Former Lumberjack Sydney Lema was promoted to assistant coach in January 2022 after initially joining the Northern Arizona volleyball staff as a graduate assistant in the fall of 2020 following a four-year playing career with the program.

Lema earned All-Big Sky Second Team honors in her final season in 2019 after averaging 1.81 kills and 3.72 digs per set. During her senior season, she started all 32 matches and also picked up her first Big Sky Player of the Week award of her career, receiving the offensive award after an All-Tournament weekend at the Seton Hall Classic.

During NAU's Big Sky Championship season in 2018, she became the 15th player in program history to record 1,000 career digs and eventually concluded her career third all-time in program history with 1,515 digs. She also finished her career sixth in career digs per set (3.47), sixth in sets played (436) and 10th in aces (108). In all, she started 116 of 117 career matches over the course of her four years.

She helped coach the Revolution Volleyball Academy 18 Adidas and 16 Adidas teams in 2019-20 and also assisted at a number of local high school camps including at Coconino and Flagstaff High Schools, Camp Verde High School and Willow Canyon High School during her time as a student-athlete.

Lema graduated from NAU with her bachelor's degree in university studies and minors in biology and health & wellness-coaching in the spring of 2020. A four-time Golden Eagle Scholar-Athlete Award recipient and three-time Big Sky All-Academic selection, Lema completed her master's degree in human relations in December 2021.