On July 27, 2021, Samantha Cyrille posted a heartfelt message to her Instagram page. It was unusually heavy for someone so seemingly positive, carefree, and full of enthusiasm. But, it suited the topic at hand. 

"Dear volleyball," she wrote. "We had a great run. You have taught me so much and showed me more about myself than I would've thought was possible."

In essence, Cyrille was retiring from the sport she'd played for a decade due to chronic health issues that plagued her tenure with the Rams women's volleyball team. It wasn't something she ever expected to have to do, but it felt like the right—and, quite frankly, the only—move for her at that point in her life. 

"I [didn't] think I could mentally push through the pain anymore," Cyrille said in retrospect from the team's locker room at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. "Oftentimes in games, I'd just cry through the game and keep playing with tears in my eyes, and I didn't want to do that again."

Thankfully, that wasn't her ultimate exodus from the sport, and she's now gearing up for a return to the Rams after redshirting the first half of the season due to a bizarre issue with her arms that left them numb and feelingless for most of her waking hours. While it was initially thought to be carpal tunnel syndrome or thoracic outlet syndrome, no doctor could help cure what ailed her. Eventually, she saw a chiropractor who helped her get her injury under control, to the point where she could coach the team part-time and, finally, return to playing. 

"While I'm not 100% better," she said, "I am better."

Now recovering and ready to hit the court anew, Cyrille can now reflect on her career in the blue and gold and what the future may hold for her in the years to come.

A walk-on from Scarborough who came to Ryerson partially because of the presence of her older sister—the RTA Sport Media alumna and frequent Rams Live colour commentator Natasha—Cyrille was wonderfully successful in her first year with the Rams, recording 50 digs in 14 matches and playing all 11 sets at the 2019 U SPORTS Women's Volleyball National Championship in Edmonton. She was also helped by the team's exceptional veteran core, the likes of whom had just won the national championship the season prior.

"I think it was really helpful in the sense that I learned my place in the line," Cyrille remembered of her rookie season. "These were national champions, people were watching them and now I get to be in their presence."

During the 2019-20 season, Cyrille really hit her stride, recording 216 total digs and placing third-highest in the OUA in digs per set with 3.93. Though her technique obviously improved substantially, Cyrille credits her confidence as being a prime factor.

Now one of the team's veterans, she rejoins a team that has been staked to an 0-6 record. Still, Cyrille knows that the team's starting lineup—which includes her best friend and star setter Lauren Wong, who Cyrille has played with since they were both seven years old—can lay down a solid foundation upon which they can build. 

"We knew it was going to be a rebuilding year for us," she remarked frankly. "I'm pretty optimistic in the sense that hopefully I can bring something different to the team that will be helping us." 

Unlike many of her teammates (and fellow Rams in other sports), Cyrille does not plan on using all of her years of U SPORTS eligibility. Instead, she'll graduate at the end of this season having only played two and a half seasons. Though she currently sits 18th in program history in digs and is poised to move up the Rams all-time leaderboard, she's applied to several teachers' colleges and wants to be a kindergarten teacher. 

"I struggled a lot growing up with not being good enough academically," Cyrille said of her career aspirations. "I really want to be one of the first people to change a kid's mind and teach them how to learn their best way."

As she enters the next chapter of her life, Cyrille leaves the team in the capable hands of a burgeoning young core that includes Mary Ann Rioflorido, Sarah Zonneveld, and Zoe Kuck, among many others. While her career may have been unfortunately hampered by spontaneous and destructive injury troubles, she'll nevertheless go down as one of the program's most resilient and team-focused characters.