NW briefs: Huskies to get Tomasevic back

Washington volleyball player Sanja Tomasevic has been awarded another year of eligibility and will return for a fourth season of competition next fall.

Under NCAA eligibility rules, she was penalized a year because of her late enrollment in college. But the NCAA recently granted an eligibility petition filed by the UW on Tomasevic's behalf.

The waiver was granted based on a variety of circumstances beyond Tomasevic's control that delayed her enrollment. Primary among them was the war in her home country of Yugoslavia.

Last season, Tomasevic led the Huskies to their first Pac-10 championship and the program's first Final Four appearance.

"This is great news for the University of Washington volleyball program," said coach Jim McLaughlin. "Sanja has been an integral part of our team for the past three years and she has helped us build the program to where it stands currently. Having missed a good part of last season due to injury, I am very pleased that she will get another chance to show everyone what kind of player she is."

Baseball

Washington State (20-28) fell 6-5 to Sacramento State in Pullman. Travis Kane (3-4), a native of Wenatchee, earned the win for the Hornets, allowing nine hits and five runs in seven innings. The Cougars' Nick Cebula (2-3) took the loss, allowing three runs in 1-1/3 innings of relief.

• Tommy Paterson of Linfield was named Northwest Conference player of the year. Teammate Alex Justus shared pitching honors, and the Wildcats' Scott Carnahan shared coaching honors.

Conference first-team honorees included: Linfield's JJ Stolsig, David Moore, Brant Shilliam and John Dailey; Pacific Lutheran's David Fox, Jason Miller, Matt Serr and Aaron Roetcisoender; and Whitman's Sean Kinney.

Softball

• Western Washington's Cortney Walton was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference player of the week.

Notes

• Rob Diederichs, a 6-foot-8 senior from Shorewood High School, has signed a basketball letter of intent with Seattle Pacific. Diederichs was a three-time first-team all-league selection and made two all-area teams as a senior.

• Natalia Owens and Reyna Gross of Shoreline Community College have signed letters of intent to play at four-year universities. Owens will play volleyball at Washington State. Gross, a graduate of Rainier Beach High School, will play basketball at Howard.

• WSU women's basketball coach Sherri Murrell announced the hiring of Scott Moore as the program's director of basketball operations.

• Seattle University announced its annual award winners at a banquet last night: Kelly Fullerton, a cross-country and track-and-field athlete, was named female athlete of the year; men's soccer players Bobby McAlister and Jeremiah Doyle shared male athlete honors; women's soccer player Tafara Pulse and men's swimmer Chris Coley shared student-athlete honors, and men's basketball assistant coach Fred Harrison was awarded the service award.

Compiled from reports by college sports-information departments and other sources.