Junior outside hitter Livi Bono and junior libero Logan Harrell of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s girls’ volleyball team were selected to the 2015 All-TCIS first team, while junior setter Nicole Wright was named to the second team.

The girls were key to the Lady Saints going 26-9 for the entire season and 9-0 in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools for the regular season.

“Those three absolutely deserved it,” NSA coach Robyn Ross said of the girls, noting that they “have never been recognized for anything before this year, so to have them making all-tournament teams and all-conference teams was a good indication of how they have grown as players and what other coaches and teams were noticing when they were playing us.”

Bono, Harrell and Wright were part of the Lady Saints’ foundation for success this year due to their consistency on multiple levels; for one, NSA played 108 sets this season, and the trio played in all of them.

Ross was pleased with the other coaches around the conference honoring the three girls, but she thought the coaches had erred by failing to include another of her key juniors.

“Of course, I think that Lindsay (Knierbein) should have also been recognized,” Ross said of the girl who was second on her team in kills behind Bono.

Bono was a natural choice to fill one of the 10 spots available on the all-conference first team.

“Most of the time, hitters are the ones that get recognized because they get remembered, and so because Livi jumped so high and had such a quick arm swing and finished a lot of points for us, she is going to be remembered that way,” Ross said.

Bono finished the season with 469 kills to go with 331 digs and 267 points on her serve.

“Livi was just nine kills shy of the (NSA) season record for kills, which was really good,” Ross said.

Kaylor Nash, now a volleyball player at Radford University, registered 478 kills as a senior for Nansemond-Suffolk during the 2013-14 campaign.

For the Highlanders, Nash plays predominantly in the back row, a place where Logan Harrell made her new home with the Lady Saints this season, switching from outside hitter to libero.

“This is the first year in the six years that I’ve been here that our libero has been recognized on any all-conference team, and so for Logan to get on the first team was huge, because we’ve had great liberos,” Ross said, noting NSA graduate Bridget Murphy had done an amazing job at the position previously.

“It’s hard to watch a player like Logan and not understand that she is amazing at that position, so she’s a threat from everywhere in the back row. She was definitely the best libero around. She, I think, led the conference in aces, and so she’s great on defense, she’s great from the service line and she’s really, really solid in serve receive.”

Harrell recorded 744 digs this year along with 106 aces and 327 points on her serve, and she even had 67 kills, while leading her team vocally and by example.

Ross said that among the setters for teams in the TCIS, Nicole Wright “was one of the few that was raised as a setter, and so that was really evident. She has the ability to do stuff setting the ball that other setters in the conference did not.”

Wright ended the season with 1,035 assists, averaging 9.6 per set. She also had 220 digs, 46 kills, 75 aces, 237 points on her serve.