Jhenna Gabriel vividly remembers rolling her eyes in disbelief and objecting when her father, Darryl, pointed to the rim above a neighborhood basketball court and told her to start setting volleyballs into it.

“He’d toss balls to me and I’d have to set them into the hoop to work on my location,” she said. “I really hated it. I was like, ‘why are we even doing this?’”

Now, a junior and the starting setter on the University of Texas’ No. 1-ranked NCAA women’s volleyball team, the homegrown drill has become more than just a nostalgia, it is part of her home training routine in the pandemic.

“It is funny how we’ve come full circle,” Gabriel said.

Normally Gabriel and the unbeaten Longhorns would be in the NCAA tournament right about now. But after winning the fall Big 12 championship the 14-0 Longhorns have to wait until the spring to resume their pursuit of a national championship in a pushed back NCAA tournament.

The break has allowed her to come home at this time of the season for the first time in three plus years at UT. It has also given Gabriel, a cousin of Central Florida quarterback Dillon Gabriel, an opportunity to reflect on her journey from a self-described initially “awkward” volleyball player to an all-conference selection and the NCAA’s sixth-ranked producer of assists per set (11.44) this year.

“I was actually terrible at volleyball when I was younger,” Gabriel said. “I could not serve the ball over the net. I don’t know what it was.”

But while she labored over the fundamentals playing club volleyball and at Maryknoll, her father, who played basketball at Punahou School and Loyola Marymount University, would accompany her to practices and games and watch YouTube videos, also picking up the sport. “He took the opportunity to learn the whole game of volleyball along with me,” Gabriel said.

“Yes, he’s my Dad but he is also my favorite coach,” Gabriel said. “I promise you I’d trust that man to coach his own volleyball team.”

Even after making several all-star teams, Gabriel was surprised when coach Luis Ramirez told her that the Longhorns were interested in recruiting her as a back row specialist/setter. “I was like, ‘Texas? The Texas Longhorns?’ When they said, ‘Yes, that’s the one,’ I kinda went crazy for a second. The (choice) was a no-brainer. I knew as soon as I set foot on their campus that I was going there.”

Still, at 5 feet, 8 inches, and towered over in the Big 12, Gabriel had a lot to prove if she was going to earn a starting role as a setter. The break came late in her freshman year against Texas Christian when she was summoned off the bench and promptly answered the call.

“She is obviously undersized at the position, especially for what we are competing against every day, but she has a lot of confidence and a nice little swagger,” UT head coach Jerritt Elliott said. “She gave us better numbers than what we were getting and she hasn’t looked back from that point. It has been fun for me to see her come in with unknown expectations and see where she has developed to.”

Elliott said, “She is also an incredible singer,” that the Longhorns may try to get her to sing the national anthem before one of their matches. “You should catch her on YouTube.”

For the moment, they are happy enough just to sing her praises.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.