CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati is mourning the loss of soccer student-athlete Ally Sidloski, who tragically passed away on Saturday, May 22, 2021.
She was 21-years-old.
Sidloski had recently completed her sophomore soccer season. She did not play during the 2020 season, which took place during the spring of 2021, due to injury.
“I am absolutely crushed for the Sidloski Family, our soccer team and the University,” Soccer Head Coach Neil Stafford said. “There’s no words for dealing with a tragedy on this scale. Ally was such a pillar of everything that’s right about our program. A great student, gritty and resilient player and a phenomenal human being – this is an immeasurable and unspeakable loss. Our hearts go out to her family and friends and we will lift them up with our fond memories of Ally.
“Our Bearcats family has suffered an extreme loss,” Director of Athletics John Cunningham said. “We send all our prayers, love and support to the Sidloski family and will do everything we can to support them and our student-athletes as we all process and work through this tragedy. Please respect the privacy of the Sidloski’s and members of our soccer team as they grieve the loss of their daughter, sister, teammate and friend.”
According to WCPO, Sidloski was ‘hanging onto the swim platform of a boat at East Fork Lake before she went underwater Saturday evening, and she was not wearing a life jacket.’ Her body was later recovered.
Sidloski was a standout in the classroom, being named a TopCat scholar in multiple semesters for achieving a 4.0 GPA.
She made her collegiate debut against East Carolina in 2019 and played in UC’s American Athletic Conference Tournament opener against SMU. She was tabbed for Academic All-AAC honors following the 2019 campaign and redshirted as a true freshman in 2018.
A native of Strongsville, Ohio, outside of Cleveland, Sidloski was a four-year member of the Strongsville HS soccer team and a three-time All-Greater Cleveland Conference selection. In club action, she played for both Cleveland FC/FC Evolution West (2010-17) and Ambassadors FC (2017-18).
She was the third member of her family to play soccer at the collegiate level, following her father David (Cleveland State) and sister Katie (Indiana State and Cleveland State).
Sidloski is survived by her parents David and Tracie and two sisters, Katie and Nicole.
