Samantha Murphy pulled off a rare double on Monday at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon. She won the female Athlete of the Week award and was named UCSB’s Scholar Athlete of the Year.
The senior co-captain from San Jose led the Gauchos to their first-ever Big West water polo championship by recording a hat trick in all three games. She was named MVP of the tourney, which was held at the Gauchos’ Campus Pool.
She’s the only UCSB women’s water polo player to be named All-American twice. She made the ACWPC All-Academic team and second-team All-Big West in 2015. As a freshman, she tallied 78 goals and was honored as Big West Freshman of the Year while earning her first All-America award.
Murphy has a GPA of 3.84, majoring in communications.
“Samantha is an all-around athlete and she’s what every coach wants in a student-athlete,” said Gaucho assistant coach Sierra Peltcher. “She has the student side down, being named Scholar Athlete of the Year and she’s a two-time All-American. She’s a great role model and a co-captain.
“I think she’s been a four-year starter and leads our team on offense. She’s so unselfish. She won the Big West MVP this weekend and she gave a speech to the team about how everyone was an MVP and they all deserve the award, not just her. That was a really great moment, it takes a special kind of person to appreciate everyone like that.”
Murphy was also the 2015-16 Big West Scholar Athlete of the Year. She plans to play professional water polo in Australia next year, along with Gaucho co-captain Lauren Martin.
“Samantha’s a driver and she usually plays up top,” added Peltcher. “She finds all the right angles and is able to thread the needle on all her shots. On the defensive end, she’s very fast. She’s our sprinter to start every quarter and wins (the ball) almost all the time.”
The Gauchos earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships at UCLA.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.