For the second time this season and the third time in her Seattle University career, senior middle blocker Martina Samadan (Split, Croatia) has been named the Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week, announced Monday morning by the league office.
In last Thursday’s 3-0 victory over Grand Canyon, Samadan collected 10 kills in 14 attempts with just two attack errors, posting a .571 hitting percentage, along with two digs and four block assists. In the final two sets of the match, Samadan earned eight kills in 10 attempts with just one error, plus three of her four total blocks.
Saturday against CSU Bakersfield, Samadan finished with 14 kills in 19 attempts with just one attack error for a .684 hitting percentage, the fourth-best individual hitting percentage in a single match. She also led the Redhawks with two service aces and five total blocks, and she picked up three digs along the way. In the second and third sets, she led Seattle U to a team hitting percentage of .474 by collecting nine kills in 10 attempts without an attack error.
Samadan leads the WAC in all matches and is fourth in all of Division I with a .453 hitting percentage, plus she is third in the league in both blocks per set (1.14) and points per set (3.86), plus she is seventh in kills per set (3.03). In WAC matches, the senior is second in the conference in hitting percentage (.517), third in points per set (4.38), fourth in kills per set (3.44), tied for fifth in blocks per set (1.06), and 10th in service aces per set (0.31).
This is the second weekly award for Samadan in three weeks, as she previously was honored Sept. 21 after helping the Redhawks to a 4-1 week in Tennessee and Florida. Her first conference weekly award came on Oct. 21, 2013, after leading Seattle U to three straight league victories.
The Seattle University volleyball team, currently 11-6 overall and 3-1 in WAC play, heads to Orem, Utah, to face the Utah Valley Wolverines Saturday, Oct. 10, at 1 p.m. local time (12 noon Pacific Time). The match will be streamed online through the WAC Digital Network (www.wacsports.com/live).