San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Small in stature, big in impact
Liberos’ defense and serving often difference between winning and losing
Maddie Correa’s midlife crisis — at least the one in terms of playing volleyball — came during a time when her actual life was basically just beginning.
Periodically, and in time-honored fashion, Correa would stand against a wall, eagerly awaiting as a parent measured to see if she had grown any.
After a while, the exercise during her elementary school years became pointless.
“It pretty much never changed,” Correa said.
The 5-foot-4 Correa still has found a way to stand tall in a sport where height has become more and more important.
Correa, now a junior at Reagan High School, is among a group of liberos in the area that is steep in quantity and quality.
Players such as Clark’s Madison Cuellar, Churchill’s Julia Lopez and Clemens’ Elizabeth Hill in Class 6A, Navarro’s Carolyn Burch in 4A, and Antonian’s Alexis Jairala in TAPPS might be among their teams’ smallest players, but they could be crucial to some of the top area teams’ lofty aspirations.
“Playing defense is really rewarding because
you get that feeling of, ‘I know I stopped the other team and helped my team by not letting the other team get a point,’” said Clemens senior libero Elizabeth Hill, who was named to the ExpressNews All-Area Super Team last year after recording 732 digs and is committed to East Texas Baptist. “It’s my duty to not let the ball hit the floor.”
It’s a task that the players, distinguished by a different jersey than their teammates and holding prescribed roles (playing defense and serving), have excelled at.
Cuellar, a senior, had 797 digs (6.13 per set) as Clark made it to Region IV-6A final a year ago and was two points from going to state. Burch had 687 digs as Navarro advanced to Region IV-4A tournament for the third straight season in 2018, Jairala, a sophomore and at 5-foot-2 the shortest of the group, tallied 677 as Antonian reached a regional final. Lopez racked up 514 as Churchill earned a share of the District 27-6A title.
“When I first started, I just loved hustling, going for the ball, flying into the bleachers,” said Lopez, a junior who is committed to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and was the Express-News’ All-Area newcomer of the year in 2017. “I always play my hardest every game, every practice. Defense is a very important part of the game.”
The emphasis on defense has allowed shorter players to have a pivotal place in the game. The UIL adopted the libero position in 2005.
“If you don’t have defense, that first contact, you can’t win games,” said Correa, a Texas Tech pledge who had 376 digs in 2018. “I think digs and passes get overlooked. (Liberos) know on the inside that it’s really an important part of the game. As long as we know that we made an impact on the game, that’s all that matters.”
A libero’s skills not only can be the difference between winning or losing, they
can be the path to a college scholarship. Many of the nation’s top programs earmark one or two scholarships every four years for the libero position.
“There’s definitely a lot of pressure, because you make one good play and your team expects you to do that every single time,” Hill said. “I think a lot of defensive players thrive on pressure. Being shorter than most people, it really pushed me to work even harder because I knew where I lacked height, I needed to make up (for it) in speed and athleticism.”
Cuellar’s path to playing libero wasn’t about a lack of height. It was about a lack of opportunity.
An outside hitter by trade, she was stuck as a freshman and sophomore playing behind upperclassmen before Clark coach Melissa Miller made the position change.
“I really loved hitting,” said Cuellar, who at 5-8 is the tallest of the area’s top liberos. “Libero wasn’t even in my mind. Its kind of stuck with me. There are more pros than there are cons to being libero.”