photo by: John Young

Kansas junior Tayler Soucie (10) gets up high to hit a kill shot between South Dakota State blockers Mikala Hora (14) and Kacey Herrmann (3) during their volleyball match in the first round of the Jayhawk Classic Friday afternoon at the Horejsi Center.

Tayler Soucie, a junior on the Kansas University volleyball team that made history by reaching the Final Four last season, added some hardware to an already memorable season on Thursday, when she was named the Big 12 Conference’s Female Sportsperson of the Year.

Soucie is the first Jayhawk to win either the male or the female award since former KU football player Darrell Stuckey was honored by the conference in 2008-09.

Oklahoma basketball star Buddy Hield was named the Big 12’s male recipient for the 2015-16 season.

Those who know her and have seen her grow, both on and off the court during her three seasons as a Jayhawk, were hardly surprised by the news.

“As a three-year starter, she has made a positive impact for our team her entire career,” KU volleyball head coach Ray Bechard said in a news release. “As her career has progressed, so has her willingness to get more involved in other things. There’s not a better representative of our program and our athletic department than Tayler Soucie. We’re really proud of all that she’s provided for us on the court, but also how she’s represented our athletic department off of the court.”

Soucie played in all 113 sets in 2015 while helping the Jayhawks to their historic run to their first appearance in the NCAA Championship semifinals. She also excels in the classroom and spends countless hours finding ways to give back to her university and the community of Lawrence.

The Osawatomie, Kansas native is an active member of the Kansas Student-Athlete Advistory Committee (SAAC), where she held the position of Community Outreach Chair during the 2015-16 academic year. She is also KU’s female Big 12 SAAC representative. Soucie completed 140.5 community service hours from August 2015 through May 2016. These community service hours came from various activities including Big Brothers Big Sisters, volunteering at local hospitals and visiting local elementary schools. She is also responsible for creating a Holiday Toy Drive for a local pediatric hospital.

“Here’s a young woman who obviously helped us be the best we can on the court and then she still finds time to create opportunities off the court,” Bechard added. “She proves that you can be a champion in all areas of your life. I think that speaks volumes of the type of person she is and the type of people we want in our program.”

Soucie becomes the fourth Jayhawk to receive the Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year honor and second for the Jayhawk volleyball program. She joins Stuckey, Amanda Costner (women’s golf) in 2007 and Katie Martincich (volleyball).

One of the top honors handed out by the conference, the Athlete of the Year Awards are selected based on athletic performance, academic achievement, and citizenship within the academic year of nomination. The Sportspersons of the Year Award was started prior to the 2000-01 academic campaign to recognize student-athletes who displayed an extraordinary degree of sportsmanship and/or community service from within the conference. Honorees are selected by a media panel.