For the second consecutive year Northwestern State has an outside hitter on the Southland Preseason All-Conference list.
Junior Hannah Brister was named to the All-Southland first-team on Thursday, one year after Reagan Rogers found herself with the same honor. Brister was the only selection for NSU among the 14 conference players honored by the head coaches.
“I’m happy for Hannah and this is definitely an earned honor,” Coach Sean Kiracofe said. “She’s been able to compete with the top players in the conference from the moment she stepped on campus as a freshman so she should always be in these types of conversations.”
Brister followed up a Southland Freshman of the Year campaign from two seasons ago with an even better 2018 sophomore season. She raised her offensive production across the board, with more kills, a better kill per set average, and a better overall hitting percentage.
The Paincourtville, La native hammered 314 kills on the season, leading the Lady Demons and finishing seventh in the conference in the category. After moving to her more natural outside position over the final 10 matches of the season, she averaged 16.1 kills per match, including setting a new career-high of 23 against Houston Baptist.
Brister will start the 2019 season on the outside, where she earned second team All-Southland and first-team All-Louisiana honors last year, as one of the leaders of a dynamic NSU offense.
“Even though Hannah has never been a secret from the rest of the Southland, this year more than her previous two, teams will be focusing they’re defense and matchups towards slowing her down,” Kiracofe said. “However, we were able to see that towards the end of the season last year so you could look at that as if it was a nice trial run for this year. What’s great for us as a program is with the high level that Hannah’s been playing at for the last two seasons we don’t need her to do anything more than the standard she’s already set to have another great year.”
Photo Credit: Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
