Winning situation

Sanja Tomasevic had already established herself as a star volleyball player in her native country of Yugoslavia when she came to the United States to play for the Huskies last season.

Many on the volleyball scene thought the Priboj native would play professionally after finishing Medical Secondary High School and a very successful campaign on the Yugoslavian national team.

But Tomasevic wanted more than a volleyball career. She also wanted a college degree.

In Yugoslavia, it is nearly impossible for students to pursue both athletics and academics because its universities do not have sports teams.

"Our schools do not have sports, so if you wanted to play, you had to play professionally, but if you played professionally you could forget about school," said Tomasevic. "It would take you over 10 years to finish."

After three years of ambivalence following high school, Tomasevic asked an American agent to help her come to the United States. Within days of posting her player profile on the Internet, Tomasevic received offers to play for more than 35 American universities. Among them were top-ranked USC and No. 8 UCLA. But it was Washington coach Jim McLaughlin who eventually got Tomasevic to sign the dotted line.

"All of the other coaches were like, 'you are going to start for us; you are so good,'" recalled Tomasevic.

McLaughlin, meanwhile, made no guarantees.

"He told me he wasn't sure if I would start," said Tomasevic. "At first I was like, screw that. I'm not going to go there if I'm going to sit on the bench, but then I started talking to my dad about it and he thought McLaughlin was the only coach who was being honest with me."

Now in her second season with the Huskies, Tomasevic is not only starting at outside hitter, she leads the team in scoring with 6.34 points per game and is a major reason why Washington is in the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

The Huskies (10-8 Pac-10, 20-8) are seeded 12th and will host Northwestern in the opening round of the NCAA tournament tonight at 7 at Bank of America Arena. The Wildcats finished with an 18-14 regular-season record.

The Huskies will need the firepower and versatility of Tomasevic, who led Washington with 13 double-doubles during the season.

"Sanja can do everything," said McLaughlin, who has always had an affinity for Yugoslavian players. "I had been studying their team for 10 years and really admired the way they played."

Although she is 6-foot-2, Tomasevic said she did not gravitate toward volleyball because of her height.

"When I began playing in seventh grade, I wasn't that tall," she said. "I wanted to play because most of my friends did."

By the time Tomasevic was in eighth grade, she had grown six inches and volleyball suddenly became more than a recreational affair. Tomasevic's father, Milutin, could not have been happier.

Milutin always encouraged his daughters to participate in sports to keep them from falling prey to the fast life of the streets. Sanja's younger sister, Vesna, 22, is also an outside hitter, but she chose to stay in Yugoslavia to play professionally for the Jedinstvo-Uzice team. The two were teammates on the Yugoslavian youth and junior national teams as teenagers.

"[Vesna] is better than me," said Tomasevic. "She has never taken anything seriously. She's just gifted -- she just has a talent for volleyball.

"I was the one who worked hard. I was better than her until she realized that if worked just 30 percent harder than she did, she'd be better than me."

Before she became focused on volleyball, Tomasevic loved drama and took acting classes from age 10 through 15. As she gained prominence as volleyball player in Yugoslavia, the media came calling and Tomasevic soon found herself putting her acting skills to good use.

"I did so many things for the media back home. It was crazy," said Tomasevic. "I made appearances on kids shows. It was weird. I watched these shows growing up and then I ended up in them."

Strangely enough, Tomasevic received the most media attention after concluding the European Spring Cup for something that had nothing to do with her skills on the court. She was named the tournament's prettiest athlete.

"The whole thing was insane," she said. I remember thinking, I'm not a model, I'm a volleyball player. I should get this attention when I play well."

Tomasevic said the tournament had awards for the best players but she didn't receive any.

Tomasevic has meshed well with American culture while taking up residence in Seattle. Her longings for home have been eased by fellow Yugoslavian teammate and roommate, sophomore Danka Danicic.

Danicic is from Ljig, and she and Tomasevic agree that the one thing they miss most about home is the food.

"Organic food is so expensive here," said Tomasevic. "Back home it is so much cheaper."

Unlike Danicic, who is hoping to stay in the United States and become a travel manager for a sports team after finishing college, Tomasevic said she would like to return to Yugoslavia and eventually become a TV-commercial producer after playing professionally.