OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – WKU Volleyball's Nadia Dieudonne (jew-duh-nay) has been selected as one of 30 NCAA Women's Volleyball Senior CLASS Award candidates. The senior setter is WKU's fourth student-athlete to earn the prestigious distinction in the last four seasons.
 
"We're extremely excited for Nadia to be recognized with this honor," began WKU Volleyball head coach Travis Hudson. "She is everything you could ever want in a student-athlete. I am so proud to have her representing our program and university."
 
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 Nadia 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.
 
Across her Xavier and WKU careers, Dieudonne has appeared in 96 matches and 336 sets. She's racked up 2,602 assists to accompany 702 digs, 145 kills, 66 blocks and 39 aces.
 
She is 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.
 
Dieudonne joins Rachel Anderson (2018), Jessica Lucas (2017), Alyssa Cavanaugh (2017) and Ashley Potts (2013) as Hilltopper Senior CLASS Award candidates. Lucas and Potts each made the cut down to 10 finalists to earn All-American status.
 
2020-21 Senior CLASS Award Volleyball Candidates:
 
Whitney Brown, Robert Morris University    Alli Lowe, Colgate University
Camille Conner, Texas A&M University       Elizaveta Lukianova, University of Miami
Gabby Curry, University of Kentucky           Mac May, University of California, LA
Ciara Debell, Marshall University                  Meghan McClure, Stanford University
Kylie Deberg, University of Missouri             Chinaza Ndee, University of Pittsburgh
Nadia Dieudonne, WKU                                Caitlyn Newton, Purdue University
Dani Drews, University of Utah                     Regan Pittman, University of Minnesota
Melissa Evans, NC State                              Yossiana Pressley, Baylor University
Thana Fayad, University of San Diego         Stephanie Samedy, University of Minnesota
Emma Granger, Robert Morris University     Lauren Sanders, University of Washington
Paige Hammons, University of Florida         Isabella Seman, Elon University
Stef Jankiewicz, Illinois State University      Avery Skinner, University of Kentucky
Kenzie Koerber, University of Utah              Jamie Smith, Iona College
Nicole Lennon, Rice University                    Erika Ward, Bryant University
Madison Lilley, University of Kentucky        Anne-Marie Watson, UCF



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.