Tennessee senior Kara Lawson has been named the 2003 Frances Pomeroy Naismith award winner.

	Kara Lawson and the Lady Vols play Villanova in the Elite Eight.

The award, which has been handed out annually since 1984, honors the nation's top senior women's basketball player 5 feet 8 or shorter. The candidates' on-court statistics, as well as academic achievements and leadership qualities, factor into the voting.

Lawson, a 5-foot-8 guard, has helped lead Tennessee to a 31-4 record and the Elite Eight. The senior currently leads the Lady Vols in 3-point shooting (71-for-154 for a .461 clip), while ranking second in free-throw percentage (.869), assists (133), steals (41), points (493) and scoring average (14.5 ppg).

Lawson already has been selected as a U.S. Basketball Writers of America first-team All-American and the Arthur Ashe Jr. Student-Athlete of the Year.

She was a finalist for the Naismith Player of the Year, and is still among the finalists for Wade Trophy, the Senior CLASS award and Nancy Lieberman Step-Up award, which honors the nation's top point guard.

In the SEC, Lawson was named an all-league first-team pick by both the conference coaches and the Associated Press (unanimous choice). During the conference season, the senior led the SEC in both assist-to-turnover ratio and 3-point shooting percentage.

The Alexandria, Va., native has always made the classroom and community a priority during her days at Tennessee. Lawson, a finance major who boasts a 3.77 grade-point average and earned a spot on the Verizon's first-team All-America squad, currently serves as the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee president, and as a student-representative to the UT Athletics Board. Lawson has picked up the Finance Department's Knoxville Community Housing Resource Minority Scholarship and has twice been a member of the All-SEC Academic squad. The two-time SEC "Good Works" team member is currently involved in several projects in the local area hoping to complete her goal of 100 career community service events.

Former Frances Pomeroy award winners:

2002	Sheila Lambert		Baylor
2001	Niele Ivey		Notre Dame	
2000	Helen Darling		Penn State	
1999	Becky Hammond		Colorado State	
1998	Angie Arnold		Johns Hopkins	
1997	Jennifer Howard		North Carolina State	
1996	Jennifer Rizzotti	Connecticut 	
1995	Amy Dodrill		Johns Hopkins	
1994	Nicole Levesque		Wake Forest	
1993	Dena Evans		Virginia	
1992	Rosemary Kosiorek	West Virginia	
1991	Shanya Evans		Providence	
1990	Julie Dabrowski		New Hampshire College	
1989	Paulette Backstrom	Bowling Green	
1988	Suzie McConnell		Penn State	
1987	Rhonda Windham		Southern California	
1986	Kamie Ethridge		Texas	
1985	Maria Stack		Gonzaga 	
1984	Kim Mulkey		Louisiana Tech