BURNSVILLE, Minn. – The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced Thursday that five Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball players have received All-NSIC recognition while Taylor Reiss was named NSIC Player of the Year for a second straight season.
 
Reiss along with Brooke Borchardt, Kaylee Burmeister, and Megan Larson have each been named first team All-NSIC while Sarina Smith has been named second team All-NSIC as selected by the league's 16 head coaches.

A 2016 first team AVCA All-American, Reiss was also named Preseason NSIC Player of the Year prior to the start of the 2017 season. Reiss wins the NSIC Player of the Year honor for a second straight season and becomes the first SMSU volleyball player to ever win the award twice. She was also named NSIC Freshman of the Year in 2015.
 
Reiss, a 5-foot-10, junior outside hitter from Taunton, Minnesota, leads the Mustangs with 452 kills while hitting .282. It's the third straight season she has been named first team All-NSIC. She is second on the team with 292 digs and has added 58 blocks. In NSIC play, she leads the conference in both kills per set (4.9) and points per set (5.4). In the latest Division II statistics, Reiss is sixth in kills, sixth in kills per set and seventh in points per set.
 
Borchardt, 6-foot-1, senior middle blocker from Zimmerman, Minnesota, ranks third for SMSU with 254 kills while hitting a team-high .402, which ranks ninth in Division II. She also ranks second on the squad with 79 blocks. In NSIC matches only, she ranks third in the conference with a .393 hitting percentage. 
 
Burmeister, a 5-foot-8, junior outside hitter from Lakefield, Minnesota, ranks second for the Mustangs with 298 kills with a .218 hitting percentage. She has amassed a team-high 304 digs and is second on the team with 26 service aces. Burmeister was a second team All-NSIC selection in 2016.
 
Larson, a 5-foot-9, senior setter from Minnesota, Minnesota, leads SMSU with 1,151 assists and has also recorded 73 kills, 46 blocks and 25 service aces. Larson, the all-time leader in career assists at SMSU with 5,262, is the only player in history to surpass 5,000 career assists. She ranks second in the NSIC with 12.1 assists per set and is third in Division II in assists per set (12.2) and 11^th in total assists. This year marks the second straight season Larson has been named first team All-NSIC after also being named second team All-NSIC as a sophomore in 2015.
 
Smith, a 6-foot-2, freshman middle blocker from Andover, Minnesota, has racked up 214 kills while hitting a team second-best .365, which ranks 24^th in Division II. She also leads the Mustangs with 83 blocks. In NSIC matches, she ranks eighth in the league in hitting percentage (.357) and is 10^th in blocks per set (0.9).
 
Southwest Minnesota State, 23-3 overall, 15-3 NSIC, is ranked No. 4 nationally and No. 2 in this week's NCAA Central Region rankings. The Mustangs close out the regular season with a pair of home matches this weekend facing Minnesota Crookston on Friday at 6 p.m., before taking on Bemidji State on Saturday starting at 2 p.m.