TAMPA, Fla. — Asjia O’Neal’s career with Texas volleyball ended Sunday in the most fitting fashion: at the service line with an ace that gave the University of Texas a second straight national championship.

But, really, could one of the greatest careers in program history culminate in any other way?

After Texas swept aside top-ranked Nebraska, the 24-year-old O’Neal could finally exhale and look back on both a special season and a special relationship she developed with Longhorns coach Jerritt Elliot in her six years in the UT program.

“This is probably the most joyous season I've ever had in my life,” O'Neal said. “It was definitely challenging at times. But everyone played free, everyone had confidence in one another, and we were able to go out and take down some really incredible teams. It’s just amazing.”

The end of O'Neal's career also means the end of working with Elliott

And a tad bittersweet, considering that O’Neal won’t work anymore with Elliott.

The two share a unique relationship, with O'Neal almost like an assistant coach rather than a player. At the postgame news conference after the championship win, Elliott and O’Neal sat together while quietly pointing out some details from the stat sheet to each other and cracking private jokes. Heck, they’d sometimes finish each other’s sentences.

More: Texas' Asjia O'Neal will choose between Europe or America for her pro volleyball career

“I'm really sad, actually,” O'Neal said after the news conference while getting ready to depart for a plane back to Austin. “I've been here for six years. Eighteen to 24, that’s a really crucial point of your life. I don't really know Asjia without Texas volleyball. So it's going to take a little adjusting, but I'm just so happy that I was able to finish it out the way we did and just really bring it home for Jerritt.”

O'Neal and Elliott grew even closer in 2019, when she had a recurrence of a heart condition that led to open heart surgery in 2020. O'Neal was born with a mitral valve leak, which forces the heart to work extra hard to pump enough blood in the right direction. She had surgery at a young age to fix it, but it came back with a vengeance in 2019. And she fought through rehab to make it back onto the court.

“I'm so proud of her,” Elliott said. “Just seeing her journey, going through the heart surgery with her, seeing her development and seeing what she's up to USA volleyball. And being 24 years old and wanting to be a part of a college team for six years, it just says a lot about who she is.

“She's super special to me, and I'm super loyal to her, and she's been super loyal to me, and it's something I will miss being around every day.”

More: 'Back to back.' How Jermaine O'Neal saw daughter Asjia O'Neal and Texas volleyball's championship

Asjia O'Neal leaves a lasting legacy with Texas volleyball

Elliott said the contributions that O’Neal made to the program can’t be measured by statistics, even ones as impressive as these career numbers: 924 kills, 112 aces, 601 total blocks (including a program-high 546 block assists), 156 wins and two national titles. And O’Neal said Elliott gave her room to find her own voice and her own confidence, even during the rocky days of redshirting as a highly touted freshman in 2018.

More: Texas' Asjia O'Neal, Chiaka Ogbogu in middle of action for U.S. women's volleyball team

“He's just really taught me to trust myself and just put really high goals for myself,” she said. “I think that coming into college as a high recruit and having to redshirt, I didn't have the start that I wanted, and I kind of started to doubt myself. But Jerritt always really stuck with me, and he's a great person and somebody that I'll have in my life for the rest of my life. So just the life values and the confidence he instilled in me are second to none.”

And what will O’Neal miss the most about Elliott? The answer won’t surprise anyone who’s sat in a news conference with the pair.

“I'm just going to miss our little banter,” she said. "I always have something to say to Jerritt, and Jerritt always has something to say to me. We have a really good back-and-forth. He’s like a second father to me, so I'm really going to really miss him.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas volleyball star Asjia O'Neal closes out memorable career