Scanning the email eagerly, sophomore volleyball player Katelyn Krienke lights up as she reads the response from Texas Tech, offering a full ride.

“I felt amazing; It was like all of my hard work finally paid off,” Krienke said. “I worked and worked, and to have colleges reach out when I was 14 was the best feeling ever.” 

Texas Tech found out about Krienke through sports recruits at club volleyball, which is a process where coaches from different universities can view potential students to recruit. 

“I haven’t applied yet, but they have my major and the campus is amazing,” Krienke said. “Also, I love the community, the coach and everyone around the campus.”

Krienke has faced some obstacles through her journey, but learns from them as she overcomes any roadblocks.

“There’s a lot of challenges that go along with volleyball. I would say one of the hardest parts was learning how to fail because you can’t win every game, and that was hard for me to understand when I was younger,” she said. “When I was 13, my team was playing the second team in the tournament, and we were 15th, so going into it we were already discouraged. We thought we were gonna lose and we all were down, but we came back as a team and won the game.”

Besides being in club volleyball, Krienke is apart of the varsity team on campus which advanced to the second round of playoffs.

“It was amazing knowing that we were gonna move on and fight for a title. The moment when we knew we were gonna make playoffs was great because we trained the whole season for that,” Krienke said.

The first game was on Nov. 4 at Giddings, which was a victory for the girls. They lost their game yesterday at Brenham, against The Woodlands, with a score of 3-0.

“We know we had a great season, and every team’s goal is to make it to playoffs which is exactly what we did,” junior volleyball player Ashlyn Brown said. “I learned that there is more to prepare for next year’s season.”

The girls relied on teamwork as while they were in the playoffs, in addition to encouraging one another.  

“I play for my team and not myself,” Brown said. “If I make a mistake, I try not to get mad or upset, but to prove that I made the team for a reason.”