SHAWNEE, Oklahoma – Five Ouachita volleyball players and the Tiger head coach have earned All-Great American Conference honors for the 2025 season.

Headlining the Tiger selections are senior Courtney Hanson earning GAC Setter of the Year honors and Coach Allison Frizzell-Kizer being selected as the GAC Coach of the Year.

Hanson also earned a spot on the All-GAC First Team along with junior teammate Leah Gardner. Senior Emily Adams was selected to the All-GAC Second Team and is one of seven players in the league to earn the distinction of GAC Elite Scholar Athlete. Juniors Kylie Kisgen and Kailey Thedford made the All-GAC Honorable Mention Team.

This is Hanson's second GAC Setter of the Year honor, also winning the award as a sophomore in 2023. It is her fourth overall All-GAC selection and third straight All-GAC First Team nod. The Arlington, Texas native earned GAC Setter of the Week honors five times during the 2025 campaign and enters the postseason leading the league in assists per set with an average of 9.7.

Frizzell-Kizer is currently leading the Tigers in one of the program's most successful seasons of all time. Under her guidance, Ouachita is 25-4 overall heading into the conference tournament that starts Thursday. The Tigers went 15-1 in conference play to win the GAC regular season championship for the second time in program history.

Gardner has earned her third straight All-GAC selection. She made the honorable mention team in each of her first two seasons with the Tigers. The Crandall, Texas native is second in the GAC this year in hitting percentage (.371) and fourth in blocks (1.1 per set).

Adams is now a four-time All-GAC honoree and is now a back-to-back GAC Elite Scholar Athlete, awarded to the student-athletes in the league that possess the highest cumulative GPA with at least 70 credit hours earned. The Arlington, Texas native is a 4.0 student and is on pace to graduate in the spring with a degree in psychology.

The GAC also announced the 2025 academic honor roll for volleyball, which includes all non-true freshman in the league that have at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA. 10 Tigers made that list, including: Mack Bidwell, Riley Braziel, Peyton Church, Eryn Dawson, Haley Fairchild, Leah Gardner, Emma Hill, Kylie Kisgen, Ann Marie Tice, and Savannah Whitaker.

The Tigers enter this week's GAC championship tournament as the No. 1 seed and defending champs after sweeping through the bracket last year as the No. 5 seed to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament. This year's tournament is being played at FireLake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Ouachita takes on No. 8 seed Southern Arkansas on Thursday at 3 p.m. in the opening round. Links to live video and live stats can be found at www.OBUtigers.com/coverage.