LOS ANGELES, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon State business major, Sara Jean Underwood, was named Playboy Magazine's 2007 'Playmate of the Year' Thursday in Los Angeles.

The 23-year-old blonde, a 2002 graduate of Scappoose High School, is the magazine's 48th Playmate of the year. She is a senior.

She said she thought she was going to faint or cry after defeating 11 other beauties for the honor.

Her title and yearlong reign were celebrated Thursday with a backyard luncheon under a tent at Hugh Hefner's famous Playboy Mansion.

Playboy photographers first met her when they visited Oregon State University looking for candidates for the ''Girls of the Pac 10'' pictorial. She ended up on the cover of the October 2005 issue and was the centerfold for the July 2006 issue.

Underwood said she had never modeled before.

She says she's five-three, freckled and from Oregon and never thought she could do something like this.

She said she comes from ''a very small bubble.''

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