The unlikeliest journey to NCAA volleyball's final four - ESPN

THE DAY KYNDAL STOWERS was told she couldn't play volleyball anymore, she got in her car, silenced her phone, and drove aimlessly around town.

It was the spring of 2024, and she had endured four concussions over eight months on the volleyball court at Baylor, once in a collision with a teammate and three times from getting hit by the ball. «Why does this keep happening?» she asked herself. She figured she would redshirt her sophomore season and give her brain time to heal.

But near the end of the 2024 spring semester, a team doctor summoned Stowers. She thought it was just another checkup. When she arrived, the doctor, a trainer and a member of the university's compliance department greeted her. They told her that she was being medically retired, and that her tuition would be paid for but her playing days — at Baylor at least — were finished.

She eventually went home to Denton, Texas, and watched the 2024 Final Four on her parents' couch.

One year later, on Sunday, Stowers stood on the court at the Bob Devaney Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, celebrating her Texas A&M team's five-set upset over the No. 1 — and previously undefeated — Cornhuskers in the regional finals. She had 25 kills and then found her mom in the crowd and cried. She rarely does that, Tina Stowers said.

But this is a story about the unlikeliest player on the unlikeliest semifinal team in the NCAA women's volleyball tournament, and the moment commanded some emotion. It's about a sports family supporting her decision to keep playing, and taking the steps necessary to ensure she's as safe as she can be in an unpredictable arena of high-velocity swings, crashing bodies and flying elbows.

On Thursday, she'll play for Texas A&M against Pittsburgh in the national