls at the Emily K Center, made visits to the Ronald McDonald House, assisted at the Durham Soup Kitchen, helped needy families during Christmas, spoken at the girls club and helped with the Durham Children's Hospital.  While an intern at the White House this past summer, Cheek and the other interns held a book drive for the local community.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School^TM, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. 

Lowe's, an official Corporate Partner of the NCAA, will announce the Senior CLASS Award^TM winner for women's basketball at the 2010 NCAA Women's Final Four® in San Antonio, Texas in April.

The list of 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of classroom, character, community and competition. 

This marks the ninth year for the basketball division of the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Previous winners of the women's award include Sue Bird of Connecticut (2002), LaToya Thomas of Mississippi State (2003), Alana Beard of Duke (2004), Kendra Wecker of Kansas State (2005), Seimone Augustus of LSU (2006), Alison Bales of Duke (2007), Candice Wiggins of Stanford (2008) and Courtney Paris of Oklahoma (2009).

 -d-u-k-e-