Jones in top form for Louisville

When the University of Louisville women’s volleyball team takes on the University of Virginia tonight and the University of Pittsburgh on Sunday, their opponents had better watch out. Louisville’s Jamaican redshirt senior Aiko Jones is red hot.

After a quiet Friday night performance on October 7, Jones was in marauding form on October 14 and 16 as her University of Louisville team continued its relentless march through the Atlantic Coast Conference volleyball competition in the United States. Jones rained down 31 spikes on the weekend to help the number two ranked Louisville Cardinals stay undefeated in conference play so far.

Playing at home, Louisville first downed Virginia Tech on October 14, 25-21, 25-13, 20-25, 25-18, with a Jones kill ending the first set. The six feet two inches Jamaican got 11 spikes overall.

In the fourth set, Jones’ in-form teammate Claire Chaussee got the final blow with her 18th kill of the match.

Wake Forest University were defeated by the same 3-1 margin, 25-16, 25-15, 26-28, 25-20, on October 16 and again, the first set ended with a kill by Jones. The visitors fought hard to avoid a straight set sweep and took set 3, 28-26 and were close early in the fourth when the score was 11-10. A Louisville time-out broke the flow. Near the end, two mighty blows from Jones took her team to match point at 24-19 and the hosts ran out the winners at 25-20.

Jones, who played for Jamaica at the 2017 Caribbean Senior Championships in Kingston, scored 20 kills, two aces and a block in the match.

When Louisville swept Boston College in straight sets on October 7, Jones scored with four blocks. Two days later, she hit Syracuse 13 spikes.

Coach Dani Busboom Kelly took Louisville to the NCAA semi-finals last season. For this campaign, she is trying to guide her team to a high level of consistency in both attack and defence. Speaking to The Gleaner last month, coach Kelly said, “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we have high goals and we hope we can make another deep run. We realise how fun that was and how exciting it is and it kind of makes you want more.”

This weekend’s games will be away from home but Louisville have been spotless on the road as well as on their home court, compiling a 8-0 record in conference play this season.

- Hubert Lawrence