Mustangs’ Sosa signs with Oklahoma Christian after inspiring season

If Londyn Sosa ever needed to find inspiration, she didn’t need to look far. Her older sister Madisyn was always nearby.

Throughout her years playing volleyball, Madisyn was probably an inspiration to more people than she’ll ever know. An undersized outside hitter at McAllen Memorial, Madisyn exploded like a rocket blasting off when she left her feet on a kill attempt, facing whatever giants who were trying to shut her down. More often than not, she landed victorious.

She was an inspiration again Wednesday in front of family, friends, teammates, coaches and more as she signed to continue her academic and volleyball career at Oklahoma Christian, an NCAA Div. II program that competes in the Lonestar Conference and is located in Edmond, Oklahoma.

That inspiration, however, didn’t come with the end product — her signing day, but the grueling road she took to find her new home. What she endured her senior season would spell “it’s over” for many athletes.

Not for Madisyn Sosa, however,

Early during the first round of district play, at Sharyland, came back to earth from one of her short leaping flights, and collapsed to the floor – this time when she landed, there were no victories involved, no opposing giants to point at. It was the type of fall where anyone who has seen it before knew immediately – it was a knee, in this case a torn posterior cruciate ligament.

Somehow, she returned to the floor during that match, suffering with three different tears, clearly playing in pain. Her biggest weapons, a high flyer with a big arm and a deadly jump serve, were no good to her.

“I went back in with it torn in three different places. I felt this tingling sensation – everybody was telling me I’m fine but I wasn’t fine —  I tried, but it didn’t really work,” Sosa said.

“After that, I thought I wasn’t going to find a home because I tore my knee and was kind of like a has been,” Sosa said. “After visiting, though, I felt like I found a place I was happy with regardless of that knee injury. I found my home.”

However, she refused to let go of her dream of playing at the next level. She returned to play prior to the postseason and, while starting off tentatively, gained both her strength and confidence back to help Memorial to reach the Sweet 16 for the second time during her four years playing on the Mustangs’ varsity squad.

Sosa and her Mustangs, who finished fourth is in District 31-5A, defeated that same Sharyland squad she got injured playing against during the playoffs, ending the Rattlers’ 43-match win streak (the longest in the state at the time) to reach the Region 5-4A semifinals. Sosa ended the day with 10 kills, 13 digs, and one block. She was closer to being back 100% more than anyone could’ve expected in the short time she was out.

“I felt really wanted there,” Sosa said. “At first I didn’t want to go out of state but I thought I should at least give it a shot and when I went there I really wanted to be there – I knew I had found my new home —  and they have a good nursing program and that’s what I want to be. It all really drew me to the university.”

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