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Sadie Swift’s (BSBA ’26, MAC ’27) senior season with Carolina volleyball didn’t go as planned. She only played in four matches as she recovered from a broken leg.

But there are a few silver linings from this adversity. Swift, a middle blocker, is returning to action with a fifth year of eligibility. She will be captain of a Tar Heel team ranked No. 19 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll.

Swift will also continue her academic journey at Carolina, where she was a 2025-26 Bubba Cunningham Athletic Director’s Scholar-Athlete Award recipient. She earned a business administration degree at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and minored in advertising and public relations at UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Now she’s enrolled in UNC Kenan-Flagler’s one-year Master of Accounting Program, which began in July.

“I really wanted a school with high-level athletics and academics, and when it comes to places that offer that, you can’t beat Carolina,” said Swift, a member of the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

A native of Austin, Texas, Swift was initially unsure what to study. She took several business prerequisite courses and realized that was her path.

“UNC Kenan-Flagler is such a great school, and I’ve always been someone who wants to surround myself with people who are going to push me to get better,” Swift said. “I thought that I would find that there.”

Swift credits an accounting course with clinical assistant professor Tanja Snively for steering her toward a MAC degree.

“If you had asked me before I took that class if I would ever get into accounting, I would’ve said, ‘no way,’” Swift said.

She found herself enjoying assignments she expected to hate and now wants to pursue auditing jobs next year, ideally at one of accounting’s Big Four firms.

But first there’s one more season of Power Four volleyball. Fully healthy now, Swift is ready to begin.

She’s also embracing her role as a team leader — despite her youngest teammates calling her “old.”

Next summer, Swift can tell them she’s one degree wiser.

Story by Brennan Doherty and photo by Jon Gardiner, University Communications and Marketing.