AZUSA, Calif. -- Senior outside hitter Jill Baker was named the GSAC Player of the Year, becoming the first-ever winner of the conference’s top award from Azusa Pacific’s volleyball program. She was joined on the All-GSAC team by sophomore middle blocker Amy Alkazin, and head coach Chris Keife was named GSAC Coach of the Year.

Baker, who is the only Cougar ever twice named to the NAIA All-American first team, also becomes the program’s second 4-time All-GSAC honoree. She finished the regular season with 527 kills, and her 4.43 kills per set ranks fifth in the NAIA. Baker was the GSAC’s individual leader in conference play in total kills (358) and kills per set (4.65) in conference play, leading Azusa Pacific to a 15-5 league mark, its best GSAC finish (third) since a second-place finish in 1994.

“I think the individual awards are ultimately a reflection of the team as a whole,” Baker said. “I can’t do what I do without the rest of the team. With the role that every player adds to this team, I don’t consider it an honor for me as much as it is a reflection of the whole team.”

In addition, the 6-foot-2 Turlock, Calif. native tallied 21 double-doubles and had 7 20-plus kill matches. Baker also ranked in the GSAC Top 10 in digs, registering 257 of her 383 digs in conference play. She was also the conference leader in passing percentage, handling 705 serves with just 21 reception errors on the year.

Baker is the program’s record-holder in career, single-season and single-match kills, and in Saturday’s regular season-ending win over the NAIA’s No. 4-ranked Concordia, she crossed the 1,500 career digs milestone. She is just the third player in program history to record 1,500 kills and 1,500 digs in her career.

“I’m ecstatic for Jill,” Keife said. “Our conference is the toughest one in the NAIA by far, and there are many great players in the GSAC. She’s been on the verge of being that elite player in the conference for several years, and she’s worked very hard to improve every year. The award is a testament to how good her all-around skills are.”

Alkazin, a 5-foot-10 middle blocker from Carlsbad, Calif., earned All-GSAC recognition for the second straight season, becoming just the ninth 2-time All-GSAC pick in Cougar history. She led the league in attack percentage in conference play, notching 162 kills in 321 attempts for a .405 percentage in 20 GSAC matches, and she registered a .412 percentage over the entire 32-match regular season.

“I’ve never been the type of player to receive a whole lot of recognition,” Alkazin said. “Getting All-GSAC is definitely exciting, and it’s something I don’t take for granted. I’m just one player, and volleyball is a team sport. I don’t feel like what I did this season is reflected in this honor, it’s what our team did.”

Although she did not meet the NAIA requirements (5 attacks per set) for listing among national leaders in attack percentage, Alkazin’s .412 attack percentage would rank third among the NAIA’s hitting percentage leaders.

“A lot of good things lie ahead for Amy,” Keife said. “She’s a very consistent player, and that’s one of the things that I’m so impressed with about her. Last year, as a freshman, she was very consistent and provided good all-around play, and this year she’s stepped it up even more with more efficiency offensively, plus she’s second in the conference in blocking as a 5-foot-10 middle blocker.”

For Keife, Azusa Pacific’s sixth-year head coach, the conference coach of the year award was his second such honor after earning 2005 GSAC Coach of the Year recognition in his second season at the program’s helm. He is the only 2-time GSAC Coach of the Year in Azusa Pacific volleyball history, and he guided the Cougars to an unprecedented sixth consecutive 20-win campaign. At 24-8 overall, his 2009 squad is just 3 wins away from posting the most victories for an Azusa Pacific team since the 1983 Cougars collected 29 wins in a 40-match campaign.

Azusa Pacific’s 24-8 overall mark included 12 wins over teams ranked in the final NAIA Top 25 Coaches Poll. In fact, since splitting a pair of matches Sept. 4 at Concordia’s Asics/Crowne Plaza Labor Day Tournament, the Cougars have not lost to any team ranked below the NAIA’s top 5. All 5 of Azusa Pacific’s conference losses came to top-ranked Fresno Pacific, No. 2 California Baptist and No. 4 Concordia.

“It’s always nice to be voted by your peers, but to have it with this team this year means a lot to me,” Keife said. “It’s been a great year for us, and we’ve accomplished a lot, but we still have our sights set ahead of us. The team has done everything that’s been asked of them, and I believe I was recognized for this award because of the efforts of the team and the rest of the coaching staff.”

For the second straight year, Azusa Pacific has clinched a top-12 seed and opening-round bye into the final site of the 2009 NAIA Volleyball National Championship, held Dec. 1-5 in Sioux City, Iowa. The NAIA national office will release the pool play brackets for the 24-team final site field on Sunday, Nov. 22, at www.naia.org, following Saturday’s Opening Round contests held at campus sites nationwide. Azusa Pacific is 1 of 6 GSAC programs that were issued an opening-round bye, and Point Loma Nazarene hosts an opening-round matchup that gives the conference the opportunity to have 7 teams represented in the 24-team field at the final site.

“No matter what, when you’re coming from our conference, you have a target on your back. It doesn’t matter which of the 7 teams from the GSAC you are, we all have targets on our back because of how well our conference has performed at the national level. I hope our approach doesn’t change, I want us to keep improving the next 2 weeks and see how good of a team we can become.”

Click below for the full All-GSAC team, which was released Wednesday by the conference.

2009 All-GSAC Volleyball Team