Sarah Sponcil

Early life Sponcil grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where she began playing indoor volleyball at age 6 and beach volleyball at 8.

Playing for Team USA at the Four Nations U21 Tournament in Australia, Sarah and her partner Torrey Van Winden went 4–0 against Team Brazil to win Gold. In the same year, the duo finished fourth at the 2016 FIVB U21 World Championships, delivering the highest placement at the event for USA Volleyball.

College Sponcil played three seasons of indoor volleyball at Loyola Marymount, where she was the 2016 West Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year and the school's Female Athlete of the Year. She transferred to UCLA for her senior season, where she played both indoor and beach. She led the Bruins to their first-ever NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship in May 2018 and then again in 2019.

Sponcil has partnered successfully with a handful of players in off-season play and on the AVP and FIVB Tours. In the run-up to the Tokyo Games, she partnered with Cheng and the duo had notable wins and honors:

2021: The duo took Gold at Ostrava and Gold at Sochi, finishing 2021 ranked 5th in the world in nine games on the FIVB International Tour; they also ended the year 5th in the US on the AVP Tour, with wins at second, third and seventh. Their qualifying wins at Sochi and then Ostrava, where Sponcil and Cheng defeated longtime Olympic champions Kerri Walsh and Brooke Sweat, clinched them the number two spot for Team USA for the Tokyo Games.

2020: Sponcil and Cheng played twice on the abbreviated 2020 FIVB tour, placing fifth and ninth, ending the year ranking 14th in the world; they delivered second, third and fifth placements in the abbreviated 2020 AVP Tour, where Sponcil tied fifth for digs, with 6.7 per set. Of note, four of their five losses on the year were to teams seeded first or second.

2019: Fresh out of UCLA in 2019, Sponcil made her mark as one of the best defenders on the AVP and FIVB Tours. Sponcil and Cheng played in 14 FIVB Tournaments, winning Silver at The Hague and Silver at Espinho, Portugal, finishing the year with an overall FIVB rank of 14th. In the 2019 AVP season, Sponcil and Cheng finished 17th overall; in four AVP events, they advanced to the semi-finals four times and to the championship match once, with Sponcil delivering an average of 4.98 digs per set on the season. Six of their eight AVP losses were to teams seeded first or second.

In 2022, she partnered with Terese Cannon for the AVP and FIVB Tours.

In 2024, Sponcil played for the Grand Rapids Rise of the Pro Volleyball Federation in their inaugural 2024 season. She then signed with the San Diego Mojo for the 2025 season.