She calls them “creepy, twin moments.”

Samantha “Sam” Selsky told of the time she and her twin brother Steve took their SATs ... and got the same score.

Then there was that day in the spring of 2008 — April 1, to be exact — when her suspicions were confirmed and she learned the injury she had suffered playing volleyball the day before was indeed another anterior cruciate ligament tear, the second such destruction of her knee in her high school career.

“That night, I went to watch my brother play baseball,” she said. “And then he has a foul ball go off his bat and into his eye. He went to the hospital and got stitches.

“When I told people, they thought I was kidding. They thought it was an April Fools’ joke. And I said, ‘Nope, my leg is wrapped up, and his head is wrapped up. I can’t walk, and he can’t see.”

But as “twin moments” go, nothing beats the latest for Brother and Sister Selsky.

Two years ago when she left Santa Clara University outside San Jose, Calif., Samantha was looking for a new start. She ended up at the University of Dayton, at a school and in a town she had never heard of before that.

Today, though, this place is like a second home. So much so that the UD redshirt junior only has to look downtown to see her brother, Steve, playing left field for the Dayton Dragons, which, by the way, is a farm club of the Cincinnati Reds, who drafted him 10 months ago even though he had never talked to the organization prior to that day.

And while Samantha became the All-American leader of the Atlantic 10-champion Flyers this past season, Steve has started the Dragons’ season on a tear with five hits in eight at bats for a .625 batting average.

“All this just shows you how small the world really is,” Samantha said.

Her brother agreed, but still was incredulous: “I think twins do share some kind of connection, but before I got drafted it never, never crossed my mind that my sister and I would be playing in the same town one day. I mean, what are the odds of that?”

The question similarly vexed UD assistant volleyball coach Brittany Dildine:

“The way the universe works just floors me. For Sam to leave her family with whom she’s very close and come here seeking out something and have it turn out like this is really unexplainable.

“She comes here alone and develops into this woman with a strong voice and strong presence in our gym — something she didn’t walk in with — and that’s something to be proud of. And if you love somebody like you love a twin — if you have that kind of special bond — you want them to experience it with you.

“And now that’s just what has happened. She has family with her again. “

Not always similar

For all those moments of similarity — explainable and not — between the 22-year-old fraternal twins, they have some distinct differences.

“The first house we lived in, in Manhattan Beach (Calif.), we shared a Jack and Jill bathroom,” Steve said with a reflective chuckle as he sat just outside the Dragons clubhouse at Fifth Third Field. “I’m OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). Well, not OCD that bad, but I like to keep the bathroom clean and keep things tidy.

“I actually went so far as to count the tiles behind the two sinks to measure out the distance we would share. And every morning I’d have to push her stuff back to her side ... and that’s never changed.”

Although she would discuss their relationship in a separate interview on the UD campus, Samantha had a response:

“He’s more argumentative. His statement is always, ‘When have I been wrong?’ You know he has been, but you never can remember the specific moment. You’re like, ‘Shoot! I wish I would have written it down so I can call him out on it.’ ”

One place where the two have always been pretty much in tune is in the sports world. And that certainly has something to do with their genes.

Their dad Steve Sr. was drafted by the Chicago White Sox and played a few years of minor league baseball before a knee injury shelved his career. He coached after that and today runs a program that helps place under-the-radar baseball players in college programs.

Their mother, Lou Ann, was part of the undefeated Cal State Long Beach volleyball team that won the national title in 1973 and was the national runner-up the year prior. She played in the World University Games in Russia and today is a middle school athletics director and runs her own volleyball club.

The Selskys have two older daughters, Shana and then Stesha, who played volleyball at the University of Michigan and remains the program’s all-time digs leader.

Steve was prep All-American at an all-boys school and went on to win All-Pac-10 honors playing for the University of Arizona. Samantha won two state titles at Marymount High School, which is across the street from UCLA, headed to Jesuit-run Santa Clara, redshirted her first year, then played one season.

As she was contemplating finding a new school in the spring of 2010, Dayton suffered a tragic loss when setter Kacie Hausfeld and her dad were killed in the crash of their small plane.

Samantha’s mom, who has connections throughout the volleyball world, found out UD was looking for someone to replace Hausfeld, and the connection was made. Samantha came for a quick visit, and though she knew no one here, she signed on before leaving the campus.

While she now says she “loves it here,” things didn’t go quite as planned at the outset.

Soon after she signed, UD got another transfer in Jessica Yanz, a standout Penn State setter, who would win All-America honors with the Flyers in the upcoming season. Her arrival pushed Samantha into a backup role for the season.

“There are a couple of different directions you can go when that happens,” Dildine said. “Some people get smaller. Some get weak. Some play the victim. ... And some get stronger.

“There was, at some point there, a pivotal moment when Sam Selsky sat down and said to herself, ‘This is my last chance. I’m going to get better.’ And she did. In my four years here, she has transformed herself more than any athlete who has passed through here.”

Bumping into Obama

Since middle school, Samantha and Steve have spent less and less time together. They went to different high schools and colleges. In the summers, while she stayed on the West Coast, her brother played in the Cape Cod League on the East Coast.

But regardless of where they were, they said they stayed in constant contact, most recently via BlackBerry Messenger.

In the past 3½ weeks, though, their messages have become pretty incredulous.

The first missive came March 13 when Samantha texted her brother that she was sitting with President Barack Obama at a basketball game.

“I said, ‘You’re not sitting with Obama. How is that possible?’ ” Steve said. “Then she told me he bought her a hotdog. And then the next thing I know I’m getting a picture of her and Obama talking.”

When Obama brought British Prime Minister David Cameron to UD Arena to watch the start of the NCAA tournament (a First Four game between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky), several UD students were asked if they wanted to join in, and Samantha and two other Flyer volleyball players agreed.

They ended up siting two seats away from the president.

“At first it was, ‘Holy crap! We’re sitting right there. What do we say? What do we call him?’ ” Samantha said. “But it turned out to be a really cool experience. It was easy to have a conversation with him. We asked him questions about how he balanced being a dad, and he told us he comes home every night at 6:30 for dinner. Even if he’s in a meeting, he’ll stop to be with his family, then go back.

“And when he’s in town, he has breakfast with his girls every morning. He’s even the assistant basketball coach for one of their teams.”

When the UD students gathered around Obama for photos afterward, Samantha asked Cameron if he would be joining them: “He said, ‘Oh no, no, no. He is your president.’ He wanted us to embrace that our president was with us and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The whole thing was pretty special.”

And yet, Steve may have one-upped her when he sent his text message nine days ago.

As the Reds were breaking from spring training, they set the rosters of their farm teams.

“He just said ‘On Dayton’ and had a smiley face,” Samantha said. “I just flipped out. We’d be together all summer in Dayton. Nooooo way!

“It was like everything just fell into place. There’s really no other way to explain it. It’s just one of those creepy twin things. Really, it’s the best one ever.”