Western Kentucky’s Sydney Engle (left) celebrates with teammate Taylor Dellinger during the Lady Toppers’ 3-0 win Dec. 1 over Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington.

Recent Western Kentucky graduate Sydney Engle has been named one of 14 recipients of the 2018 Jim Castañeda Postgraduate Scholarship as announced by the league office Wednesday.

The former Lady Topper volleyball player joins her sister, Rachel Engle, as a recipient of the honor.

This is the 10th year the scholarships have been presented in honor of Dr. Jim Castañeda, who served Rice University for 46 years as an educator, coach and faculty athletics representative before he passed away in November 2008. The conference annually awards the $4,000 postgraduate scholarships to graduates as selected by the Conference USA faculty athletics representatives and approved by the board of directors.

Engle earned her undergraduate degree at WKU this past spring after registering a cumulative 3.84 GPA. With a business administration degree under her belt, Engle will remain at WKU and begin the Master of Business Administration program this fall. In addition to her studies, Engle will work in the Hilltopper Athletic Foundation office as a development assistant.

A native of Floyds Knobs, Ind., Engle is a two-time Conference USA Commissioner’s Academic Medal honoree and four-time C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll recipient. She earned five Defensive Player of the Week accolades across her senior campaign which culminated with an AVCA All-Region honorable mention selection. Engle was a three-time all-conference second-team selection in addition to earning a spot on the league’s all-academic team in 2017.

During her four-year career at WKU, Engle played in every match as the team racked up a 123-17 record. With 140 matches played, Engle ranks 10th on the Lady Toppers’ career matches played list. Across 485 sets played, Engle racked up 925 kills, a .305 hitting clip, 390 assists, 80 service aces, 835 digs, 272 total blocks and 1,155 total points. Engle, along with fellow seniors Alyssa Cavanaugh and Jessica Lucas, became the first players in WKU volleyball history to play in the NCAA Tournament all four years after racking up four C-USA regular season championships along with four automatic bids via winning the C-USA tournament.

Off the court and outside the classroom, Engle was involved with the Student Athlete Advisory Council as a volleyball representative. Additionally, she is involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and is actively involved with fundraising and raising awareness for the Hope 4 Harlie Foundation and Friends of Jaclyn Foundation.

Through the WKU athletics department, Engle was heavily involved with the Hilltoppers with Heart campaign, to which she has donated her time and efforts for the United Way Day of Caring, annual Stuff the Bus fundraiser, Autism Awareness Day, Boys and Girls Club and National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Engle has also spent time volunteering at volleyball camps, making appearances in local classrooms to read to students along with many other opportunities.