Stone Ridge Christian star will take her shot at beach volleyball in college
Sydney Shaw’s goal was to play volleyball, softball and soccer all four years at Stone Ridge Christian. She wanted to collect 12 varsity letters.
The COVID-19 pandemic prevented that from happening.
“The pandemic made me realize I miss sports so much,” Shaw said.
Shaw originally thought she’d be content not playing sports after high school, but after having her seasons taken away due to the virus, Shaw set her sites on playing in college.
Shaw spent a lot of her summer playing beach volleyball and really loved the sport and searched for opportunities to play in college. She found it at Arizona Christian University.
Shaw recently celebrated her signing with Arizona Christian University to play beach volleyball.
“At the beginning, I had made my peace that I’d be done by my senior year, but when we came back to school and volleyball didn’t start up it hit me that we may not have any sports,” Shaw said. “That’s when I invested time into looking into college programs.”
Shaw was named the volleyball MVP of the Central California Athletic Alliance her junior year as a setter and helped lead the Knights to back-to-back Sac-Joaquin Section and Northern California Division VI championships.
Shaw began playing volleyball in the sand in Madera at a family friend’s place who built some sand volleyball courts in his orchard.
Stone Ridge Christian volleyball coach Ken Shaw, who is Sydney’s father, would take some of his players to Madera to play volleyball in the sand.
“I’d take my athletes to play in the sand and then they would come back and play indoor volleyball and they would be so much better,” Ken Shaw said. “Indoor is easier than sand. Sydney really loved sand volleyball because it’s two-man, so it’s every other touch. You have to be on the whole game. It’s more intense.”
Sydney visited the Arizona Christian University campus in Phoenix in November and knew it was a good fit for her. She instantly felt a connection with coach Sarah Blomgren.
“Definitely loved the community and the coach is a wonderful woman,” she said. “When I met her I knew it was the right place for me.”
Sydney, who compiled a 4.33 GPA at SRC, plans to major in business administration. Sydney was originally offered an athletic scholarship, but will be headed to Arizona Christian University on an academic scholarship.
Her father said it was nice to see her daughter have something to look forward to during a tough year.
“This year has been on pause and we didn’t know what would happen with COVID,” Ken said. “To see her face light up because a coach wants her to play for her was amazing. Once we couldn’t play she really researched colleges. She put together her highlight videos. We encouraged her to call and send messages. She took the initiative.”
“I’m so excited,” Sydney said. “I can’t wait to move to Phoenix. I’m ready for the next step.”
