Jones leads Louisville on record-breaking streak

WITH JAMAICAN Aiko Jones in great form, the University of Louisville’s volleyball team will seek to extend a winning streak that has the unit a contender for top honours.

Jones, formerly of Wolmer’s Girls’ School, has made a sterling contribution to a campaign bedecked with 20 straight victories.

This extended winning streak is the longest in Louisville volleyball history.

When Louisville go into action tomorrow against Atlantic Coast Conference rivals Duke University, they will travel to Durham, North Carolina, as the number two team in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division One women’s rankings.

Last year, Jones and her teammates won the Atlantic Coast Conference and reached the Sweet Sixteen round in the NCAA Championships. The six-foot, two inches tall Jamaican says Louisville is quietly aiming for more.

“We’ve talked about making it to a national championship. 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,” she said.

MORE THAN 130 KILLS

Daughter of former Jamaica volleyball captain Paula-Ann Porter-Jones, Aiko Jones has recorded 155 kills from her right side attacking position and has a team-high 28 aces, with 80 blocks and 60 digs. She is one of five Louisville players with more than 130 kills this season.

Despite that firepower, the 21-year-old Jamaican says she and her teammates are not getting carried away.

“We’re not cocky,” she remarked. “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.”

Victories earlier this season over Purdue University, the University of Pittsburgh, Nebraska University and reigning national champions, University of Kentucky, pushed Louisville up the NCAA rankings.

One report on Louisville’s September 18 win over Nebraska said “they shut out a very skilled team in a hostile environment at the Devaney Center and looked elite in all aspects of the game. Their blocking was unstoppable, serving was strong, offence and defence in rhythm – this team is playing top-notch volleyball, and it is impressive.”

Jones played for Jamaica in the 2017 Caribbean Senior Volleyball Championships in Kingston, before leaving Wolmer’s for a scholarship at Louisville.