Months after completing her eligibility following an all-conference volleyball career, Virginia Aguilar is still collecting honors.

The 2003 Waimea High graduate, a middle blocker for Hardin-Simmons, was an American Southwest Conference nominee for NCAA Division III Woman of the Year.

"In athletics, Virginia has always placed the goals of her teammates above any individual goal," Hardin-Simmons athletic director John Neese said in a release. "I truly believe that she values the conference championship in volleyball that HSU won as a team this year more than any of the career records she has set."

Aguilar repeated Neese's sentiments.

Winning the ASC championship this past season after qualifying for the conference tournament for the first time in her junior year was her "biggest accomplishment," said Aguilar, who called it "breaking the barrier."

"In the past our school had been good in other sports, except for volleyball."

Aguilar received her championship ring Monday. "It was nice. I don't wear rings too much, but it's nice to have," she said.

The two-time ASC West Division Player of the Year and ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-American earned a 4.0 grade point average and graduated in computer science.

"In the classroom, she has earned the respect of her professors and peers. She has set a high standard for all of our athletes to follow in the future," Neese added.

Aguilar holds the school record for kills, blocks, service aces and total points scored. She was active on the Abilene, Texas campus in the Epsilon Pi Alpha service club, the Gamma Beta Phi and Delta Mu Delta business and computer science clubs. She represented the volleyball team on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

"I was always used to being busy. I have so many different interests," she said.

Aguilar participated in six sports in high school — volleyball, basketball, soccer, air riflery, bowling and track and field — and also was a member of the National Honor Society and JROTC.

Aguilar chose to attend Hardin-Simmons because "it is a small Christian school, and not in a huge city, but there was a lot of things to do there."

With family in Oklahoma and Texas, it was a comfortable fit and made the transition to college easier. She handled the change from an 800-member student body at Waimea — "I thought it would be nice to not get too overwhelmed," she explained — to another small institution with about 2,000 undergraduates.

Aguilar, who is returning to Hardin Simmons in the fall to work on her MBA, finds out about about the status of her honor later this year. Nominees will be whittled to 10 in NCAA I, II and III, with the awards dinner scheduled for Oct. 27 in Indianapolis.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.