United Athletic Conference

OREM, Utah - Utah Valley University women's basketball sophomore guard Britta Hall has been selected to the 2017 Allstate Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Good Works Team, as announced Tuesday by the organization.

Hall is one of five women's basketball players at the NCAA Division I level to be chosen to the fifth annual Allstate WBCA Good Works Team, which is comprised of 10 players chosen among a pool of 97 WBCA nominees from NCAA Division I, II and III and the NAIA ranks.

In addition to dedicating countless hours to their studies and athletics, the members of this year's team have spent their limited free time bettering communities all over the world and demonstrating a strong commitment to improving the lives of others.

"It's definitely a humbling experience," said Hall, who is in her first season at UVU. "Something my parents told me growing up me was, 'You have to serve people and be nice.' Honestly, I didn't expect to be awarded for doing that. But it's definitely an honor and privilege that not a lot of people get, so I'm glad I can represent UVU, this community and my family in getting this award."

This year, Hall and the other members of the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team will be recognized during the 2017 WBCA Convention and at the 2017 NCAA Women's Final Four in Dallas, and will also participate in a local community project in the Dallas community.

The award comes to Hall after she took time off from playing college basketball to serve a voluntary mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Rancagua, Chile, for 18 months.

"I'm just really excited for her to be recognized for the person she is and the sacrifices she's made," said Utah Valley head coach Cathy Nixon. "It's a tremendous opportunity for her to represent herself, our program and our university at the Final Four. She's person with very high values and it's made a great difference in our program. I'm very blessed to have the opportunity to coach her and I think we're very fortunate to have her here."

After a one-year stint on the women's basketball team at San Jose State, Hall made the decision to dedicate herself to serving the people in the communities of Rancagua, possibly sacrificing her scholarship and dream of playing college basketball. Prior to her missionary service and becoming a Wolverine, Hall had set a Spartan freshman record for three-pointers made a season.

In addition to that sacrifice, she would spend a few months working before her departure overseas to earn and save enough money for the expenses required to go on a mission, with only a little bit of help coming from her parents.

"The decision to serve a mission for my church was something I knew I had to do," said Hall. "While it was hard making the decision to leave behind a dream I had since I was a little girl, I knew in the end God would bless me for it. Really, being able to serve the Chilean people was one of the biggest blessings and I feel like I grew the most during that year and a half than in any other experience I've ever had."

On a busy schedule for her 18 months in Chile, Hall did not have normal days off. Aside from what is called a "preparation day" every Monday to provide time for housekeeping, laundry and grocery shopping, without any time for touristic activities.

Instead, she and an assigned missionary partner would roam the many different Chilean communities they were placed in, searching for opportunities to provide volunteer service to the people without paid compensation.

One of those many service acts came on a typical hot, sunny day in Rancagua when Hall and one of her assigned missionary partners had an encounter with a woman they noticed was sweating while pushing a manual reel lawnmower. She recalled taking control of the hard-to-push lawnmower, with no motor to cut the grass automatically, then proceeding to complete the arduous, yet simple task of trimming the woman's lawn.

"When you serve people is when you find the most joy, and when you serve people that's when the world becomes a better place. I think more than the big things, we just tried doing small acts of service everyday. It was more of the simple things that myself and the people I worked alongside took pride in," Hall said.

Hall's missionary service also involved daily proselytizing of her Christian-based faith. This included conversing and connecting with people of differing religious and socioeconomic backgrounds in their native tongue of Spanish, which she learned in a couple of months at a missionary training center ran by the LDS Church before becoming fluent during her time in Chile.

In her return to the court this season, Hall ranks second on the Wolverine squad in made three-pointers (27) on 37.1 percent shooting from downtown and has averaged 9.4 points in 13 games. Before being sidelined for nine of UVU's past 10 contests with an injury, Hall was among the top 50 in the nation in three-pointers made following the first 11 contests of the 2016-17 campaign.

The following student-athletes have been named to the 2017 Allstate WBCA Good Works Team^®:

NCAA Division I

Name	Cl.	Pos.	School	Hometown
Ivy Atkism	Jr.	Post	Clemson University	Monroe, Ga.
Angie Davison	Sr.	Guard	University of Northern Iowa	Maple Grove, Minn.
Britta Hall	So.	Guard	Utah Valley University	Tualatin, Ore.
Michaela Rasmussen	Jr.	Forward	University of Toledo	Chaska, Minn.
Sandra Udobi	Gr.	Forward	St. John's University	Delta State, Nigeria

NCAA Divisions II, III & the NAIA
Name	Cl.	Pos.	School			Hometown
Holly Denfeld	Sr.	Forward	Milwaukee School of Engineering			Edgar, Wis.
Haley Joly	Jr.	Forward	St. Edward's University			Fremont, Calif.
Katie Ringdahl Grace Smith Raquel Torres	So. Sr. Sr.	Forward Guard Guard	Ave Maria University Kalamazoo College Metropolitan State University of Denver			Gainesville, Fla. Portage, Mich. Vallejo, Calif.