The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Volleyball’s O’Neal named Honda Inspiration Award Winner
06.22.2021 | Volleyball
Asjia O’Neal recovered from her second heart surgery to help lead the Longhorns to the NCAA runner-up finish.
The Collegiate Women Sports Awards release
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 2 Texas Volleyball's Asjia O'Neal has been named the 2021 Honda Inspiration Award winner, the Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) committee announced Tuesday.
O'Neal recovered from open heart surgery in 2020 to help lead Texas to the runner-up finish at the NCAA Tournament. The heart surgery took place in January 2020 and was her second to repair a leak in her mitral valve, a condition she was born with.
O'Neal first received the news that she would need a second surgery in November 2019, while the Texas Volleyball team was closing out a Big 12 Co-Championship season. She helped the Longhorns earn a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, was named to the Big 12 All-Rookie Team and completed the season knowing she would have surgery in January.
The surgery, which lasted more than eight hours, was extremely successful and there was no more leakage. From the first moments post-op, O'Neal was intensely focused on each step of her recovery. Starting with simply sitting up in her hospital bed, to taking her first steps around her room and then to taking laps around the hospital floor, she was motivated to improve every day.
O'Neal finished second in the Big 12 Conference with a .411 hitting percentage to go with 222 kills this past season. She had 1.16 blocks per set and 113 total blocks, the third-most in the league. She was named first team All-Big 12 and first team AVCA All-Region, as well as an Honorable Mention All-American. She also excelled in the classroom, being named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team as a Corporate Communication major.
The CWSA has selected an Inspiration Award winner annually for the past 33 years. The Honda Inspiration Award is given to a deserving female student-athlete in Division I, II or III who has experienced extraordinary physical and/or emotional adversity, injury and/or illness, or experienced extraordinary personal sacrifice during her college enrollment as a student-athlete and yet returns to athletic success.
Ｉｎｓｐｉｒａｔｉｏｎ@asjiaoneal is the @CWSA_HondaCup Inspiration Award winner. https://t.co/D9grucPX1U | #HookEm 🤘 pic.twitter.com/dgTuc4UxXi
— Texas Volleyball (@TexasVolleyball) June 23, 2021
