Before the joy came the silence.

The scoreboard told a grim truth: 24-19, the Wichita Trinity volleyball team trailing Cheney in the third and final set of the sub-state championship. One more point and their season — the season they had dedicated to Madi Moore — would be over.

On the end of Trinity’s bench sat an unused jersey, neatly folded over a chair. The number on the back was 1, the same one worn by Madi, a Trinity sophomore whose life, along with that of her mother, Monica, was cut short in a 2023 car crash.

It was the day after what would have been Madi’s 18th birthday and her older sister, Katelyn Moore-Turner, Trinity’s 24-year-old head coach, stood on the sideline coaching the same teammates her sister should have been standing beside.

Then something shifted. A dig. A block. A kill. Point by point, the Knights fought off five straight match points and won seven in a row. When the final ball hit the floor and Trinity had pulled off the impossible comeback, Katelyn dropped her clipboard, spun in a circle and screamed — a sound of joy, heartbreak and release all at once.

Trinity’s miracle run continued Thursday in Hutchinson, where the Knights won two of their three pool-play matches to advance to the Class 3A semifinals on Saturday. They are now two wins away from the first state championship in program history.

That comeback — and everything that has followed — has been about more than volleyball. For Katelyn and her players, it’s been about learning how to keep playing through pain and finding light in the darkest place imaginable.

“This season has been a true depiction of what grief and faith can look like at the same time,” Katelyn said.

A Wichita volleyball family shattered by tragedy

Less than two years ago, Katelyn’s world collapsed when her mother, Monica, a beloved Wichita veterinarian, and her younger sister, Madi, a 16-year-old at Trinity, were killed in a car crash on Dec. 10, 2023, driving home from a club volleyball practice.

Katelyn, a former star at Douglass, had just graduated from college the day before and had moved home to be closer to her family. She was at that club practice and had just arrived home when her father called with the news.

“Grief does awful things to your brain, to your heart, to your spirit,” she said. “It was really tough and I was really angry for a long time.”

Monica had been the kind of mother who showed up early, stayed late and never stopped supporting. She turned her daughter’s hobby into her own passion, joining the Shockwave Volleyball Academy as a coach to stay connected with Katelyn.

When Katelyn left for what became a standout college career at Central Missouri and McPherson College, Monica shifted her focus to coaching Madi, who was already showing the same instincts and passion her big sister had for the sport. By her sophomore year, Madi was starting on Trinity’s varsity team with a bright future ahead of her.

And just as Katelyn had moved back home to be closer to them, they were gone.

“I felt really sad for a long time,” Katelyn said. “ I felt like I had missed the last few years of their lives while I was out starting my own.”

The emotional weight of coaching Wichita Trinity volleyball

When the Trinity head coaching job opened, Katelyn was hesitant to pursue it.

Taking over meant she would be coaching the very team her sister would have been a senior on — coaching seven players who had been Madi’s classmates and many who had once been coached by her mother, Monica, in club volleyball.

After encouragement from her husband, Justin, Katelyn decided that if she was going to do it, she would lead with honesty — both with herself and with her players.

“I am very transparent when I’m struggling because I want them to know that it’s OK when they’re struggling,” Katelyn said. “I know they miss Madi and my mom just like I do. We’re all going through grief together. So it’s OK to be sad. It’s OK to be mad. It’s OK to feel these emotions.”

That honesty changed everything. Her players saw their coach not as someone above them, but with them. The seven seniors — Grace Barrett, Ava Deutsch, Krista Eklund, Dominique Schellenger, Audrey Smith, Clara Voth and Jordyn Whitfield — say their shared grief has only strengthened their bond.

“We’ve all been through so much together, so we do a really great job of playing for each other out there,” Deutsch said. “We don’t get down on ourselves when we’re down. We just encourage each other and still maintain that competitive edge we need to come back. We know we are playing for something bigger than ourselves.”

On Madi’s birthday, the day before the sub-state final, Katelyn brought in cupcakes. The team talked, cried, laughed and prayed together. They reminded each other who they were playing for.

The next day, they achieved the improbable.

Wichita volleyball team learns to handle grief

For Katelyn, coaching this season has been about far more than volleyball. It’s about showing her players how to face the hardest parts of life with honesty, faith and grace.

She’s open with them about her pain — about the days that still hurt and the nights that feel heavy. She reminds them that grief doesn’t have a finish line and that it’s OK to feel everything that comes with it.

“Grief isn’t temporary,” Katelyn said. “It’s something that you battle and struggle with every single day.”

For a team from a Christian school, faith has become their anchor. No one has embodied that better than the head coach.

“Kate is one of the strongest people I know and I’m so grateful we are able to have her as our coach,” Deutsch said. “The way she has learned to cope with her grief is so admirable and she’s taught us so much. I just admire her so much, not only for who she is as a coach, but also for who she is as a person.”

As much as Katelyn has led her players through loss, she knows they’ve done the same for her. The girls who look to her for guidance have also been her source of strength.

“Every team needs a coach, but I needed these girls,” Katelyn said. “I’m sure any coach could have come in and they would have been really good because it’s seven seniors with a ton of experience. But I would not be the same and where I am today if I didn’t have these girls.”

A Wichita Trinity volleyball season meant for more

As Trinity prepares for its semifinal match against Holton, the weight of what the team has carried never feels far away.

Every serve, every huddle, every point — they still feel Madi’s presence.

“I think we’re all playing for Madi in the back of our minds,” Deutsch said. “She should have been there with us.”

Those thoughts linger for Katelyn, too. There are still moments during matches where she catches herself looking for her sister and mother.

“There have been so many moments where I think, ‘Madi should be here,’” Katelyn said. “We could use her on the court and I could use her in my heart. There are just so many times where I look out there and think, ‘I wish Madi could be enjoying this with them. And I wish my mom could be here to see us doing all of these things I know she loved to watch us do.’”

The ache of that loss has never fully left, but it has been joined by something else — gratitude. Katelyn says becoming part of the Trinity family has been a “Godsend,” helping lift her from “a really deep hole.”

Out of heartbreak, she’s found something unexpected: joy stitched between the pain.

“The girls have been a huge part of me figuring out that good things do happen after grief,” Katelyn said. “They have showed that to me every day with their resilience. If they can show up, then I can show up too.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2025 at 6:03 AM.