Samantha Bricio named Pac-12 Player of the Week


After upsetting top-ranked North Carolina and Brigham Young this past weekend, USC’s star women’s volleyball player Samantha Bricio was named the Pac-12’s Offensive Player of the Week on Monday for her performance in the 2015 Women of Troy Baden Invitational.

This is Bricio’s fourth time winning the award in her storied four-year tenure at USC, which has included AVCA All-America Second Team in 2013 and 2014; Pac-12 All-Conference in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and Volleyball Magazine’s All-America First Team in 2013.

Along with fellow Women of Troy sophomore Brittany Abercrombie and senior Alicia Ogoms, Bricio was named to the Baden Invitational’s  All-Tournament Team. She was also named the team’s Most Valuable Player. Bricio has been awarded pre-conference tournament MVP six times and pre-conference all-tournament team honors 11 times during her career.

The Guadalajara, Mexico, native helped then-No. 22 USC to seal the tournament title with 58 tournament kills, 67 points and 32 digs in wins against No. 7 North Carolina (3-1), unranked Chicago State (0-3) and No. 11 BYU (3-0).

Not only did Bricio win USC’s 60th all-time Player of the Week Award — not including freshman awards — she also etched her name into the Women of Troy’s record books with her 1,485th career kill, passing former USC alums Keao Burdine (2001-04) and Megan McAllister (1987-90) for ninth place overall.

This weekend also saw Bricio come within two digs of a 1,000-digs mark for her career, a true volleyball feat.

Thanks to the captain’s 25 kills, 11 digs, .400 hitting percentage and three blocks against the BYU Cougars in the tournament’s final match, the Women of Troy are now ranked No. 8 in the nation.

Bricio could earn  back-to-back Player of the Week honors as the Women of Troy will travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to play in this weekend’s 2015  Northern Iowa Tournament which features a game against Creighton (1-2) on Friday,       Sept. 4, and games playing No. 10 Kentucky (3-0) and tournament host UNI (1-2) on Saturday,   Sept. 5.