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DENVER - Seattle U senior middle blocker Martina Samadan has been named Western Athletic Conference Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Sept. 14-20. This is her first WAC Player of the Week honor of the season and the second of her career.
The Split, Croatia, native led the Redhawks to a 4-1 road record last week, with the only loss coming at the hands of Miami, a team that finished last season No. 27 in RPI. Samadan averaged 3.11 kills on .421 hitting, 1.17 blocks, 0.83 digs and 0.44 assists per set over the five matches. She opened the week with 14 kills on .481 hitting in a four-set win at Middle Tennessee en route to all-tournament team honors at the Middle Tennessee Invitational. In a 3-1 victory over Central Florida, a team that finished the 2014 season with an RPI of 35, Samadan tallied 11 kills on .429 hitting to go along with seven digs and four blocks. Later Thursday, she led Seattle U with 12 kills and a .348 hitting percentage against a tough Miami defense. On Friday, Samadan led the team with eight kills, a .467 hitting percentage and six blocks in a sweep over Bethune-Cookman. In the Redhawks' 3-1 victory over Florida International to conclude the road trip, Samadan finished with 11 kills on .381 hitting and six blocks. Samadan leads the WAC with a .431 hitting percentage, ranks third in blocks per set (1.17), fourth in points per set (3..69) and seventh in kills per set (2.90).
Other nominees included: CSU Bakersfield's Kelsee Sawyer averaged 3.71 kills on .297 hitting in a pair of matches at No. 12 Hawai‘i ... Elli Woinowsky of Chicago State averaged 3.67 kills, 2.17 digs and 0.42 service aces, earned all-tournament team honors at the Indiana State Invitational #2 and helped the Cougars snap a 27-match losing skid ... Missouri-Kansas City's Madison Mosier was named the all-tournament team at the Jayhawk Classic after averaging 3.25 kills on .387 hitting and 1.00 digs per set over three matches ... NM State's Gwen Murphy averaged 3.64 kills on .414 hitting and 1.09 blocks per set en route to all-tournament team honors at the Wildcat Classic ... Bojana Mitrovic of UT Rio Grande Valley was named to her fourth all-tournament team in as many weeks after averaging 4.73 kills and 2.27 digs per set ... Utah Valley's Madison Dennison averaged 2.25 kills on .378 hitting and 1.50 blocks per set in a pair of matches last week.