Kirkwood volleyball hopes for big week, big crowd

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kirkwood volleyball is looking to attract a crowd.

The Eagles charge into this week’s National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Volleyball Championships with wins in 22 of their last 23 matches and an Iowa Community College Athletic Conference championship. To top it off, with the national tournament staged at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in downtown Cedar Rapids, there should be a healthy contingent of supporters on their side against the nation’s best teams.

“It's definitely a huge advantage,” second-year Kirkwood Coach Dave Brown said. “All our student-athletes are great and they come out and support us and all the friends and family are able to come and it doesn’t require them to travel too far. So we get a lot of hometown support and it's definitely a home court advantage.

“It feels like a home game, which is a big win for us. I'm excited to see the crowd that turns out.”

Kirkwood (34-6) earned the third overall seed in the 20-team field and will take the court Wednesday night at 7:30 against the winner of a morning play-in game between 14th-seeded Walters State (26-5) and No. 19 Carl Sandburg (35-10).

Kirkwood did not play either school during the regular season. This is Kirkwood’s seventh trip in a row to the national tournament and ninth in the last 10 years. Last year — Brown’s first as head coach — Kirkwood reached the quarterfinals before bowing out.

“We just have a completely different team this year,” sophomore defensive specialist Lily Van Severen said. “We have really good team chemistry and we have a lot of tools on our team that we can use compared to last year. It is not just one core player. It is all of us.”

The arrival of freshman setter Kaci Johnson has transformed the look and ability of the Kirkwood roster. The former North Scott state volleyball champion leads the Eagles in kills (365), assists (865) and is second with 418 digs.

“I’m very excited,” Johnson said. “We’re very lucky that it is here. Gives us a little bit of an advantage. We have a lot of our home crowd and the student section we’ll get to have. It’s just really exciting that it’s right here, so we feel comfortable here.”

Kirkwood has played eight of the other nine top-10 seeds in the field and went 4-4 in those matches, including a victorious sweep of No. 2-seed Parkland and a five-set loss to top-seeded Cowley County.

“We played a lot of the ranked teams earlier in the season,” Johnson said. “We have both learned and grown. Our big wins against those teams gave us confidence, but also, we had a couple rough losses against those teams in which we learned from a lot.”

Kirkwood brings a versatile group to this year’s national tournament. Johnson is one of five Eagles — along with Mount Vernon graduate Emma Meester (340 kills) and fellow outside hitters Josie Bryan (296) and Marissa Cahoy (264), plus middle hitter Ava Harris-Shepard (258) — to post more than 250 kills this season. Van Severen leads the team with 658 digs.

“I think that we’re going to do really well,” Van Severen said. “I have a really positive feeling going into the tournament. The vibes are just good.”