Australian joins Cougs

Tara West, a 6-foot middle blocker from Western Australia, has signed a national letter of intent to play at Washington State, Cougars coach Brian Heffernan announced Monday.

West will enroll for spring 2006 classes, transferring after one year at the Australian Institute of Sport, where she played in volleyball tournaments in Thailand and Vietnam.

West joins earlier signees Corina Beyer, a 5-9 setter/outside hitter from Hayden Lake, and Kelly Hyder, a 5-9 libero from Huntington Beach, Calif.

•WSU freshmen Brittany Johnson and Jalen Pendon earned honorable mention on the 2005 Pacific-10 Conference All-Freshman team.

Johnson, a 5-9 outside hitter from Phoenix, Ariz., averaged 2.04 kills, 0.90 blocks and 2.58 points per game, all fourth-best on the team. Pendon, a 5-8 libero from Spanaway, Wash., led the Cougars and was sixth-best in the Pac-10 with 4.55 digs per game.

Stanford’s Foluke Akinradewo was named Freshman of the Year.

Washington’s Sanja Tomasevic was named Pac-10 Player of the Year and her coach, Jim McLaughlin, was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year for the third time in four seasons.

Swimming

WSU’s Erin McCleave was named National Collegiate Swimmer of the Week by CollegeSwimming.com for her performance the week of Nov. 17-21.

McCleave, the first Cougar to earn the honor since its inception in 1999, won four events, set three school individual records, set two meet records and earned several NCAA qualifying or “B” standards at the Minnesota Invitational.

In setting meet and school records in the 500 freestyle, McCleave highlighted the event by swimming the sixth fastest time for the distance in the country this year, 4 minutes, 45.82 seconds.