OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – After being announced as one of 30 Senior CLASS Award candidates at the beginning of March, WKU Volleyball's Nadia Dieudonne (jew-duh-nay) has made the cut as one of 10 finalists. The senior setter is WKU's fourth student-athlete to earn the distinction of candidate in the last four seasons and joins Hilltopper assistant coach Jessica Lucas as a finalist during that stretch.
"We're really glad to see Nadia recognized beyond just what she does on the court," shared WKU head coach Travis Hudson. "There is so much more to her as a student and as a young woman. She is a tremendous candidate for this award."
The finalists were chosen by a selection committee from the list of 30 candidates announced earlier in the season. Nationwide fan voting begins immediately, and fans are encouraged to vote on the Senior CLASS Award website through April 14. Fan votes will then be combined with media and Division I head coaches' votes to determine the winner. The Senior CLASS Award recipient will be announced during the 2020-21 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball
Championship in April.
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
Dieudonne owns a 3.38 GPA entering the final semester in her pursuit of a business finance degree on The Hill. She plans to continue her academic journey at WKU for graduate school, pursuing a Master's degree in applied economics. Prior to transferring to WKU, Dieudonne earned a spot on the BIG EAST All-Academic Team as a Xavier representative. In her four semesters at WKU, the Louisville, Kentucky, native has landed on the Dean's List three times and earned a spot on the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll.
An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
When asked to describe Dieudonne's character for the nomination, Hudson shared "the setter position is about serving others, it's about wanting their success. That's something that as a transfer kid coming in – a kid fitting with the culture and the kids already in your program – is always in question. She was a kid that because of her selfless nature and interest in making the people around her better, that I think she was accepted from the very beginning because of the nature of her personality."
Dieudonne has carried her servant role into the community as well. She's spent time constructing houses with Habitat for Humanity and tutoring children through the Boys and Girls Club. She's also used her skills to help keep her peers informed through her writing with the WKU school magazine, The Talisman. She kept readers informed on events on campus as well as educational pieces on current events.
When Dieudonne arrived on The Hill in January 2019, she'd never won a collegiate volleyball award. She'd been setting in Xavier's 6-2 system before Travis Hudson brought her into the Hilltopper program where she would facilitate the WKU offense to the second-best efficiency in the country during the 2019 season – her first at WKU.
By the end of the 2019 campaign, Dieudonne had reeled in the awards including an AVCA All-Region selection after earning Conference USA's Setter of the Year nod. She also was named to the league's First Team All-Conference squad and collected C-USA All-Tournament Team recognition.
In 2019, Dieudonne's 1,296 assists tied for the 20th most in NCAA Volleyball and led Conference USA all despite WKU leading the nation in 3-0 wins. She registered nine double-doubles in 2019 including a rare 20-20 double-double
(54 assists and 20 digs) in her first match as a Hilltopper. Dieudonne would end up earning six C-USA Setter of the Week Awards as WKU achieved new highs during the historic season.
Dieudonne carried her awards into her senior season, landing on the C-USA Preseason All-Conference Team for the 2020-21 year. She's also since collected four Setter of the Week honors.
Across her Xavier and WKU careers, Dieudonne has appeared in 102 matches and 352 sets. She's racked up 2,781 assists to accompany 728 digs, 153 kills, 69 blocks and 41 aces.
She was one of three Conference USA representatives on the 30-person Senior CLASS Award candidate list, joining Marshall's Ciara Debell and Nicole Lennon from Rice. Since cutting the list to 10, Dieudonne is both the only C-USA player and only non-Power 5 representative remaining.
Dieudonne joins Rachel Anderson (2018), Jessica Lucas (2017), Alyssa Cavanaugh (2017) and Ashley Potts (2013) as Hilltopper Senior CLASS Award candidates. And most recently joined Lucas and Potts to make the cut down to 10 finalists to earn All-American status.
2020-21 Senior CLASS Award Volleyball Finalists
Camille Conner, Texas A&M
Gabby Curry, Kentucky
Kylie Deberg, Missouri
Nadia Dieudonne, WKU
Kenzie Koerber, Utah
Madison Lilley, Kentucky
Chinaza Ndee, Pittsburgh
Regan Pittman, Minnesota
Yossiana Pressley, Baylor
Stephanie Samedy, Minnesota
How to Follow WKU Volleyball: For complete information on WKU Volleyball, follow the team on Twitter at @WKUVolleyball and head coach Travis Hudson at @TravisHudsonWKU. The team is also on Instagram and Facebook.
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