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2009 Big Sky All-Conference volleyball teams

CHENEY, Wash. -- Allison Raguse has added another honor to her already-full cache of awards earned during an illustrious Northern Colorado volleyball career.

The senior middle blocker from Lincoln, Neb., didn't lead the Bears in any important category this season, but, as she's done for most of her Northern Colorado career, she did a little bit of everything really, really well.

And for that, she was tabbed today a 2009 Big Sky First Team All-Conference player after registering 303 kills this season, on .285 hitting, with 68 assists, 24 service aces, 263 digs and 60 blocks.

She was joined on the postseason honor teams by teammates Kenzie Shreeve and Marissa Hughes, who both earned Second Team status, and Taylor Smith, an Honorable Mention pick for the second year in a row.

The conference announced the awards during a dessert reception on the eve of the 2009 Big Sky Conference Championships, hosted by Eastern Washington. Northern Colorado earned the third seed in this year's tournament and will face off against the second-seed and host Eagles in the second semifinal at 8 p.m. (MT) on Friday night.

Raguse, a Second Team All-Conference player in 2007 and 2008, finally broke through this season and gives the Bears First-Team honorees in back-to-back seasons, after Kenzie Shreeve earned placement there last season.

"As we climb to the top of the conference, our players are going to get more individual recognition," Northern Colorado coach Lyndsey Benson said. "It is not a primary goal, but it is a great reward for a lot of time and hard work they put in. Our team was very well-rounded this year, so you can't pick a star player on our team. That was a strength of our team this year."

Raguse led the Bears with eight double-doubles this season, the sixth most in the league, and she set career highs with seven assists against Drake in early September and 20 digs against Sacramento State in late October.

She hit at an unbelievable .733 clip (12-1-15) in a home victory against Montana State earlier this month, and she had double-digit kills in 17 of Northern Colorado's 30 matches this season and had 10 or more digs 10 times.

"(Being a postseason honoree three straight years) proves that Allison is a versatile player," Benson said. "Moving her to the right side was a great thing for her this year. She played all the way around, and she just kept getting better as her career went on. 

"I'm proud of her for being named First Team this year.  She doesn't like to look at individual honors but this should be a confidence boost for her to see that the coaches in this conference recognize her athleticism."

Shreeve has been one of the best offensive weapons in the Big Sky Conference for much of the last two seasons, and only Raguse's outstanding play this season pushed her to the second squad.

She led the Bears in kills this season (368) and will finish her career as just the 13th player in Northern Colorado history with 1,000 or more kills. She enters Friday's night match with 1,141 kills in her career, which solidly places her in ninth on the program's all-time list.

Hughes, a true freshman from Huntington Beach, Calif., stepped in for departed senior Lauren Carter this season as Northern Colorado's frontline setter and paved the way for conducted Northern Colorado's offensive machine all season long.

Her 1,223 assists so far this year already are the fourth most in Northern Colorado NCAA Division I history, and her 10.92 sets-per-game average ranks her 44th in the country and first in the country among freshman setters.

"This is a great honor for Marissa," Benson said. "She has done a great job running our offense, but a setter must always credit their hitters. She gives them a chance to be successful on nearly every play, which makes her a great player, and she had a great group of experienced hitters to do the work after it was out of her hands."

Smith, from Denton, Texas, was twice named a Big Sky Conference Player of the Week this season and she also started the season by earning Most Valuable Player honors at the season-opening North Texas' Mean Green Volleyball Classic in her hometown.

She led Northern Colorado with 84 blocks this year, and she finished with the Bears' third-highest hitting percentage (.278), behind Raguse and junior Ashley Lichtenberg.

Now, all four of the Bears award winners will turn their focus toward this weekend's conference clash. A win against the Eagles on Friday night and either Portland State or Montana on Saturday will earn Northern Colorado a berth in this year's NCAA Tournament.

No easy task, but, according to Benson, the opportunity to play for the ultimate prize is all part of the reward.

"We will be ready to go," she said. "This weekend is the reward for all of the hard work for the last 11 months to pay off. We will have to play our best, but we wouldn't want it any other way."