Sydney Neff finished her first season as an assistant coach with the Union College women's volleyball team in 2025.
Neff played a key role in the unit that was named the Liberty League Coaching Staff of the Year in 2025 after guiding the Garnet Chargers to their best season in a decade, posting a 22-9 overall record and a 7-1 mark in Liberty League play. The team earned its first top-two conference regular-season finish since 2015, while its .875 conference winning percentage was the program's highest since regular-season conference play started in 2011. Three players earned All-Liberty League honors for the third year in a row including sophomore setter Allie Kronenberg, who ranked third in the Liberty League in assists and placed 11th on the school single-season list.
Neff came to Union after finishing a decorated four-year career with Liberty League rival Rochester Institute of Technology in 2024. Neff was the third player in program history to earn four straight All-League honors, including three spots on the first team, and ended her time in Rochester seventh in program history with 3,907 career assists.Â
Neff earned AVCA All-America honorable mention and first-team All-Region honors as a first-year, in addition to being named the AVCA Region III Freshman of the Year and the Liberty League Rookie of the Year. She went on to earn All-Region honorable mention as a sophomore with a conference-best 976 assists. As a senior, she earned a third All-Conference first-team honor and recorded a career-high 1,095 assists to rank 22nd in Division III, while totaling 15 double-doubles.
A native of Latham, Neff was a four-time Colonial Council All-Star at the Academy of the Holy Names, earning CC Offensive Player of the Year laurels in both 2018 and 2019 and earning Setter of the Year honors as a senior as well.Â
A three-time CSC Academic All-District honoree, Neff graduated from RIT with a bachelor's degree in industrial design in 2024 and went on to earn a master's in industrial design from RIT in 2025.
