Sanja Tomašević (born June 3, 1980) is a
Serbian-American
Serbian Americans ( sr, / ) or American Serbs (), are Americans of Serb ethnic ancestry. As of 2013, there were about 190,000 American citizens who identified as having Serb ancestry. However, the number may be significantly higher, as there w ...
retired
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
player and was the head coach of
Arizona State
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
women's volleyball team from 2017–2022.
Personal life
Tomašević is a native of
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
. She obtained her U.S. nationality in March 2021.
Playing career
Tomašević played professional volleyball in Serbia before joining the University of Washington Huskies volleyball team. At the end of her career, she was a two-time All-American and the 2005 Asics and CVU.com National Player of the Year. She led the Huskies to four NCAA tournament appearances, including the
2005 NCAA national championship, and two
Pac-10
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
conference titles. Additionally, she was named the conference Player of the Year in 2005. She ended her collegiate career as Washington's all-time leader in points (2,159.5), kills (1,795) and service aces (156). She is one of only five players in Huskies history to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.
She graduated from Washington in 2006 with a degree in communications.
In October of 2016, Tomašević became just the second individual volleyball player to be inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame.
Following her playing career at Washington, she played professional volleyball in several countries including Greece, Puerto Rico, Italy, Azerbaijan, and Switzerland.
Coaching career
Tomašević began collegiate coaching at
University of Texas-San Antonio in 2012. In her first season as the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator, she helped the Roadrunners to a 21-9 overall record and a 13-5 mark in the
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...
. UTSA, which tied for second in the league standings, advanced to the WAC Tournament semifinals.
After spending two season at UTSA, she was named the assistant coach for the Miami Hurricane's women's volleyball team in 2014. She helped the Hurricanes reach the NCAA Tournament for the sixth consecutive season in 2014. The Hurricanes, who finished the season 22-9, reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to No. 8
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
in four sets. She was also credited with the development of All-Americans and All-Conference players on the team.
Prior to being named head coach of Arizona State in December 2016, she served as a recruiting coordinator and interim head coach for the team.
Following the conclusion of the 2022 season, Arizona State announced that per mutual agreement, Tomašević stepped down as the head coach.
Head coaching record
External links
Volleybox Player profile
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomašević, Sanja
1980 births
Living people
Serbian women's volleyball players
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Greece
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in Italy
Arizona State Sun Devils women's volleyball coaches
Miami Hurricanes women's volleyball coaches
UTSA Roadrunners women's volleyball coaches
Washington Huskies women's volleyball players
American volleyball coaches
Serbian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea
Expatriate volleyball players in Italy
Expatriate volleyball players in Azerbaijan
Expatriate volleyball players in Greece
Expatriate volleyball players in Switzerland
Expatriate volleyball players in South Korea
Serbian volleyball coaches