FIU Volleyball Team: Senior Natalia Valentin Receives National Recognition
MIAMI (Nov. 11, 2010) – Senior Natalia Valentin has been selected as a national top performer of the week by Collegiate Volleyball Update, announced on Wednesday by CVU.com.
Top performers are selected based on players who were finalists for CVU.com’s Player of the Week honor, and others who had exceptional individual matches. Valentin was one of 11 student-athletes honored for the week spanning Nov. 1-7, as Duke junior Kellie Catanach received CVU.com Player of the Week recognition.
Last week, Valentin helped lead the Panthers to a trio of Sun Belt Conference wins over Florida Atlantic, ULM and Louisiana. On Tuesday, FIU picked up its sixth-consecutive win with a 3-0 sweep of Florida Gulf Coast.
Valentin recorded 40 digs across three matches last week and added five digs versus FGCU, as she now sits on top of the FIU rally-scoring era (2001-present) career digs charts with 1,075 career digs. Valentin surpassed Yarimar Rosa’s (2007-09) previous rally-scoring era-leading total of 1,053 career digs, and now ranks second on the all-time career digs list behind Adriana Fundora’s (2000-03) FIU record 1,326 career digs.
A native of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Valentin is FIU’s all-time assists leader with 4,159 career assists. The setter was tabbed the SBC Preseason Player of the Year this season following a stellar 2009 campaign in which she tallied a single-season school-record 1,448 assists and ended the season ranked nationally in the top 10 in assists per set.
In 2009, Valentin was a First Team All-SBC pick, an AVCA All-South Region selection and an AVCA All-America honoree. In addition, she was named an honorable mention Stellar Spikers selection by CVU.com and she also earned her second-career SBC Championship All-Tournament Team nod.
FIU will close out the 2010 regular season this weekend with a pair of Sun Belt Conference matches versus Troy (Friday, Nov. 12 - 4:30 p.m.) and South Alabama (Saturday, Nov. 13 - 6:30 p.m.). Both matches will take place at the U.S. Century Bank Arena, and Saturday night will serve as Senior Night as Valentin and Ines Medved each play their final matches at FIU's home venue. Live stats and live video streaming for both matches will be available at www.fiusports.com and fans can follow @FIUVolleyball on Twitter for live updates.
