Christensen closes career with All-American nod

INDIANOLA, Iowa – A fitting end to an illustrious career, Simpson senior Tara Christensen once again established herself as one of the top players in the nation.

For the second year in a row, the American Volleyball Coaches Association named Christensen an NCAA Division III Honorable Mention All-American, as announced Tuesday.

Simpson's career-leader with 5,554 assists, Christensen led Simpson to two Iowa Conference titles and three NCAA Championship appearances in her four seasons running the Simpson offense. Most recently, she led the Storm to 2009 IIAC regular season and tournament championships, as Simpson received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

Her 5,554 assists give her the second most in Iowa Conference history of the schools currently comprising the league and place her into the top-25 in NCAA Division III history.

A graduate of Hinton High School, Christensen became only the 10th Iowa Conference player to earn all-conference honors four times after she earned first team honors for the third year in a row earlier this season. She received second team accolades as a freshman in 2006.

Christensen recorded the second-most assists in a season by a Simpson setter in her debut season of 2006, distributing 1,598 as the Storm won its first Iowa Conference title since 1994 and advanced to the NCAA Championship. After missing out on the tournament field in 2007, Christensen and the Storm returned as an at-large bid in 2008, falling to No. 23 St. Benedict, 3-1 in the opening round.

Throughout her career, Christensen was named Iowa Conference Female Athlete of the Week on two occasions and volleyball player of the week three times. She led the league in assists two times (2006 and 2009), coming in second in 2008 and fifth in 2007. She finished 2006 ranked 17th in the nation with 12.02 assists per set and is currently 29th in the nation with 10.24.