EDINBURG – UTRGV volleyball head coach Todd Lowery had a simple message for sophomore Ragni Steen Knudsen – "prove them wrong."
 
After getting snubbed for All-WAC honors, Knudsen averaged 3.00 kills on .287 hitting and 1.75 digs per set to help UTRGV win the WAC Tournament Championship.
 
Knudsen was again snubbed, as she was denied a spot on the All-Tournament team, but if it's bothering her, you'd never know it.
 
"That didn't really hurt me," Knudsen said. "I'm glad that Alisha [Watson] and Bojana [Mitrovic] got it. They really deserve it."
 
Knudsen is in her first season with UTRGV after transferring from Lindsay Wilson College, an NAIA institution in Maryland that Knudsen went to in order to take classes while becoming eligible to play in the NCAA.
 
It's not always easy for international student-athletes to become eligible right away, so sometimes a coach will set-up what amounts to a one-year loan with an NAIA institution. After that year is complete, the player then has to decide whether to still go to the NCAA institution or just stay put.
 
Knudsen, a native of Myre, Norway, wanted to play at the DI level and she was looking forward to finally playing for Lowery at UTRGV. So after a strong season at Lindsay Wilson, Knudsen joined UTRGV and became an immediate contributor, recording 16 double-doubles, including 14 in UTRGV's first 20 matches.
 
"She's so steady. She's been a rock," Lowery said. "We have the kids that put up the big swings. We have the kids that put up the big block numbers. We have the kids that put up the big defense efforts. But Ragni does all of those things. She was a huge part of why we beat UMKC (in the WAC Tournament Quarterfinals) with two huge serving runs. When no one else could get them out of system, she was the one that could do it. Every time we were tracked and it seemed like the block was closing in on us and we couldn't get away, she's that kid that can just go up and just face a double-block and just use it straight out of bounds with almost no effort. She was definitely at the All-WAC level and I thought she played great at the WAC Tournament. She's a very humble person and comes from a volleyball family. She shows up every day and does her job. Those awards are going to come."
 
Knudsen is averaging a team-high 3.45 kills and 2.39 digs per set. She has 448 kills this season, the fourth-highest single-season total in NCAA DI program history and just 12 shy of tying the record.
 
Knudsen has also attempted 1,267 attacks, which ranks fifth in NCAA DI program history, good for a .229 hitting percentage. That career hitting percentage is the eighth best in NCAA DI program history, but Lowery's goal is to raise the bar even higher.
 
"I think after a spring season, when we'll have a chance to tweak some things…,she'll be even more effective," Lowery said. "You look at the transformation we made with Bojana over the spring with raising her hitting percentage and what Alisha has been able to do over two years with us. Her hitting percentage has risen 30 points each season. It' just a product of fixing little things, but if those two fewer errors turn into one or two more kills per set, that's a four-point swing every match. There are a few things we can do with Ragni that's going to really help her explode offensively.
 
"I don't think we've even scratched the surface of what's she's able to do and what she's going to do before she leaves this program."
 
Knudsen's next chance to show what she's capable of will be next week in the NCAA Tournament. The selection show is Sunday at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

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