Senior Notches League Award After Epic Victory
Rehabilitation health sciences major Sydney McLaren caps Senior Night with double-double, then looks ahead to graduate school and coaching goals.
In the last week of her athletic career at Buena Vista University, Sydney McLaren earned American Rivers Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors in volleyball, marking the third time in four seasons the Beavers outside hitter earned the award.
It came after an epic five-set victory for the Beavers over Simpson on a night in which McLaren and fellow senior Jade Hays were honored for their work on and off the court in four years of play for Coach Rosie Aumann’s program. McLaren finished the emotional Senior Night triumph with 22 kills and 13 digs, her 12th double-double of the season.
McLaren, like Hays, is a consistent Dean’s List honoree. The owner of a 3.67 GPA, the rehabilitation health sciences major and coaching minor will graduate in May, then head to graduate school.
“I toured campus...met some of the volleyball players, and fell in love with the atmosphere here.”
Sydney McLaren
“I played in an AAU tournament at BVU my junior year of high school,” says McLaren, a 2018 graduate of St. Albert High School in Council Bluffs. “I toured campus a short time later, met some of the volleyball players, and fell in love with the atmosphere here.”
In addition to starting four years and stamping her name on the BVU record books (fifth all-time in kills with 973, and 907 digs), McLaren served as a tutor in the Center for Academic Excellence. She worked as an academic assistant in human anatomy courses, served as secretary for the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and vice president for KORE, the kinesiology group on campus.
She lauds her favorite professor, Timothy Shepherd, Instructor of Exercise Science. “I’ve never had a professor care as much about his students inside and outside the classroom as him,” she says. “He’s helped me find my potential, academically. He has inspired me to be the best I can be.”
McLaren, obviously, inspires others as well, as she’s now called “Queen” by her friends, who have fun with the reigning BVU Homecoming Queen.
She’s also a member of Active Minds, a club whose members share experiences and support on a topic that’s a focus for more and more students: mental health.
“A friend started Active Minds and had sign-ups for people at The Plunge at the beginning of the school year,” McLaren says. “One-hundred students expressed an interest in the club. That’s an example of what makes BVU special as many people work to make connections and relationships that will benefit others.”
McLaren thinks of her friend group on campus and notes that nearly all of them are affiliated with anywhere from two to five organizations at BVU.
Besides playing with her teammates—and playing to an enthusiastic home crowd in Siebens Fieldhouse—McLaren will miss those organizations, her friends, and the close-knit nature of the BVU community upon her graduation.
And while she may miss delivering a game-winning spike to the delight of her teammates and rambunctious peers in the “Beaver Den,” BVU’s instruction will help keep her close to the game she enjoys.
"I’ve been playing year-round club volleyball since I was 10,” she says. “I earned my coaching minor here because I’d like to one day pass on what I’ve learned while sharing my enjoyment for a great sport that’s given a lot to me.”