Former Western Kentucky All-Conference volleyball player Sydney Engle has made history by appearing in the Hilltoppers’ soccer game against Kentucky Christian on Monday evening. While dual sport athletes are not unheard of even at the Division I level, dual sport athletes between soccer and volleyball are incredibly rare, because the two sports fall in nearly identical seasons. Engle becomes the first dual sport soccer-volleyball player in WKU history after playing the last 17 minutes-and-change of the match in goal.
She’s also the second known student-athlete in Conference USA history to pull off that double.
Here we go! Engle checks in and will play the rest of the match for WKU in goal! #RiseUp #GoTops pic.twitter.com/fiBUaAwfNd
— WKU Soccer (@WKU_Soccer) September 4, 2018
Engle didn’t have to make any saves in her 17 minutes and 17 seconds in goal. Nor did the starter, freshman Bailee Witt, as the Hilltoppers won the match 9-0 over NAIA opponents Kentucky Christian. As a non-NCAA match, the contest won’t officially count on Western Kentucky’s record for the season.
Post-match interview:
Engle was announced as an addition to the roster on Friday, before the team’s match with Lipscomb. While she already used her 4 years of eligibility in volleyball, because she was still within her 5 year clock (in short, she had no redshirt seasons), she is able to use a year of eligibility for soccer as well. Engle has no prior soccer experience, and was acting as a graduate assistant in the athletics department before the call came from soccer.
The need arose when transfer goalie Anne-Marie Ulliac had a season-ending knee injury 8 minutes into the team’s first match of the season, leaving the team with only the true freshman Witt on the roster.
After head soccer coach Jason Neidell asked his peers if they knew of any potential backup goalies in their rosters, volleyball coach Travis Hudson made the connection to Engle, seeing if she’d be interested.
The Conference USA Academic Medalist posted four double-doubles as a senior, while leading WKU in digs 14 times, blocks seven times and kills twice. She tallied double-digit kills seven times and double-digit digs on 15 occasions, including four double-doubles en route to AVCA Honorable Mention All-Region nods and second team all-conference accolades.
Engle supplied a little bit of everything during her four-year career on the hardwood, notching 925 kills, 835 digs, 272 blocks and 80 aces. She ranks 10th in career sets (485) and matches played (140) after helping WKU to four C-USA Tournament titles and a share of the regular season crown all four years as well.
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