When this voyage began about a half-decade ago, it started with a handful of middle-school volleyball players building a bond through a shared love for a sport.

As the friends turned into teammates, grew taller, became stronger, jumped higher and hit the ball harder, it was then that a vision was conceptualized. Even then, though, there perhaps was no forecasting the rare feat that transpired on Wednesday at the Cornerstone Christian High School gymnasium.

With family, coaches, friends, teammates and classmates looking on, all eight seniors on Cornerstone’s nationally-ranked volleyball team — Megan Fitch (Texas A&M), Kaia Thiele (Nevada-Las Vegas), Macey Hughes (Grand Canyon), Ashtan Dodson (Furman), Aniya Hall (Louisiana-Monroe), Elly Stewart (Southern Mississippi), Amaya Tolentino (Jacksonville State) and Jadyn Molina (Incarnate Word) — signed national letters of intent to play at Division I schools.

“I don’t think we would think that we’d end up at the same high school and that we would be signing together one day,” Fitch said. “I don’t think we realized how special and important this group is, and how important we are to each other.”

How special? During three varsity seasons, Fitch, Thiele, Hughes, Dodson, Hall, Stewart, Tolentino and Molina were part of a core that combined to lead the Warriors to a
121-13 record, including a national-record 55 wins in 2022, and three top 10 national rankings. They became the first school from Texas to have one of its matches shown on ESPN a year ago and won the John Turner Classic in Pearland, Fraulein Volleyfest in New Braunfels, Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona and the Kamehameha Schools Labor Day Classic in Hawaii.

In a few weeks, most of the players will graduate early and go their separate ways, getting an early start on college life and volleyball during the spring semester.

“It’s going to be really hard, I’m not going to lie,” Thiele said. “All of these girls are my best friends and it’s going to be weird (not being together) at first. It’s definitely going to be a transition. We’re, obviously, still going to keep in contact every day. We’ll make it work.”

Cornerstone made it work the past few seasons by putting team success ahead of individual achievements.

“Losing eight seniors is tough,” Cornerstone coach Mike Carter said. “Losing eight really character kids, it’s hard to replace. They were three years of zero drama. They were so welcoming to each kid that came in. No one ever looked like, ‘OK, this is my spot or this is my team, why are you here?’ Each valued the person that was coming in and what they could bring to the team.”

Dodson came to Cornerstone this season after helping Davenport capture the UIL Class 4A state championship. She was district co-MVP and in the state final vs. Canyon Randall had 20 kills — including the match-winner — 25 digs and three aces as the Wolves rallied for a 22-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, 17-15 win.

Stewart was the top player at Class 2A Three Rivers, Molina previously played at San Antonio Christian, Hall and Fitch transferred from Reagan, Tolentino played a season each at Harlan and Sotomayor before her arrival, and Hughes moved in from Oregon.

“Coming from a small school, I was very nervous,” Stewart said. “These were girls I had seen played at tournaments. It was really cool to meet all of them. Once I transitioned here and saw how I stacked up against all of them, it definitely gave me a lot of confidence.”

The confidence was forged through mutual respect and demanding expectations. There were intrasquad scrimmage where both sides of the net were nearly comprised of Division I prospects.

“We’re all the same personality,” Fitch said. “I feel like sometimes that doesn’t work out, but it worked out perfectly because all of us just pushed each other to be the best, and no one gets butthurt, so we kept each other accountable throughout the years. I’m just blessed to have them.”

terrence@terrencesports.com
Twitter: @sa_terrence1