McAllen High’s Lexi Gonzalez looked over to the bench, her eyes wide and a painful expression started developing over her face.
Slowly, she reached down below her knee, and then her hand continued to slide to her ankle. Then, she collapsed to the floor.
“I was in so much pain,” she said “At first I thought I would just keep on playing, but it hurt so bad.”
It was during the second set of her team’s UIL Class 6A area round match against Harlingen South. The Hawks immediately took advantage and seized the lead in the second set while Gonzalez was in the training room with “Doc.”
The idea that the play could have been her final one as a Bulldog volleyball player never crossed her mind.
“Oh no, I knew I was going back,” she said. “The first thing I told Doc was, ‘I have to play, I have to play — do whatever, I have to go back in.”
Before that set was over, not only did she come back in, but she led the Bulldogs to a four-set win and to the third round of the playoffs.
Gonzalez’s year statistically was phenomenal and, because of her play leading McHi to a 46-3 record, she has earned The Monitor’s All-Area Volleyball Player of the Year award.
“I knew I was going back in — if he told me not to, I still would go back in. Thanks to Doc, he’s been so helpful to me for four years there. He’s just awesome.”
Gonzalez was the only athlete in the Rio Grande Valley to be named to a Texas Girls Coaches Association All–State team, garnering the accolade for Class 6A. She ended her high school career with a school-record 1,670 kills while setting another program record with 662 kills in a single season. She also registered 43 aces, 38 blocks, 369 digs and 275 serve receptions, as McHi won the District 30-6A title and advanced to the Class 6A “Sweet 16.”
“I wanted this year to be the best year I had and this team made my year so easy,” said Gonzalez, also named a Class 6A All-States for girls soccer. “Everyone this year wanted to play and everyone wanted to win. We would get so pumped up to play and that had a lot to do with our success. We were like family.”
The Bulldogs advanced to the Region IV quarterfinals against nemesis Laredo United at Zapata High School. The Longhorns had sent the Bulldogs packing the year before in the same round, and Gonzalez and her teammates wanted to avenge that loss.
Then they lost the first set, and trailed in the second. Another short night coming up.
“We were a little shaky at first,” Gonzalez understated. “Then something clicked. We learned our lesson after the first set and we kept getting knocked down but kept getting back up. Then after every point we would get so excited and the energy level kept getting higher and higher.”
Gonzalez said she started going to volleyball camps when she was in elementary school and immediately began looking up to McHi head coach Paula Dodge. McHi volleyball, playing for Dodge, became her goal. Today, she still holds her varsity volleyball coach in the highest regard, maybe even moreso after four years under her tutelage.
“I would always be the first one to show up — yeah I was one of those,” Gonzalez said. “Playing for Coach Dodge, though, is so amazing and she’s so inspirational. She has inspired me so many times where I’ve learned a lot and grown as a person and a player.
“We will pray before games, she gives us inspirational quotes for every game and tells us always all we can do is play the best you can. She talks about grit a lot and when you’re done with a game if you played the best that you could, that’s all that matters.”
Many boys and girls play on sports teams, others become athletes. Fewer are born athletes. Gonzalez is in that elite mix. She lives for that competition, for the adrenaline rush.
“I can’t see myself without playing a sport,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve been sports oriented all my life. It’s my dream to one day play professionally.
When Gonzalez burst through the doors in the area round against Harlingen South, returning to the court after she went down with the ankle injury, a boisterous roar greeted her from the McHi fans, the only sound more deafening being the silence of the South home crowd.
“That was such an awesome feeling,” she said. “I needed to and wanted to be there to play, be there for my coaches and my team. There was no way I was going to let that be our last game.
“I’m so thankful for our trainers and coaching staff and my family for always giving me so many opportunities to prove myself. I hope that I’ve been a role model for others and that everyone does great next year. I hope I inspired some people the way so many others have inspired me.”