Kirkwood volleyball feeling good as season winds down

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Kirkwood volleyball team is enjoying the ride of another successful season.

The Eagles are 22-10 overall, 6-1 in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference Division II standings and are ranked 11th in the country. They host Southwestern Community College tonight at 6:30 in their regular-season home finale.

Regional play begins Oct. 30.

Jill Williams, who is in her 17th season coaching the team, has been impressed with the overall performance and team chemistry this.

“That is huge for us that we have a really good team chemistry.” Williams said. “These ladies are really good teammates and good friends on and off the court. The enjoy playing with one another and for one another.”

Williams believes there’s something special about this year’s group and is excited for what lies ahead.

“The thing that I really love about them is they are really responsible,” said Williams, who has a 465-231 record as Kirkwood’s coach. “They all have really great energy and feed off each other’s emotions.

“If the court needs energy, the bench is really good at relaying the message of picking up their game and making sure the court is in sync.”

The Eagles are led by very talented sophomores in Emily Strauss, Kamara Dickerson and cousins Katie and Takoa Kopriva. Strauss, a former Linn-Mar prep who is the team’s best outside hitter, leads the team in kills with 390. Strauss also won ICCAC “Athlete of the Week” honors recently.

Dickerson, who is also an outside hitter, is second on the team in kills with 331. Takoa Kopriva, like her cousin a former North Tama prep, is a defensive specialist and leads the team with 416 total digs.

Strauss was humble about her recent honor.

“Athlete of the Week, I had never gotten that at the college level before,” she said. “So it was really cool, and I obviously could not have done it without my teammates that include the setters and the passers. Along with my coaches pushing me and I really appreciate to get that honor.”

Strauss loves being part of this team and has high goals for the Region XI tournament.

“For the rest of the season our team’s number one goal is to make it to nationals and win nationals,” she said. “But we are just taking it game by game, and we are trying to get better every single day.

“We need to win against those big teams, and we have not fully proven ourselves against them yet, so we have to accomplish that.”

The NJCAA Division II national tournament will run Nov. 18-20 at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids.