Maria Avendano strolls into the Cornerstone Christian School gymnasium. It’s the afternoon of Oct. 10, 2023, and the sky is gloomy, and rain is falling intermittently. In roughly 90 minutes, she is scheduled to play in her final high school volleyball match.

Avendano, a senior libero, is wearing blue sweatpants, a gray T-shirt and slippers. A blue backpack draped over her right shoulder appears full and as if it might burst at the seams.

“Traveling was definitely a great experience,” said Avendano, who signed with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. “It’s definitely a lot on our bodies and on our minds, and just to finally get this one home game, and this senior night, was a really great experience. It honestly felt surreal. I think everything didn’t set in until the last set. We did our handshakes for the last time. We prayed before (the match) for the last time. I think realizing that, ‘Yeah, I’m never going to play with Megan Fitch ever again, and I’m never going to play with Kaia Thiele ever again.’ That was something that I hadn’t come to terms with until the fifth set.”

All around the facility are signs of celebration and finality. Parents are hanging decorations and setting tables with refreshments. Portraits of the team’s nine seniors rest on easels in a hallway. Flower bouquets and gift baskets sit on a table just off the court waiting to be presented during a pre-game ceremony.

It’s an odd feeling for Cornerstone coaches and players. For once, there isn’t a flight to catch that will take them to compete in some prestigious out-of-state tournament. After spending the majority of the season playing in other schools’ venues, the Warriors finally got a rare opportunity to enjoy the comforts of home.

And not even a 26-24, 21-25, 25-19, 21-25, 15-10 loss to defending UIL Class 6A state champion Dripping Springs could spoil the moment. Cornerstone, a private school with at least nine Division I prospects on its roster, ended the year with a 33-7 record. The Warriors played only three home matches.

But so much can become lost during an always-on-the-go volleyball existence that spanned five time zones and nearly 6,800 airline miles. One week, Cornerstone is playing in Hawaii. The next, the team is in Florida, then Las Vegas, then Arizona, and finally, in the Dallas area for a match vs. a school from Kansas that was livestreamed by ESPN. Cornerstone is believed to be the first school from Texas to have a match shown on ESPN.

“It was definitely a lot different,” said junior middle hitter Elly Stewart, who transferred from Class 2A Three Rivers and is committed to Southern Mississippi. “It’s way different up here, traveling all over the country and everything. It really opens up your eyes to a whole new world of volleyball. It’s just so much bigger than everyone thinks it is.”

On this occasion, the Warriors’ focus was on authoring a perfect send-off for the squad’s oldest players, who saw the team go from having only 11 players on the roster in 2020 when they were freshman to carrying 24 and playing perhaps the nation’s most ambitious schedule.

“I think that games like this are tough ones because, for a lot of us, we kind of want to sit down and cry and hug each other,” said 6-foot-5 Baylor-bound outside hitter Grace Carroll, who attended Cornerstone in eighth grade, transferred to Alamo Heights for her freshman and sophomore seasons, before returning for her final two years. “But we knew we had a really tough game to play ahead of us. Dripping Springs is a phenomenal team. It’s hard to bottle up those emotions just for a little bit.”

Dripping Springs won the first and third sets and Cornerstone replied by taking the second and fourth frames, forcing a decisive fifth set. The Warriors pulled within 12-10 after trailing by five earlier in the stanza, but Dripping Springs reeled off the final three points for the win.

Aniya Hall led Cornerstone with 20 kills and a .341 hitting percentage. Fitch added 18 kills, 17 digs and two aces and Avendano tallied 14 digs and two aces. Thiele had 26 assists.

Henley Anderson, a 6-foot-4 outside hitter and one of the nation’s top recruits in Class of 2026, had a match-high 26 kills, .345 hitting clip, 12 digs, five aces and 2 1/2 blocks. Riley Certain contributed 15 kills and Ashley Euston added 12 kills. Presley Alford had 38 assists, 16 digs and two aces.

“I was super-please for them to get that environment,” Cornerstone coach Mike Carter said of playing before a jam-packed crowd despite school being out for fall break. “I thought it elevated us to play at the top of our game. Would’ve loved for them to have gone out with a win. We put ourselves in position in a Game 5, and that’s all you can really ask for. They laid it on the line.”

Moments later, after the final whistle and many in the stands had dispersed, the players milled around the gym. They talked with family, friends, schoolmates and opposing players. They took photos, shed tears, and yearned for memories they hope will last for a long time.

“It was weird to come in and to think that some of the girls are never playing volleyball again,” said Cornerstone junior outside hitter Megan Fitch, who is committed to Texas A&M. “I feel heartbroken for them. Coming in and just knowing everybody’s going to play for each other is such a special feeling. I think we had that tonight.”

Natalia Jackson, a four-year varsity player, agreed.

“A lot of emotions,” said Jackson, a setter. “We went through a lot of ups and downs. This was a great way to go out. Of course, I wish we would’ve won. I feel we still lived up to the expectations.”

terrence@terrencesports.com
Twitter: @sa_terrence1