Marist University Athletics

2023 Senior Year

Accolades: Team Captain, MAAC Preseason Player of the Year, All-MAAC Preseason Team, Molten MAAC Player of the Week (x3), MAAC Player of the Year, All-MAAC First Team, MAAC All-Academic Team, AVCA Honorable Mention (x2), CSC Academic All-District, AVCA Division I All-American Honorable Mention, ECAC Division I Women’s Volleyball Offensive Player of the Year

• Played in all 30 matches and appeared in 116 sets.
• Tallied a career-high 458 kills on the season.
• Led the MAAC in regular season kills for a second year in a row with 313.
• Led the MAAC in points with 356.
• Recorded 275 digs and 55 blocks.
• Totaled 27 service aces and 12 assists.

 

2022 Junior Year

Accolades: MAAC All-Academic Team, Named to All-MAAC First Team, Academic All-District by College Sports Communicators, ECAC Second Team, AVCA Honrable Mention.

• Played in 30 matches appeared in 108 sets
• Named to All-MAAC First Team
• Led the MAAC in regular season kills
• Tallied a career high 426 kills on the season
• van der Merwe also tallied 233 digs & 72 blocks for the Red Foxes

2021 Sophomore Year

• Played in 21 matches, appearing in 82 sets.
• Third on the team with 214 kills.
• Totaled 193 digs, 31 blocks, 17 service aces and 12 assists.

2020-21 Freshman Year

• Played in three of Marist's four matches, appearing in 12 sets. 
• Had a career-high five total blocks on 3/14 against Rider.
• Totaled 30 kills, 12 digs, 10 total blocks, four service aces, and one dig. 

 

General

Van Der Merwe is an outside hitter from Canada who has played for the Canada Youth National team and Ontario Regional Team. She also has spent time playing for the well-renowned Halton Hurricanes Club. Last season, Van Der Merwe won gold in both the Provincial (Ontario) and National Championships and was named as one of six All Stars at the National Championships. She was selected for the Canadian Women's Youth National Team (16Us) at the end of last year. She competed in the 18U USA Volleyball High Performance Championship in Tulsa, OK, in July of 2018 (where her team finished in fourth) and in the 18U NORCECA Qualifier tournament in Honduras in August of 2018 where her team won silver and qualified for Worlds. In Worlds, her team managed to defeat Cuba in a five-set thriller. She was then selected to the Team Ontario Black team this past summer and competed in the USAV High Performance Championship in Fort Lauderdale from July 18-22. She captained this team and led it to a silver medal. This was the best performance any Ontario team has ever had in this tournament. For her performance, she was named a USAV High-Performance Championship All-Star.

Byron on van der Merwe: "Sasha will bring a great level of experience and skill to our program. We couldn't be happier to add her personality and ability to the Red Fox program."