Jones guiding Louisville to volleyball glory
WITH JAMAICAN Aiko Jones in their midst, the undefeated University of Louisville have become a contender for the 2021 NCAA Division 1 volleyball crown. Jones, a product of the powerful Wolmer’s Girls School programme, says Louisville is taking the campaign one step at a time.
Louisville, the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champion, have won all of their 12 matches so far.
“We’ve had some pretty realistic conversations about making it to a national championship game. We are ranked the highest, I think, this team has ever been ranked, and we are very confident in our abilities and so far, we’ve smoked every hard competition that we’ve had,” the 6’2” inch Jamaican said.
Coached by Dani Kelly, Louisville now appears at third in the NCAA rankings and have beaten several top-ranked teams in preseason games.
“We’re not cocky but we are confident in our abilities, and one thing about my team and my coaches is that we take every challenge as it comes and we treat them as one step closer to getting to that goal, so we’ve talked about making it to a national championship,” she said. “Our goal is to win the conference again and to make it as far as we made it last year. We made it to the Sweet Sixteen, or further. But we try not to get caught up in where we might end up, we’re more in attacking the challenges that are right in front of us.”
ATHLETICISM IN GENES
Jones, the daughter of former Jamaican women’s team captain Paula-Ann Porter-Jones and Knox College and University of Nebraska track star Jon Jones, has athleticism in her genes.
She won the Class Two Girls discus throw title at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships in March 2016, before going on to claim the Under18 Girls Carifta Games crown days later in St George’s, Grenada. She also represented Jamaica at 2017 the Caribbean Volleyball Championships.
“I was the youngest on the team at the time and it was more of a learning experience for me, and the start of me venturing out into where volleyball can take me in life,” she said earlier this week.
“Here in 2021, I am a seasoned right side attacker and opposite and a senior in college so I’m more of a leader on the court than I was in 2017, and safe to say, I have a little more experience under my belt.”
Her academic prowess and a red shirt year in 2018 means she has another season of NCAA eligibility.
Coached at Wolmer’s by O’Neil Ebanks, Jones is modest about her achievements. In 2019, she started every set of every match and led Louisville in kills and attacks and served 27 aces. In 2020, she was again ever present and led the team with 168 kills. She chipped in with 18 aces, 65 digs and 64 blocks. In one match, against Syracuse, she had 17 kills.
For now, Jones and her teammates are focused on the Clemson game today and making progress towards retaining the ACC title.
“Right now, it’s our game on Friday and after that our game on Sunday,” she said of the fixtures against Clemson and Georgia Tech University, whom they face on Sunday.