How a sisterly bond makes the volleyball border war special for one Kansas player

When Kansas volleyball senior middle blocker Kayla Cheadle came home to tell her twin sister Chayla Cheadle the news about her team going to Wichita for the first round of the tournament, she was already pumped before Kayla even walked through the door.

Chayla, a senior forward on the women’s basketball team, has been to nearly every one of her sister’s home volleyball matches, and Kayla tries to go to her sister’s games as well. Despite one of her biggest matches yet, Friday will be an exception.

This weekend, Chayla and the Kansas women’s basketball team will be in Lawrence preparing for Arkansas on Sunday, while the Kansas volleyball team travels to Wichita to face the Missouri Tigers in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.

But until college, they never watched each other play — they knew how each other played. They were an inseparable duo on the court, and on the net.

The Cheadles were unstoppable together at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Missouri.

And if they wouldn’t have specialized in sports to help accommodate for their parents’ schedules, they’d probably be doing the same for the Jayhawks.

To say that the Rock Bridge High School Bruins were just good at basketball would be an understatement. When the Cheadles were on the court, the Bruins dominated.

“I remember we were all super close because we all played basketball and volleyball together, all growing up,” Kayla said.

On the basketball court, they were joined by sisters Cierra and Bri Porter from the family of basketball phenoms that includes five-star Missouri forward Michael Porter Jr.

Add junior Sophie Cunningham to that roster, who was the №20 recruit in the nation and grew up Kayla’s best friend, the trio still play together on the Tigers women’s basketball team. Last season, the Tigers went to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2001

“It was a loaded team, that team had a number of division one players on it,” Missouri Volleyball coach Wayne Kreklow said. Kreklow’s daughter, Ali, went to high school at Rock Bridge with the Cheadles. She is also a senior for the Tigers Volleyball team.

Chayla, now a force for the Jayhawk basketball team, said if Kayla would have stuck with basketball, she probably would have been just as good as those players.

“She was a shooter,” Chayla said.

As for Kayla’s thoughts on her sister Chayla playing volleyball, her perspective was the same — twin telepathy at it’s finest.

“[Chayla] was actually pretty good [at volleyball], she was a right side,” Kayla said. “She played up until her senior year … I think she could have [played D1] if she would have stuck with it.”

Kayla wasn’t the only one who was impressed with Chayla’s volleyball talents. In fact, when former Kansas women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson was recruiting her, she was impressed by her vertical at the net.

Oddly enough, Henrickson has done one thing that coach Ray Bechard hasn’t: watch Kayla play volleyball at Rock Bridge High School. Bechard actually first met Kayla while she was playing club in the spring for a team out of Kansas City.

Kayla and two of her friends from the Columbia area — Sydney Deeken, and Ali Kreklow — competed with KC Invasion. With practice, games and tournaments needing an hour drive to Kansas City, the three relied on carpooling, sometimes even coach Kreklow was the one who drove.

Because of the conflicting schedules, Bechard and his coaching staff prefer to scout athletes at club tournaments because of the convenience, and number of teams present.

Except Bechard hasn’t been in Columbia for a sporting event since Missouri left the SEC in 2012. He says he will drive through the town on I-70 all the time on his way to a St. Louis Cardinals game, but never to scout a high school volleyball match.

When that moment finally came, Bechard, a lifelong resident of Kansas, didn’t let the topic of her hometown go unspoken in their first meeting.

“We kidded about it,” Bechard said. “I always said she was from Kansas City, Missouri. I didn’t want to say she was ever from Columbia.”

That’s because the Cheadle’s actually grew up in Kansas City before they moved to Columbia. With most of their family still in Kansas City, Kayla wanted to branch out for college but also stay close to family, especially her sister. The two didn’t decide together, they just ended up together, deciding separately.

When asked, coach Kreklow said that he recruited Kayla to come to Missouri. Her best friend Sophie was going to play basketball, and former teammate Deeken was already set to be a force for the Tigers in Volleyball.

Coach Kreklow and his wife Susan, an assistant coach for the Tigers, had a relationship with Kayla ever since she came to Columbia. Not just as coaches, but as the parents of one of her friends.

After Chayla decided on playing basketball, Kayla went with her. From what Kreklow saw, she was very close to her sister and put family above anything else.

The two have been no strangers to the emotions involved in the Border War while at the University. Their family lived just five minutes from Missouri’s campus. When her hometown university left the Big 12 during her sophomore year, the moment never resonated with Kayla. She just happened to be in Columbia when it happened.

“At the end of the day it’s just another game,” Kayla said. “It’s great to get another opportunity to still compete.”

In the third set of the Jayhawk’s first round match against the Tigers, Kayla Cheadle put down a ball for a kill in front of Ali Kreklow. She gives off a look that screams “yikes.” She was intimidated, she knew what Kayla was capable of.

But as Missouri took the fifth set, eliminating the Jayhawks from the NCAA Tournament, Kayla ended her Volleyball career on the court with a few of the girls she started it with.

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