HELENA, Mont. – Valley City State placed three players on the 2025 Frontier Conference Volleyball All-Conference team. Seniors JayCee Richter, Macy Fridgen, and Danielle Hagler made the 1^st, 2^nd, and Honorable Mention teams respectively.

Richter, from Linton, North Dakota was also named Defender Player of the Year in the conference. Richter set the school career digs record in a match against Rocky Mountain late in the season. Heading into the conference tournament, Richter has 548 digs on the season, averaging 6.16 digs per set. She currently ranks first in the conference with 6.09 digs per set. This is Richter 1^st All-Conference selection.

Fridgen, from Bismarck, North Dakota, leads the Vikings with 314 kills on the season. She set a career best in the final match of the regular season when she had 28 kills versus Dakota State which earned her conference Attacker of the Week. This is Fridgen's second all conference selection. She was 1^st team All-NSAA in 2024.

Hagler, from Cando, North Dakota, is second to Fridgen on the team in kills with 258. Her 915 career kills ranks 14^th all-time in school history. This is Hagler's second All-Conference selection. She was 1^st team NSAA after her sophomore season in 2023.

The Champions of Character Award was also given out to a student-athlete from each team. Rosie Anderson received the award for Valley City State University. The senior is from Moorhead, Minnesota. According to the NAIA Website: 
The vision of National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Champions of Character program is to change the culture of sport. Its mission is to provide training to instill the values that build character so students, coaches and parents know, do and value the right thing on and off the field.

Research shows that the longer a student spends in sports, their social reasoning – sacrificing for the good of the team – rises.

The Champions of Character program helps participants find the balance by keeping five core values – integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership – at the heart of the athletics experience.

Students learn to understand how the values play out in both practice and competition. Coaches are taught how to intentionally define, model, shape and reinforce the values through their coaching and mentoring. Parents learn how their behavior is key to supporting their athletes.

For more than a decade, Champions of Character has been making a difference in developing athletes, coaches and parents of character.
The NAIA is committed to advancing character-driven athletics. 

Providence's (Mont.) Bella Thompson highlighted the 2025 Frontier Conference Volleyball All-Conference teams and postseason awards, announced during the awards ceremony Wednesday evening at the Lower Campus Center on the campus of host-school Carroll (Mont.).

Thompson was selected as the Player-of-the-Year and the Setter-of-the-Year for the second consecutive year, guiding the Argos to their second straight Frontier Conference regular season title outright.  UP also secured the first automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round, which is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 22, at campus sites.

Providence's Arunas Duda was selected as the Coach of the Year for the second straight year.  UP's Sacha Simmons was named Assistant Coach of the Year.

Other individual awards included Valley City State's (N.D.) JayCee Richter as the Defender Player of the Year, Bellevue's (Neb.) Eve Fountain as the Attacker of the Year, Montana Tech's Payton Treadwell as the Newcomer of the Year, and MSU-Northern's Lexi Jones as Freshman-of-the-Year.

The awards were selected by the league's head coaches.

The Frontier Conference Women's Volleyball Postseason Tournament starts Thursday at 12 p.m. (Mountain Time) at Carroll College PE Center.  Four quarterfinal matches start with the top-seed Argos taking on No. 8 seed Montana Western, followed by No. 4 Dakota State (S.D.) taking on No. 5 seed Montana Tech at 2:30 p.m. (MT).

Thursday's quarterfinals will feature No. 2 seed Bellevue (Neb.) versus No. 7 seed Valley City State (N.D.) at 5 p.m. (MT) and wraps up with No. 3 MSU-Northern playing No. 6 seed Carroll at 7:30 p.m. (MT).

Semifinals are set for Friday evening, with the championship match on Saturday at 7 p.m. (MT).  The second automatic bid will be awarded to the tournament's champion.  In an event if UP wins the tournament, the bid will go to the tournament's runner-up.

There are 14 individuals each on the First- and Second-Team All-Conference.  Each school also has an honorable mention athlete.

Below is the complete list of the 2025 Frontier All-Conference teams, postseason awards, and All-Freshman Team:

2025 FRONTIER CONFERENCE WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL AWARDS:
Player of the Year:  Bella Thompson, Providence (Mont.), Senior, Setter
Setter of the Year:  Bella Thompson, Providence (Mont.), Senior, Setter
Attacker of the Year:  Eve Fountain, Bellevue (Neb.), Senior, Outside Hitter
Defender Player of the Year:  JayCee Richter, Valley City State (N.D.), Senior, Libero
Newcomer of the Year:  Payton Treadwell, Montana Tech, Right Side
Freshman of the Year:  Lexi Jones, MSU-Northern, Freshman, Middle Hitter
Coach of the Year:  Arunas Duda, Providence
Assistant Coach of the Year:   Sacha Simmons, Providence
 
Complete All-Conference List