A multi-sport standout in volleyball and basketball, Ruen was honored in both 2001 and 2002 as the Inland Northwest Female Athlete of the Year by the Spokane Sportswriters and Broadcasters. Ruen completed her final year in volleyball as the 2002 Big Sky Conference MVP in leading Eastern to a 29-2 record and the Big Sky Conference regular season championship. In addition, she became the only Eagle volleyball player to record more than 1,100 kills and 1,100 digs in her career. She finished her career ranked 12th in Big Sky history and third at EWU in career digs with 1,298, and her 1,268 kills ranked second all-time in school history. The 2002 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-Pacific Region honorable mention played in every Eagle volleyball match in her career, playing in a total of 417 sets. Eastern won 93 of those 120 matches for an impressive winning percentage of .778. Her 419 kills and 3.92 average per game in 2002 ranked fifth in school history, as well as her 415 digs and 3.88 average per game. She also ranked high in other EWU career categories as well, including kills per game (3.04/fifth), digs per game (3.88/fifth), hitting percentage (.253/sixth), hitting attempts (3,212/third) and service aces (140/second). In addition to her conference MVP honor, for the second-straight year Ruen was a first team All-Big Sky and All-Big Sky Tournament selection. She also won four Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honors in 2002 and seven in her career, and won a total of seven all-tournament honors in her career. She became the first female athlete at EWU to receive All-Big Sky honors in two sports in the same year when she was an honorable mention selection in basketball in the 2000-2001 season after earning second team All-Big Sky honors in volleyball in the fall. In 56 career games in basketball, she averaged 7.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.8 steals while making 49.3 percent of her field goal attempts and 70.6 percent of her free throws. In the 2002-03 season, Ruen helped Eastern to a 17-12 record representing Eastern's most wins since 1988 and a six-game improvement over the previous season. She earned Academic All-District VIII honors as a senior in volleyball when she was also selected as a 2002 Sports Illustrated "Face in the Crowd." She earned seven Big Sky Conference All-Academic honors, including four in volleyball and three in basketball. She is a native of Post Falls, Idaho, where she was a league MVP in both volleyball and basketball. She earned first-team All-State honors for both sports, and at the time of her graduation, held the Trojan school record for points in basketball and kills in volleyball. After graduating from Eastern in 2003, Ruen went on to play professional beach volleyball, including five seasons on the former AVP Beach Volleyball Tour. She competed in more than 50 national tournaments, placing as high as ninth two times. She also competed internationally at FIVB challenger/satellite events in Hong Kong and Poland, placing seventh and second, which marked her best finish as a pro. In her rookie season in 2006, Ruen and partner Jennifer Snyder ranked 42nd on the tour and then improved to 40th the next year. Ruen was nominated for the Rookie of the Year Award in 2006. She combined with Snyder to finish 27-25 in 14 tournaments in 2006, with a high finish of 13th (five times). The following season, Ruen was 19-30 with a high of ninth twice (both with Snyder as her teammate). In 2008, Ruen was 6-18 with a high finish of 13th (twice). On Aug. 17, 2006, Ruen was chosen to ring the opening bell at the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York City and in 2008 appeared in the motion picture “Impact Point” distributed by Sony Pictures. In 2008, Ruen joined Benson’s staff at Auburn as director of volleyball operations. She spent one season with the Tigers before returning to California, where she resided with her husband, Billy Allen – himself a professional beach volleyball player. Ruen was a head coach for the Sports Shack Volleyball Club for four years, and served as Programs Coordinator for the United States Youth Volleyball League. She managed more than 30 youth volleyball programs throughout the U.S., helping recruit, train and supervise all coaches and staff. She also coached volleyball at Wildwood School in Los Angeles, Calif., and basketball at Vistamar School. She returned to Eastern in 2013 to serve as an assistant coach under Wade Benson.
