“Texas Lutheran's Own ‘Fab Five,’ Players have bonded like sisters during four years at TLC,” Barry Halvorson, The Sequin Gazette-Enterprise (Texas), October 30, 1994:
A handful of freshmen arrived together in Texas Lutheran College in the fall of 1991, coming into a tradition-rich volleyball program that was in need of a boost.
Injecting the energy and enthusiasm of youth and a considerable amount of talent, Dana Krueger, Jessica Szymanski, Christy Clawson, Stacie Matheson and Natalie Rundell quickly became known as “The Fab Five.” And what England's “Fab Four,” the Beatles, did for rock ’n roll, these five players have done for volleyball in Sequin—made it a red hot product.
The success started almost from day one with two of the five—Krueger and Szyman-ski, who were in the starting lineup—and the rest seeing considerable playing time off the bench. The five also found a mentor that first year in former TLC All-American Michelle Henniger, then a senior on the team. That season the team finished 21-17, were Hearts of Texas co-champions, and finished one game short of returning TLC to the NAIA National Championship Tournament for the first time since 1985.
They were on their way.
“That first year, we were really just a scrappy bunch of players,” Szymanski, a Sequin High graduate, said. “And Michelle made a big contribution to our development. She really showed us a lot about playing at the college level.”
Helping to ease the adjustments was the way their personalities blended immediately. Szymanski and Matheson are the most outgoing and quickest to respond to questions from the press. Clawson, the setter, served much the same role in the interview, passing things around to make sure everyone got a chance to respond. Krueger and Rundell are two of the quietist players both on and off the court, but are also two of the most dangerous players.
All five arrived literally at the same time, each attending the same tryout camp, each feeling confident she had made the team, and each ready to go to college.
“We all came in together,” Krueger said. “I think that helped us a lot because we could support each other.”
Such a verbal outburst brought jokes from her teammates.
“One of the first things that I noticed,” Szymanski said “was that while the rest of us like to talk, Dana didn't.”
“We lived together, ate together, just really hit it off from that first (tryout),” Matheson said. “I had a feeling right then that we were all going to make it.”
Their second year was not quite as successful. They had some doubts about college and aspects of their personal lives, but they never questioned the support they would receive from the rest of their recruiting class.
“After our freshman year there were some doubts about being here,” Matheson admitted. “I considered going somewhere else, but personally I stuck it out for everyone else. I didn't want to let them down.”
“I had some questions, too,” Clawson said. “I asked myself what I would do without volleyball and I couldn't come up with an answer, so I stayed.”
“These ladies are my sisters,” Szymanski said. “I never had any doubts about becoming a close-knit family. During that year is when we really got to know each other. We learned about our weaknesses and our strengths and we learned to play to our strengths.”
“We have all had to lean on each other,” Matheson adds. “They have leaned on me and I on them. One of the big advantages we have is that we are all strong in own own way so that no player has had to carry this team. If one person is having a bad night, the rest of us realize it and pick up our own games.”
Szymanski says each has her own understood role in helping to motivate the others.
“I can't yell at Christy or she gets mad at me,” she laughed. “We will just look at each other and touch hands. It's different with Stacie. She can yell at all of us. She's the one that gets us fired up on the court. She's got a way of yelling at you that doesn't get you mad at her, just gets you going.”
Season three of the “Fab Five” in Texas Lutheran was the most successful as a group. They finished the season with a 41-10 record as they earned a return trip to the NAIA National Championship Tournament and finished the season as the number nine-ranked team in the NAIA.
It was a big payoff for a group of girls who had a wide variety of interest only a few years earlier when they were starting out in high school.
Krueger, whose mother is a highly successful high school coach at John Jay High School in San Antonio, was always a volleyball player.
“Ever since I was real little, I've always been hanging around in gyms,” she admitted. “My mother never pushed me into athletics; it was kind of expected of me. I enjoyed it so much that it really didn't matter.”
Rundell and Matheson both preferred basketball to volleyball early and both admitted to missing the other game. Szymanski played both volleyball and basketball in high school, but always harbored a dream to be on the dance team, while Clawson preferred soccer and softball.
Each admits they had to give up some of their other passions to make it in their chosen sport.
“I never understood why they (sports and dancing) couldn't coexist,” Szymanski said. “That's been one of the big changes ever since I graduated from high school. Today girls are getting to do both.
“I was given a choice in high school of playing volleyball or basketball and eventually chose volleyball,” she said. “But I never thought I should have had to (make that decision).”
Another social change the five have observed is a newfound popularity as the girls that guys want to be with. Breaking a certain mold, all are attractive, but none allowed herself to be pigeonholed into the typical high school pastimes which were reserved for the “pretty girls.”
“We are the female jocks,” Matheson laughed. “We're the ones without makeup. When you see us after practice you'd wonder why anyone would look at us. But back when we started, people were unfamiliar with that idea. In junior high, athletics were not for girls. You were kind of a social outcast because the boys wanted pretty girls.”
“Things have changed now, Clawson said, picking up the argument. “A lot of guys don't want ‘prissy.’ We have the guys from the soccer, basketball and baseball teams always coming up to us wanting to know how to set or spike or how to make a particular serve. They recognize us for being athletes as well as women.”
“I think some of it has to do with the fact that we are more fit than most,” Krueger contributed.” “In the U.S. there is more of an emphasis on healthy lifestyles and people now find it more attractive.”
The trip to the national tournament has resulted in more interest in the TLC volleyball team this year, an attention that the “Five,” now seniors, are relishing.
“The effect of going to the national tournament has been fantastic,” Matheson said. “With the coverage we got, people are more aware of what is going on. I have seen every professor I have at games this season and most have been very supportive. And that helps because the volleyball team at TLC has always been noted for staying eligible, and when they see us play, they understand that we are working hard. But we also don't skip any classes, because professors are going to notice that as well.”
Two the most outspoken members of the team on the extra attention are the two shy ones.
“I like to know that people have an interest in what we are doing,” Rundell said. “Before it would be people saying, ‘Oh you had a game last night’ to asking ‘What was the score?’ to now going to the match themselves.”
“There is a great deal of motivation for us in the fact that people were behind what we were trying to do,” Krueger said. “It makes it feel not like we're doing it just for ourselves but for the school and all the graduates we have around the country. It's a real motivation.”
So far this season, the Lady Bulldogs are right on schedule to return to the national tournament and right on schedule to graduate as their sport has helped them gain the self-confidence of winning, but also made them better overall students and people.
“Athletics teaches you a lot about life,” Rundell said. “To be able to combine volleyball with college, you have to be more responsible, more organized in your life and set priorities. I have benefited a lot in other areas because of playing volleyball.”