FARMINGTON, Utah (March 2, 2023) - The Big Sky Conference announced Loree Payne as coach of the year, in addition to Regan Schenck's first team all-conference and Montana Oltrogge's second team all-conference honors on Thursday morning.
Coach Payne's accolade sits alongside Tricia Binford of Montana State and Mark Campbell of Sacramento State as the three share the coach of the year title after a tie was voted in by Big Sky head coaches. The coach of the year honors come as a first for Payne, and only the second time in NAU program history as Meg Sanders won the award in the 1997-98 season.
Payne coached the Lumberjacks to their second-ever regular season Big Sky title, with NAU entering the conference tournament this week as the No. 1 seed. The Lumberjacks finish out the regular season with the best overall record (.613) since the 2006-07 season, and the best conference record (.722) since the 1997-98 season.
Oltrogge joined the Lumberjacks as a graduate transfer from Idaho State. Although she was only with the program for a year, she made an immediate impact, starting 25 contests and averaging 31 minutes per game. Montana nearly averaged a double-double this season with 12.7 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. She scored in double figures 19 times and earned 10 double-doubles. Against Eastern Washington, she scored a career-high 26 points after making six three-pointers.
Combined with her time with the Bengals, Oltrogge scored 1,144 career points and grabbed 529 career rebounds. This season was one of her strongest, grabbing a career-high 213 rebounds and scoring 342 points. She's made 188 career three-pointers, including a career-high 57 this year with the Lumberjacks. The all-conference accolade comes as a first for Oltrogge.
A five-year member of the program, Schenck will leave as the Lumberjacks' all-time leader in games played with 152, and minutes played with 4,634. She made 113 career starts and has averaged 30.5 minutes per game. She is NAU's all-time career assist leader with 684 and counting, and broke the single-season record with 212 this year as well.
Schenck is on pace to break the single-season free throw percentage record, draining 79.0 percent from the line. She is also fifth on Northern Arizona's all-time scoring list with 1,304 career points, and is fifth in career rebounds with 725. This season, Regan has averaged 12.9 points and 6.8 assists per game, pulling down an average of 4.8 rebounds per game while starting all 31 contests. She has scored in double figures 22 times so far this season, with four double-doubles. This comes as the third all-conference honors for Schenck after earning second team accolades in 2020-21, and honorable mention in 2021-22.
The Lumberjacks will face the winner of No. 9 Northern Colorado vs. No. 10 Weber State on Saturday afternoon to start the Big Sky tournament. To stay up to date with NAU Women's Basketball, follow the Jacks on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
