Faith, hard work pays off for Abilene High volleyball team after rough start
What a strange, sometimes rocky path it has been for the Abilene High volleyball team.
While the Lady Eagles will make their first region tournament appearance since 2007 on Friday in Lubbock, there were times this season when it all nearly fell apart.
And who could blame them?
After all this was a program that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2015, had some really bad seasons in that span, and the Lady Eagles found themselves spinning out of control early in the season – losing 11 of 15 matches, including five straight at one point, for a 7-16 record.
The AHS players started to turn on each other.
“We had our moments of butting heads,” said Alexis Dolton, a senior setter. “We just had to figure those things out and realize it’s not about I, it’s about the team.”
Yet coming to a consensus and getting that done was no easy chore.
“No one wants to lose, but that’s how our program has been over the last couple of years,” Dolton said. “I think we had to realize we could be the group to change it, if we all came together.”
It was a challenging moment for Caroline Cleveland, the team’s second-year coach and former AHS player.
“There were times where it was hard, but one of the things we discuss is, we deal with adversity head on,” said Cleveland, a 2009 AHS grad. “Another thing we say is, ‘Walk by faith, not by fear,’ and that’s what we had to continue to tell ourselves. Sometimes the hard things make us better at the end.
“There were a lot of times I told the girls, ‘There’s a reason why we’re going through this. We don’t know the reason yet, but it’s going to show.’ And it’s showing now. That’s just walking by faith.”
Dolton, a second-year player, said it took a lot of self-reflection, trying to figure what each player could do better and what sacrifices needed to be made to make the team better.
“It’s definitely been hard on us in the sense of putting aside your own pride to go, ‘OK, I hate losing. I don’t want to do this anymore,’” Dolton said. “‘How do I push through, not only for me, but the team, and bring it back to the team and all of us get on the same page about it?”
Cleveland said the Lady Eagles had to make some hard choices. Were they willing to come together and fight through the hard times, or were they simply OK with being another mediocre AHS volleyball team?
And it wasn’t going to be easy.
“If you always want to take the easy way out, then you never know what you’re made of,” Cleveland said. “That’s what we talked about too. What are you made of? What do you want to be known for? Do you want to build the platform for the future and be a part of it, the beginning of it? Or do you want to be just another team that hasn’t been successful?”
Something borrowed
It wasn’t just the clash of personalities on the team that needed to be smoothed over. It took some tweaking to the team’s style of play, too, and, ironically, it all came to Cleveland one day when she was sitting on the couch at home watching the University of Texas volleyball team play.
Cleveland noticed a lot of similarities in the strengths and weaknesses of the Longhorns, who are ranked No. 1 in the nation.
“I thought, ‘That sounds like us,’” Cleveland said. “So, I started scouting them. I was like, ‘Why can’t we use this and do it toward what we have?’”
And that’s what she did. She found a way to take some of the things Texas does, rework it a little bit to fit her team and work it into the Lady Eagles’ game.
“Once we changed that and manipulated a few things and tweaked some things, that’s when we started winning,” Cleveland said.
A leap of faith
Cleveland fought through the hard times because she believed in her team.
“As a coach, you never stop believing in your players, even when they stop,” Cleveland said.
But what about when the coach starts doubting herself and needs someone to believe in her?
“I know the game, and I love the game,” said Cleveland, an assistant at McMurry for two years before taking the AHS job. “That’s why I really have to give it to my bosses. This year has a big change for me and my confidence, because of them.”
Cleveland said James Garfield, AHS’ first-year athletic director, and Rosemary Martin, AHS’ girls athletic coordinator, along with AHS principal Emme Siburt, kept believing in their young coach.
“They really had my back and really let me do what needed to be done,” Cleveland said. “I couldn’t have done it without them, and, on top of that, I have an amazing coach staff that has my back and loves the girls and loves the sport.
“That makes it easier to come on those hard days. But it’s taken a while to get there, but that’s OK. This isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon, and this is just the beginning of the marathon.”
Something special
It took a leap of faith for this team to believe it could end a long playoff drought. Dolton started to believe during the team’s play in the spring and summer leagues after their last season in Class 6A last year coming off an 18-21 season, including 3-9 in District 2-6A.
“I realized we had a special group of girls,” Dolton said. “We all collectively came together and said we wanted to make the playoffs this year. We all put our mind to it, so I felt like this was the group to do it. Getting this far was just because we pulled together. The coaching staff and the girls have all been on the same page to just keep pushing.”
Ryleigh Lawson, a senior and second year outside hitter, also had faith in her team – though she didn’t dare dream about reaching the region tournament.
“For me, I knew we could make it to the playoffs, but I never really grasped the fact that we could make it this far,” Lawson said. “We were always striving for it, but it was hard to imagine being here right now.”
And when the hard times hit, Lawson kept believing.
“I think whenever we were having our hard times, it was just going to make us stronger,” Lawson said. “I always thought we could make it. We just had to get over mental blocks.”
Faith rewarded
Now, after all the ups and downs, the Lady Eagles are one of only 16 Class 5A volleyball teams still playing and seeking the program's first state tournament berth.
Wylie has three, all in consecutive years (2010-12), reaching the championship match the last two before winning it all in 2012. Cooper won state in its first and only state tournament berth in 1966.
AHS (19-20) plays North Richland Hills Birdville (26-21) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a Region I-5A semifinal match at Lubbock Coronado High School.
Lubbock-Cooper (37-5) plays Colleyville Heritage (39-7) in the other semifinal at 6 p.m. Friday. The winners meet at noon Saturday for a state tournament berth.
AHS hadn’t won a playoff match since 2014, before this season. Now, they’ve taken down Amarillo Tascosa, El Paso Hanks and El Paso High – the latter two in five-set thrillers.
El Paso High, the District 1 champion, beat Wylie, the District 4-5A runner-up that swept AHS this season, in five sets in the second round.
Yet it’s the Lady Eagles who are still playing, along with District 4-5A champion Lubbock-Cooper.
“I’m just really proud of where we’ve come, and I can’t wait to see how it all ends,” Dolton said.
Dolton believes the Lady Eagles, who finished third in district, don’t need to change what’s got them this far.
“Keep playing like we have been,” Dolton said. “Bring it to a different level. Stay loud. Stay disciplined on the things we know, and our play our game.”
The last time AHS played in the region tournament, Cleveland was a junior on the team that lost to Arlington High in the region semifinals at McMurry.
So, it has been a pretty cool turnaround for someone who went to the playoffs all three seasons when she was on the varsity.
Keep in mind, this was an AHS program that was 37-82 in the four years before Cleveland’s arrival, winning nine matches or less in three of those years, including just four in 2020.
“No matter what happens, we’re all so proud of them,” Cleveland said. “I don’t think words can express how proud we are. I think we can go further. We all do the same things. It’s going to be who’s better that night.
REGION I-5A TOURNAMENT
At Lubbock Coronado
REGION SEMIFINALS
Lubbock-Cooper (37-5) vs. Colleyville Heritage (39-7), 6 p.m. Friday
Abilene High (19-20) vs. North Richland Hills Birdville (26-21) , 7:30 p.m. Friday
REGION FINAL
Semifinal winners, noon Saturday
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Abilene High volleyball team reaches Region I-5A tournament
