January 7, 2009 - Hillsdale College senior forward Katie Cezat has won a number of honors in her incredible career. Wednesday afternoon, she added a new trophy to her case.

Cezat was named the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division II Player of the Month for the month of December.

Cezat ended up in a tie with Ana Wurtz from Winona State (Minn.) for the award, so they share it this month.

A big part of Hillsdale College's 10-1 record and number seven national ranking has been the other-worldly play of Cezat, who is more than living up to her billing as the 2008-09 GLIAC Preseason Player of the Year.

Cezat currently leads all of Division II in rebounding average at 15.9, and ranks second in scoring average (27.4) and total blocked shots (37) in the nation. She's had four 30-point scoring games, three 20-rebound games, and recorded the second triple-double in school history on Dec. 13, when she had 36 points, 20 rebounds and a GLIAC-record 13 blocked shots against Ferris State University.

She has also been named GLIAC South Division Player of the Week four out of a possible seven times this season. She won that honor six times last year, including a run of five in a row.

A First-Team All-American pick in 2007-08, Cezat has already tied her single-season school record for blocked shots in a season, doing it in just 11 games. Last year, she led the NCAA Division II in scoring average (24.0), and set a new GLIAC record for scoring average in conference games in a season. She set 10 school records last year, turning in the finest single-season performance in Charger women's basketball history.

She is ahead of her numbers from a year ago in 2008-09, and has helped Hillsdale achieve its highest-ever national ranking. Cezat played her high school basketball at Plymouth Canton, west of Detroit.