From rare condition to elite recruit: Sydney Whisenton's remarkable volleyball comeback for Cornerstone

It’s easy to see why Sydney Whisenton is one of the nation’s top volleyball recruits.

The junior from Cornerstone’s athleticism belies her 5-foot-9 stature as she towers over the net for kills. As a setter, her vision and accuracy have keyed the Warriors’ status as a nationally ranked team.

“You wouldn’t know, based on her hits, that’s she’s even undersized,” junior outside hitter Claire Bolton said. “She’s just a powerhouse.”

The Warriors are 27-4 and ranked No. 3 nationally by MaxPreps and No. 7 by Prep Volleyball. Whisenton, who is committed to Baylor, has steered in that effort with 453 assists, 172 kills, 179 digs and 60 aces.

“She runs the offense like no other,” said junior libero Sara Gonzales, who, like Bolton, is teammates with Whisenton in high school and club. “I think our hitters feel so comfortable when they’re out there. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind with how the play is going to go when she’s setting up the offense.”

Twenty months ago, though, Whisenton could barely lift her hand and tearfully asked to be taken out of a club match because of excruciating pain that flamed along her right arm.

It was the breaking point of a health journey that began in middle school and was wrought with mystery.

“I felt so defeated in that moment because normally I can trust my body physically,” said Sydney, who also plays club for Alamo Volleyball Association. “It’s more mental for me in volleyball. But, I couldn’t trust my body physically because I didn’t know what to expect.”

For years Whisenton believed she suffered from Raynaud’s disease, a condition where blood vessels in fingers and toes tightened in response to cold conditions and stress.

Whisenton showed the typical symptoms of it – discoloration, pain and numbness in her fingers from lack of blood flow. Whisenton began noticing these symptoms in middle school with tingling on her finger tips.

Over the next two years, she felt it slowly progress up her arm. Lab work and trips to hand specialists didn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary outside of Raynaud’s.

Whisenton remedied it by using hand warmers during timeouts.

It did the job until it didn’t.

While trying to serve during a club tournament in Round Rock of January 2025, her arm, “just limped off the ball.”

“(The pain was) excruciating,” Whisenton said. “It was sharp shooting, and then that’s when I couldn’t move my fingers at all.”

That’s when her father, Cecil Whisenton, chimed in: “That’s when we called back and said, ‘Something ain’t right.’ “

Cornerstone junior setter Sydney Whisenton smiles after the team scored a point during a game at the school’s gym on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. Whisenton was diagnosed with arterial Thoracic Outlet Syndrome when she was a freshman. She had a rib and several blood clots removed as part of her recovery. (Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News)

When learning of her latest health bout, Jamey Howard, an athletic trainer at Cornerstone, suggested she gets tested for arterial thoracic outlet syndrome (aTOS), a rare condition in which the artery is suppressed, which leads to reduced blood flow and the aforementioned symptoms.

TOS and blood clots are becoming more common in professional athletes, who often have repetitive arm movements.

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was diagnosed and underwent a procedure to correct a deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder in March of 2025. While Los Angles Clippers forward Brandon Ingram and Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler both underwent thoracic outlet decompression surgery.

During testing, it was revealed that Sydney not only did she have aTOS, but she also had a cervical rib – an “extra rib” that grows just above the collarbone in less than 1% of the population.

With her constant swinging motion, the rib slowly clicked tighter and pressed against her artery to the breaking point she reached in Round Rock.

Testing showed she had two blood clots in her right arm. Within a week of the diagnosis, she was scheduled for two surgeries – one to remove the blood clots and the other to take out the cervical rib, first rib and anterior scalene muscle to open space along the artery to allow for normal blood flow.

“My mom was reassuring me – at least we know what it is and we can fix it now. We’re not in the dark anymore. There’s something we can do to help it,” Sydney said.

Cecil thought “the worst, especially with it being undiagnosed for so long. … When the doctor said we have to do surgery immediately, that was kind of scary. But, we’re people of faith. We knew He was going to take care of us.”

Sydney’s first surgery on March 4, 2025 lasted six hours. The second one – two days later – went eight hours.

“It’s a very complex procedure that you don’t hear of on the daily,” Gonzales said. “When I visited her in the hospital, I wanted to make sure she was OK. It was the worst gut feeling ever that you can’t shake. That’s your best friend out there, and it’s awful.”

During the recovery process, her mother, Ginger, and her father grappled with their daughter’s volleyball future.

“We were waiting for the doctor’s word,” Ginger said. “Is this something we should step way from, or is this something where she can have the surgery and still play? She was likely going to get a scholarship and do well in the sport. We didn’t want to take that away from her. God gave her the talent. Surely, He wasn’t going to take it away.”

Sydney was concerned, too.

“I was scared, not for the surgery, but for the result,” Sydney said. “I was scared that my surgery was not going to be the same. My hitting mechanic was going to be thrown off. I was scared that I was not going to be back to where I was before.”

Recovery was expected to be a six to eight week process. Ginger had no doubt her daughter would be attentive to the physical therapy required to get back on the court after catching a glimpse of that determination when she was a baby.

“When she was little, I felt she was walking early, riding a bike early, had good balance,” Ginger said. “She was ready. It’s weird, but that’s who she’s always been.”

Cornerstone junior setter Sydney Whisenton waits to run onto the court while preparing for game at the school’s gym on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. Whisenton was diagnosed with arterial Thoracic Outlet Syndrome when she was a freshman. She had a rib and several blood clots removed as part of her recovery. (Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News)

Of course, Sydney returned to the court ahead of schedule.

Sydney was cleared to play in late April 2025. She strictly a setter at first and then two weeks later, she was hitting.

Her athleticism and determination likely stems from the fact her parents, who are members of the St. Mary’s Athletics Hall of Fame. Cecil played basketball and Ginger volleyball for the Rattlers in the mid-1990s.

“I knew she wanted to get back on that court as soon as possible, so it wasn’t really surprising,” Bolton said. “I was really happy for her because she just fought through it and pushed through everything.”

Follow ups since the surgeries have been positive with no setbacks. Her age – Sydney turns 17 in December – helped her body heal quickly.

More importantly, Sydney was fully healthy for practically the first time in her volleyball career. It showed on the court last year as a sophomore at Cornerstone when she earned Express-News Super Team honors with 524 assist, 206 kills and 194 digs. She was named the MVP of the Nike Tournament of Champions in Florida.

Sydney’s carried that momentum to 2026 as the Warriors reach the final part of their season with the Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona this weekend followed by a match at Waco Midway on Tuesday.

“She is a fighter,” Bolton said. “She is one of the strongest people I know, and I’m so glad that I get to play with her. She pushes everyone to a high standard every day, and I think she’s just a great leader and great athlete all around.”

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This article originally published at From rare condition to elite recruit: Sydney Whisenton’s remarkable volleyball comeback for Cornerstone.

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