Match Point

As her fourth season with Maryland volleyball comes to a close, Sam Csire is living out the dreams she’s had for quite a while. She’s playing volleyball at the highest level and is on track to pursue a career in the medical field as a nurse. Not only has Csire accomplished those goals, but she has also brought her team into the journey through community involvement.

In the fall of 2022, the outside hitter who has led the Terps in kills the last two seasons looked into organizations that could help people who are sick and in need. She discovered Be The Match, a marrow registry that seeks to find transplants for patients battling life-threatening cancers. 

“I DMed them, and I said, ‘I'm an athlete at Maryland and I want to be a pediatric oncology nurse,” Csire said. “‘I would love to do something with you guys on my campus. What are the options? What can I do?’”

Csire learned about opportunities to host registration drives on college campuses that had been successful at colleges around the DC area and brought her team on board to join her for an event this past spring. Head coach Adam Hughes canceled practice on the afternoon of March 8 to let the entire team join Csire in helping out with the drive.

“When a student-athlete comes to me and says, ‘This is important to me,’ those are the things that I want to put all of our attention toward,” Hughes said. “It was cool to see the team rally behind the cause and you could tell that they were really excited to get involved in the organization.”

Be The Match is just a highlight on Csire’s journey toward becoming a registered nurse. Her interest in the nursing profession stretches back years and stems from many members of the Csire family tree who save lives for a living. 

Growing up, Csire became interested in the medical world after catching glimpses of the work that her mom, Shelley, did as a nurse and her dad, Dave, did as a firefighter. But she truly knew that she wanted to work as a pediatric oncology nurse, where she could help children battling cancer, from a firsthand experience with one of her middle-school friends.

When she was in seventh grade, one of her childhood friends, Kelly, passed away due to a rare blood cancer called multiple myeloma. Csire witnessed the hardships Kelly faced, as she missed school to receive chemotherapy treatments. It was the first time Csire lost someone close to her, and it was through the grieving that she wanted to help kids like Kelly for a career.

“When she passed away, that was my first time dealing with grief,” Csire said. “I can only imagine how it makes other families feel, so I told my mom I could see myself doing oncology and specifically pediatric oncology.”

Csire’s passion for nursing carried through high school. She received an anatomy book to peruse as she waited to get hands-on experience. While browsing through the pages, Csire found a section that talked about cancer cells, and Csire set out to learn everything she could in the book. She also connected with the firefighters that her dad worked with on family nights at the Strongsville, Ohio, fire station and talked with them about the courage it took to save lives.

At the University of Maryland, Csire has strengthened the attributes that are vital to being an effective nurse through her studies and her time with the volleyball program. As a community health major, she has been able to take courses that prepare her for the nursing school application and understand the big picture of health issues impacting the world.

“As I've gone through this major, I've learned how I can help the community and how I can help my patients,” Csire said. “It's more so about hearing people out, understanding what they need and figuring out how I can help them.”

Through her four seasons of playing volleyball at Maryland, Csire has also developed real-world skills of empathy, leadership and teamwork that can transfer into her career once she packs up her knee pads for the last time. Hughes notes that Csire’s steady demeanor on the court in high-pressure situations has grown since she began as a freshman.

“I think she just impacts people with her process more than anything else,” Hughes said. “She’s evolved a lot as a student-athlete by not letting one part of her game impact the others and by putting attention toward small details that she thinks can make a big impact. I think a lot of people can see that as a great model for not just growth as an athlete but growth as a person.”

With her Be The Match drive on March 8, 2023, she got to put what she learned through her community health major into action. After contacting the organization over winter break last year and finding a time to run the drive, the Maryland volleyball team signed up to help Csire. She and her teammates stopped university students passing by Stamp Student Union and helped them join the registry by swabbing their mouths for a DNA sample.

In total, Csire said that the team helped over 200 students join the registry in one day.

“Our team's very outgoing, and so the hour that they were there, they didn't just sit around and sit on their phones,” Csire said. “They were actually trying to find people and help me, which meant a lot. A few others stayed longer than their hour, which meant a lot because the more people that stayed, the more people that we can find.”

Hughes felt the volunteering process's impact on the team, as he knew their efforts could save someone’s life. When someone registers for Be The Match, their name is put into a database for someone to get called months or years later if their DNA matches a patient in need.

“Since it’s a registry over time, there’s potential impact for not just this year, but maybe down the road,” Hughes said. “They told us that if we had around 200 people register, you probably saved someone’s life, and once we knew that number, our team worked to make sure we hit that number.”

One of Csire’s teammates has the chance to potentially save a life through March’s Be The Match drive. Before a practice in September, setter Sydney Dowler received a call that she could be a potential match for someone diagnosed with cancer. For Csire, the fact that she could witness the impact of her drive through one of her teammates getting a call left her humbled and motivated to organize another Be The Match drive.

“The odds of finding an actual match is very, very rare,” Csire said. “People don't usually get calls until years down the road. Finding 200 people in one day could be the difference in how fast you can find a match for a kid.”