Santos Tabbed Blocker of the Year

NORMAN, Okla. - Oklahoma volleyball added another postseason award Tuesday as senior Eliane Santos was selected as Collegiate Volleyball Update's (CVU.com) Blocker of the Year. The honor comes a week after head coach Santiago Restrepo was named CVU.com's National Coach of the Year.

A 6-2 senior from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Santos was one of the most efficient blockers in the country and provided the bulk of the Sooners' solid blocking this season. Santos was steady when she found herself alone at the net, putting back 43 solo blocks. Additionally, she didn't give many points away, committing only seven blocking errors on the season.

The third-team All-American and Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year finished her two-year career at Oklahoma as the career rally-scoring leader in solo blocks, block assists and block per game average. She led the Sooners all season with 1.57 blocks per game (second in the Big 12) while also averaging 3.11 kills per game on a .332 hitting percentage. Additionally, she recorded eight or more blocks in 10 different matches this season including a school record five solo blocks in a three-game match against Kansas State.

This is the second-straight year Santos has been in the CVU Top Five. The rest of the Top Five is Utah's Emillie Toone, Katie Oakes of Virginia, and a pair from Penn State -- Christa Harmotto and Melissa Walbridge.

To qualify, a player needs to play in 75% or more of the team's overall games. To aid selection, player stats were used. Rather than strictly using blocks per game, a formula was developed to score blocking. An average number of opponent attempts per game was figured, and by using that, an approximate efficiency was calculated. Also, instead of counting solo blocks and block assists as equal, they were scaled as is done in team stats, with blocks assists counting half. Further, a player's blocking errors were also including in the figures to come up with the final numbers.

In addition to Santos being tabbed Blocker of the Year, the Sooners were one of four teams named honorable mention blocking team of the year by CVU.com. Also earning honorable mention behind winner Penn State were Maryland, Utah and Wisconsin.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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