The Metro League is known for producing top football and basketball stars that have made their presence known in the sports world, being at the collegiate level and even into the professional leagues. But, it’s important to note the success that started in the Metro League for other sports too, specifically volleyball.
One of the most successful volleyball players to come out of the Metro League in the last decade is Sophia Meyers. Sophia grew up in Maple Valley Washington and played at Sudden Impact Volleyball Club and attended Eastside Catholic for her senior year after three years at Tahoma High School. Fast forward to today, Meyers is coming off of a great season with Loyola Marymount University making it into the second round of the NCAA tournament after defeating the University of Washington.
Although, it was not an easy journey for Meyers to make it to the top. After graduating high school in 2020, Meyers played her first year of college ball at the University of Montana. In her first season dominated by the challenges of the COVID-19 epidemic she still started every match as a freshman, and led the team in kills for the season.
After what seemed like a successful season at Montana, COVID and other factors led Meyers to take a gap year before she began her second season at Portland State University in 2022. In 2022 she started for the Vikings and earned Second Team all Big Sky. She then returned for the 2023 season where she was the go-to player offensively and played all 6 rotations, playing in all 102 sets of the season. After this season, Meyers earned First Team all Big Sky and ranked third in the entire Big Sky for kills and points per set.
After two incredibly impressive seasons at Portland State, Meyers made the jump to spend her senior season at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles CA. Meyers made an immediate impact being LMU’s go to hitter and also an incredible leader. LMU is known for their incredible energy and culture, and Meyers was able to fit right in. Before the NCAA tournament started early this month, Meyers was named to the WCC (West Coast Conference) First Team after her first year in the conference.
LMU was able to win the WCC outright on November 27th, giving them an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which would be Meyers first NCAA tournament appearance. LMU was named a 7 seed giving them a first-round matchup against the University of Washington. Ironically, Meyers being from Washington, this gave her a little extra something to fight for. Meyers ended up leading her team in kills in their 5-set victory over Washington, giving them the second-round matchup against Stanford.
Despite the 0-3 loss to Stanford, Meyers helped LMU make history with this year’s tournament run, not to mention being a pivotal player in helping LMU win the WCC conference for the first time since 1996. As a result of this many players at Sudden Impact Volleyball club where Meyers played have continued to be inspired by her and are finding ways to improve their game and shoot for their dreams, just like Sophia Meyers.
