Name: Samantha Staker

Position: Outside Hitter

Year: Junior 

Height: 6-foot-1

Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah

High School: Taylorsville HS

WSU volleyball outside hitter Samantha Staker is this week’s Signpost Student-Athlete of the Week after recording 26 kills, 17 digs and a team-high four service aces during the team’s two-game west coast road trip last week.

In the Wildcats’ loss on Thursday night, Staker had a career-high 20 kills against Portland State. She also recorded 10 digs in the four-set loss, giving her her first double-double of the year.

“I felt like everything was clicking,” Staker said. “I felt like (redshirt freshman Taylor Christensen) was doing a really awesome job setting. It was surprising and unexpected, but I thought I did well.”

Staker followed up her career-best performance with six kills and seven digs in Weber State’s conference win against Sacramento State. Three of Staker’s serves on Saturday scored points for the Wildcats, tying her for the team lead in the match with three service aces.

“It was so awesome. It was really good,” Staker said. “I was really proud of the way we battled, and I was really glad we were able to get that off of our backs.”

The win was the first for the Wildcats against conference opponents since Nov. 1 last season, when they defeated Northern Colorado at home in five sets. Weber State had lost 10 consecutive conference games before Saturday.

Staker is currently fifth on the team in attack percentage at 0.183, recording 49 kills and 29 errors on 109 total attacks. She is also fourth on the team with seven service aces this season.

The Wildcats (4-13, 1-3 conference) will play at home for four of their next five games, beginning on Friday night when they host North Dakota (16-5, 4-0 conference) at the Swenson Gym. Weber State will then host Northern Colorado (9-7, 2-2 conference) on Saturday night.

Staker said that she thinks the team’s performance against Sacramento State is going to be a big boost for the team, as well as returning to Ogden and playing at home.

“It will be awesome to be back in Ogden,” Staker said. “We haven’t had a lot of home games this year, so it will be really nice to be back here to play in front of our own fans, our families and our friends.”