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Leaving a legacy: Five-peat a fitting finish for storied senior class
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
GARLAND -- Lovejoy volleyball head coach Ryan Mitchell carried a certain t-shirt around in his duffel bag all season.
It read, "Five ... why not?"
There was no reason why not as Lovejoy won its fifth straight UIL State Volleyball Championship, and first at Class 4A, Saturday with a sweep of Aledo (25-16, 25-18, 25-21). A year after becoming the first volleyball team to win four straight Class 3A State Championships, the Lady Leopards became the first team to win Class 3A and 4A State Titles in back-to-back seasons.
Mitchell's players corroborated that line of thinking.
"We definitely didn't imagine winning five state titles when we started," said senior Mallorie Puckett before senior Shannon Connell jumped in, "not at all."
Connell and Puckett, along with fellow seniors Bailey Martin, Brooke Ray, Lucy Tweedie and Hannah Atkison, all started playing together six years ago with Victory 12. Joining the Class of 2013 along the way were Homecoming Queen Madison Pfaff and transfers Ebony Nwanebu (Irving MacArthur) and Kacy Guajardo (Plano West). Nwanebu went out as a State Tournament MVP while Connell and Tweedie made the all-tournament team.
Nwanebu transferred in as a sophomore and the 6-foot-4 USC signee made an instant impact.
"Any time you've got the best player on the court, you've got a chance," Mitchell said. "And we had the best player every time we stepped on to the court because Ebony is the best player in Texas."
But for as much as Nwanebu meant to Lovejoy on the court, she learned what she really meant to the team off the court last season.
Nwanebu was benched during last year's state tournament due to academic issues.
But her teammates, some of whom had played together since kindergarten, supported the still new-to-the-program Nwanebu through those difficulties.
"These girls all had my back," Nwanebu said. "They became my sisters."
Nwanebu became visibly emotional, with tears streaming down her face, when hearing her coach and teammates recount why they stood up for her.
"We have each other's back no matter what," Connell said.
"This team has always been about more than just volleyball," Puckett added. "We've always been about family."
They've also been about winning as a state title was a fitting way to go out for a group of players Mitchell called, "the girls that put Lovejoy volleyball on the map."
"It's an honor to be considered one of the leaders of such an amazing program," Connell said. "We chose to fight together, to win together and ... there are just no words to explain how I feel right now."
The majority of Lovejoy's seniors have been on varsity for the past three seasons, but Saturday was the fourth state title for Puckett.
"Of course I wasn't anticipating this when I started, but now, I couldn't picture it any other way," she said. "Each state title was so different, but they were all significant."
The only other Lady Leopard to win four state titles was 2012 graduate Andie Malloy, who ran up to coach Mitchell after the match yelling, "you did it." Mitchell also received congratulatory hugs from several Coppell players prior to their Class 5A State Final.
That, however, paled in comparison to the adulation from more than half of the 5,531 fans in attendance at the Curtis Culwell Center.
"When we started this program, it was about two towns (Lucas and Fairview) coming together," Mitchell said. "And if you saw the stands today, the whole community was behind us."
Lovejoy didn't just have lots of fans, it had confident ones.
"It was funny," Puckett said, "I already heard some fans chanting six-peat."
But before focusing on making a run in 2013, the Lady Leopards soaked in the moment of another historical feat. That included Mitchell, who bit down on his gold medal, put up five fingers and fought back tears after the match.
"You dream big," Mitchell said, "but I never could have imagined this ... I mean ... how could you dream of five?"
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