Harthun named GNAC Red Lion Co-Offensive Player of the Week
October 23, 2012
Jamie Foland
474-6807
Freshman outside hitter Sam Harthun (Oregon City, Ore./Oregon City) has been named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Volleyball Red Lion Co-Offensive Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday morning.
“Sam had a great weekend,” head coach Phil Shoemaker said. “We're really excited for her, excited for how the team's coming around and she's certainly a big part of that in all phases of the game. It's always good when you have an athlete step up the way she has.”
Harthun compiled 36 terminations with a pair of 18-kill performances as well as a strong .413 hitting percentage and three service aces to lead the Nanooks to a 1-1 split against Western Oregon and Saint Martin's.
In Thursday's loss to WOU, she had a .286 hitting clip to go with her kill total while contributing 14 digs. In Saturday's straight-set victory over SMU, the Oregon City native matched Thursday's kill total but hit .654 in the process, which was only .079 off the GNAC single-match record for a hitting percentage with at least 18 kills.
It was also the first time over two years Alaska swept an opponent, with the last 3-0 win coming back on Oct. 9, 2010 against Central Washington. In addition, it ended a three-match losing skid to the Saints.
Harthun shared the award with Western Oregon's Samantha Ward after she produced a team-high 34 kills to go with her .413 hitting percentage as the Wolves went 2-0 on their road trip to Alaska.
Western Washington's Kayla Erickson was also honored with Defensive Player of the Week accolades after helping the Vikings extend their win streak to seven with 10 blocks (two solo) in their sweep of Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene.
This is the second time in three weeks a Nanook has garnered a GNAC honor as rookie middle blocker Megan Morrison (Spring Hill, Fla./Springstead) was named Offensive Player of the Week back on Oct. 8.
“I've always had the philosophy and I've shared this with the team that freshmen begin to come into their own in October,” Shoemaker said. “Things aren't quite as new and they're adapting to the college game. We felt like this was a great freshmen class and I think we still have things yet to play out. We're convinced this is a great freshmen class and certainly a lot to build on for the future and reasons for excitement.”
Alaska returns to action this Saturday when it hosts in-state rival Alaska Anchorage at 7 p.m.