Tunstall volleyball honors seniors, champions

DRY FORK — Tunstall quarterback JaQuan Hubbard slips into the building, and like a group of girls running off to the bathroom together, a fistful of other football players follow suit.

Before long, Hubbard’s decked out in the Trojans’ furry mascot suit and the guys are wearing cheerleader outfits, complete with form-fitting sleeveless tops and skirts, and dancing in unison to help the Tunstall volleyball team celebrate senior night.

“Y’all better win in three games,” one of them yells as the girls head to the locker room. “I ain’t staying in this long.”

The Tunstall volleyball team already locked up its fourth straight regular season Piedmont District championship before its 25-14, 25-12, 26-23 victory against Dan River on Thursday night. The night, instead, was reserved as a celebration of the team’s five seniors — Taylor Hite, Catelyn Stephens, Jenna Rudder, Lauren Hearp and Alyssa Dougherty — who all started the first game and received flowers and teddy bears and other gifts before the match.

“I’ve been blessed with these girls,” Tunstall coach Jackie Hardy said. “They make a big thing of it, which it should be. When you play three and four years, it should be something big with that last game.”

Stephens is the only member who has played on all four regular season district title teams, and Tunstall, in fact, has won either the regular season or district tournament championship in each of the last six years. Hite, Rudder and Dougherty have been a part of the last three.

“I think the thing that bothers me more than anything is knowing that this is the last time we’ll play on the Tunstall court together,” said Hearp, who’s in her second year playing varsity."

“We’re never going to do this again,” Rudder said.

Hite was still wearing a tiara shortly before game time, a remnant of the getup the seniors sported all day in class — tiaras, sashes, false teeth, plastic “brass” knuckles, wings and all manner of bling.

“I had a bling-bling money chain,” Dougherty said. “I’m going to need you to put that in there — bling-bling money chain.”

Despite all the fun, the final goal is not lost on these players as they prepare for their first game of the Piedmont District tournament against either Patrick County or Magna Vista on Thursday in Bassett. The regional tournament is also in Bassett this season, and the memory of last year’s shellacking at the hands of Hidden Valley in the quarterfinals is still fresh in these girls’ minds.

“Watching them,” Rudder said, before Hite finished the sentence, “… made me want to cry.”

“It was like playing a Division I college, and we were in high school,” Dougherty chirped.

“We realized that there are teams that are way better than us out there,” Stephens said.

The girls pointed toward their chemistry and their training regiment as to reasons why they think they’ll advance to the state tournament this year. But regardless of where this season ends up, the girls all agree that they’re richer for the experience.

“The thing I like most is just being with my friends, probably,” Stephens said. “Because even if you don’t win, it’s still a fun game to play. But winning makes it better.”

Preferably winning as quickly as possible, if you’re a Tunstall football player.