Somebody had to walk out of the Jefferson College Field House Saturday with a loss. The visiting team made sure it wasn’t them.
That mattered a little more than usual as Mineral Area College cruised past the host Vikings in three sets to claim the NJCAA Region 16 volleyball championship.
The Cardinals trailed early in all three sets, but it didn’t take long for them to assert their superiority in a 25-14, 25-18, 25-15 result. The win extended MAC’s unblemished season to 33-0; the Cardinals are ranked No. 8 in the latest poll of NJCAA Division I coaches and are one of only two undefeated teams in the top 20. They have lost only five sets the entire season.
“We knew they were a great team; that was never in question,” said Jefferson head coach Aida Steiger, whose squad wrapped up its season at 12-17, including three defeats at the hands of their southern rival. “They showed up to play and they deserve the championship. I wish them nothing but luck representing Region 16. I think they have a good shot to go far at nationals.”
The latest lead Jefferson had in the match was 9-8 in the first set after a MAC serve went into the net. But the Cardinals went ahead 10-9 on a service ace by sophomore Pam Zuluaga, a native of Bogota, Colombia. Later in the set, MAC libero Shelby Meyer, a member of the St. Pius X state title team last year, served through an 8-0 run capped by an ace of her own.
The Cardinals, who feature five players between 6-0 and 6-3 tall, turned the match over to their heavy hitters and a brick-wall defense. Raylyn Dodd, a freshman from Fredericktown, and freshman Melissa Avendano, another Colombian, crushed repeated kills, with Avendano planting one to end the second set. On defense, 6-3 sophomore Anica Popadic led the block game at the net as Viking hitters more often than not were frustrated on their spike tries.
“MAC played great defense; they didn’t let the ball drop and they shut down our outsides,” Steiger said. “They serve aggressively and our serve-receive wasn’t worth anything today, unfortunately.
“MAC did what they came to do.”
Jefferson landed three players on the all-region team: sophomore right-side hitter Kayla Juenger and freshmen Imani Williamson and Urte Neimantatite, both outside hitters. The trio combined for nearly 800 kills this season.
Steiger, in her 10th season as head coach after taking over for hall of fame coach Jo Ellen Stringer, put a relatively young squad (seven freshmen and five sophomores) on the floor this fall, and it showed in what the coach called “an up-and-down” season.
“We had some injuries; it was a difficult season,” Steiger said. “But we had some great moments (too). I’ll miss my sophomores. We had some great games and some of them we barely lost.
“We were freshmen-heavy. It’s a fun group of girls to be around.”
Recruiting season starts immediately, she added, as do plans for the 2018-2019 campaign and a lot of training and development in the offseason.
“There’s a lot of work to do,” she said.