Eastern Washington University Athletics

A three-time All-Big Sky Conference first team selection (2002-03-04), Nygaard was EWU’s first-ever Kodak/WBCA All-America finalist as an All-Region 7 selection in 2004. She was also selected twice as a member of the Big Sky Conference’s All-Tournament team (2003-04). An outstanding student as well, she was a  CoSIDA Academic All-America second team selection as a senior, a two-time member of the CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII team (2003-04) and a four-time member of the Big Sky Conference All-Academic Team (2001-02-03-04). She culminated her athletic and academic career by being EWU’s female recipient of the Big Sky Conference Scholar-Athlete Award for the 2003-04 school year. She was a member of the 2003-04 Eagle squad that had a collective 3.626 grade point average to lead NCAA Division I on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Top 25 Honor Roll. Early in her senior season, she passed the 1,000-point mark in her career during the East Carolina Lady Pirate Invitational. In that tournament, she scored a career-high 30 points against Ball State. Also that season, she scored 18 points and had 15 rebounds in EWU’s 72-69 win over Gonzaga on New Year’s Eve at the Spokane Arena. She scored 1,466 career points to rank second in school history while also ranking second in scoring average (14.4) and third in field goal percentage (.512). As a senior (2003-04 season), she led the league in scoring (18.6 points per game), field goal percentage (.528), double-double performances (14), 20+ performances (13) and 10+ rebounding games (13). She was also second in rebounding (9.7 per game) and fifth in blocked shots (1.14). She helped Eastern to the semifinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament three-straight years (2002-03-04), including the 2002-03 season when Eastern finished 17-12 overall and 7-7 in the Big Sky Conference. Eastern was 51-63 overall and 23-34 in the Big Sky in her four years at EWU. Said Eastern head coach Wendy Schuller during Nygaard’s senior season: “Kat has been a great player for the past two years, but now she is a great player every game and pretty much every minute. She definitely deserves all the recognition she can get.”