VOLLEYBALL

Former Texas volleyball star Logan Eggleston earns NCAA Woman of the Year honor

Thomas Jones
Austin American-Statesman
Texas graduate Logan Eggleston, left, joins Vice President Kamala Harris during College Athlete Day at the White House in 2023. Eggleston and the rest of the UT volleyball team were celebrating their 2022 national title, an accomplishment that helped Eggleston become the first Texas athlete to be named the NCAA Woman of the Year.

Former Texas volleyball star Logan Eggleston became the first Longhorn to be named the NCAA Woman of the Year at Thursday’s NCAA Convention in Phoenix. She was unable to attend the event due to her professional volleyball commitments in Europe, so her parents accepted the honor on her behalf.

"It was such an honor to be nominated," Eggleston said in a statement. "There are so many amazing student-athletes across the country who are going through their own journeys and their own hardships and finding ways to power through, find success and just grow as people. To be listed alongside some of these amazing student-athletes is incredible, and I'm so honored to have even been considered."

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During her five-year career, Eggleston earned five All-American honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association, including three first-team selections. Eggleston also was the Big 12’s freshman of the year in 2018, a three-time Big 12 conference player of the year and one of only two players in conference history to earn first-team All-Big 12 honors five times.

A three-year team captain, Eggleston led the Longhorns to the 2022 national championship while receiving the NCAA Tournament’s most outstanding player award as well as the 2022 AVCA national player of the year honor. She also earned the 2023 Honda Sport Award for Volleyball, which is presented to the top collegiate female volleyball player. She was a finalist for the award in 2021 and 2022. 

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"The thing I'm most proud of from my time at Texas is definitely winning a national championship," Eggleston said. "What I've dreamed of since I was super young was going somewhere, making a difference at the school and making an impact on the athletic department. I think my team really had the opportunity to do that, and we did."

Her impact extended beyond the volleyball court, as she served as the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee at Texas for two years. During that time, she helped found the Longhorns for Engagement, Access and Development Initiative, which allocates money from Texas athletics to nonprofit organizations doing work for diverse communities in Austin. She also helped create the Developing Neighborhood Athletes Fund, which raises money for athletic equipment and sports opportunities for underprivileged youths in Austin.

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"One thing I really wanted during my college career was to grow as a person and develop outside of volleyball," Eggleston said. Being president of SAAC "was a great opportunity for me to build relationships, grow as a leader and learn who I was outside of my sport. My time at Texas allowed me to engage in so many different areas that I'm interested in and allowed me to grow in so many ways."

While at Texas, Eggleston also thrived academically. She was the 2021 Big 12 volleyball scholar athlete of the year and earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-America honors three times. Earning first-team honors in 2022, she became the first UT volleyball player to earn both first-team All-America and first-team academic All-America honors. Eggleston was twice named an Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar and received the 2023 McLendon Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship, which provides a $10,000 grant to be used for postgraduate studies in athletic administration. She was also a 2022-23 NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship recipient and a 2022-23 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient.

Eggleston is working toward her master's degree in sport management from Texas while playing professional volleyball for Galatasaray Sport Club in Istanbul. She is confident her time spent as a student-athlete at Texas helped prepare her for this experience and hopes to carry the lessons she learned with her.

"The one word I would use to describe my experience (at Texas) would be unforgettable," she said. "I will never forget the memories I made and the relationships that I created. I know my time there is going to impact me for the rest of my life."