Eastern women’s basketball senior forward Rachel Galligan has done a lot for this university and this women’s basketball program.

She became the second Eastern athlete named a finalist for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, which was announced Wednesday. She and the rest of the upperclassmen have led a resurgence of the team in the Ohio Valley Conference and brought respect to the program. Galligan joins men’s soccer junior Adam Gartner as Eastern athletes nominated for the award, based on student-athletes’ dedication and achievement in four areas: classroom, character, community, and competition. Gartner was one of 10 men’s soccer nominees during the fall season. The Senior CLASS Award (CLASS is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School) is a national sports award conceived by sportscaster Dick Enberg.

Galligan, who is a four-year starter on the Panthers and Eastern’s fourth all-time leading scorer in women’s basketball, has served as the president of Eastern’s chapter of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and represented Eastern student-athletes on the athletic director search committee last year.

In the classroom, Galligan has compiled a 3.31 grade point average as a communication studies major.

Galligan is the only OVC player who made the 10 finalists. Murray State senior guard Amber Guffey was one of the semifinalists.

Voting for the Senior CLASS Award began Wednesday and continues through March 22. Fans can vote for the Galligan online here. Text message voting for Galligan can also be done by sending the message “WB2” to 839863.

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, Galligan sits in fifth place with 5 percent of the vote.

Find Galligan’s name, put a check mark next to it and submit.

You can only vote once a day, but you can vote once for each computer. So tell your friends and family to vote from as many possible computers as possible.

Galligan’s up against some of the top-notch players at some top notch programs. This includes Connecticut’s Renee Montgomery, Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris, Maryland’s Kristi Toliver and Duke’s Abby Waner.

Galligan has given a lot to this school, and it is time we help her out.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or at kjmurphy@eiu.edu.