The Kansas City Kansas Community College volleyball team entered the 2024 NJCAA DII Women's Volleyball Tournament in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as the No.11 seed. A double elimination style bracket, once a team loses the first game, they enter the consolation bracket. There, a team must win out to play in the third-place game. To win the entire tournament, a team must win every game with no losses.
The first game for the Blue Devils was against No.6 Gulf Coast State College who entered the tournament with a 23-5 overall record. The match went back and forth as KCKCC won the first set 25-21, but then lost the second set 25-22. The Blue Devils came back to win the third set 25-18, losing the fourth set 25-22. In the fifth and final set, KCKCC fell 15-10. After the loss, the Blue Devils were only one more loss away from heading back home and having their season end. But that was not the case.
The next matchup for the Blue Devils was against the No.20 Central Community College-Columbus Raiders who had previously been swept by No.13 Enterprise State. The Blue Devils swept the Raiders with set scores of 25-19, 25-19 and 25-21. Mercedez Brown had a team-high for both kills (15) and digs (14) in the match. Both Geme Ajekwu and Brown had three block assists.
They moved on and were set to face No.4 Richard Bland who the Blue Devils had previously taken down in four sets in the regular season on Oct. 25. Not only did the Blue Devils prevail, but they also swept the fourth ranked team in the nation. This time, it was the freshmen who stood out in the must win game. Mayah Pridgett led with 12 kills and right behind her was Tatianna Murray with 11. Veronica Rolando and Briazia Osborne were responsible for 37 of the 42 assists. Rolando also recorded four service aces, while Alejandra Aponte had three.
Up next was No.8 Illinois Central who had just taken down No.10 Iowa Central. This match went to all five sets, but the Blue Devils would once again find a way to grind out a win with set scores of 20-25, 25-20, 25-16, 15-25 and 15-13. Murray led with 16 kills, and both Pridgett and Brown had 12 kills each. Rolando had a huge match as she recorded 36 assists and five service aces. Ajekwu led the team defensively at the net with five block assists.
KCKCC kept rolling, eventually coming back to face their opponent in game one, No.6 Gulf Coast State. The winner of this match would move onto the third-place game and both teams came out swinging. The match once again went to all five sets, and the Blue Devils got revenge on the Lady Commodores with set scores of 25-19, 22-25, 25-23, 19-25 and 15-11. As a team, KCKCC recorded 14 service aces - four from Brown, three each from Ginevra Girardo, Aponte and Rolando and one from Osborne. Brown led the team with 16 kills and 18 digs. Aponte tied her season-high in digs with 30, and Nykeriah Allen had a team-high five block assists.
The stage was set, No.11 KCKCC vs No. 5 Heartland for third place. Heartland entered the match with an overall record of 38-8 compared to the Blue Devils 28-8. It was the Blue Devils who took the first set 25-21 but the Hawks quickly answered and won the second and third sets with scores of 25-22 and 25-18. The fourth set came, and the Blue Devils trailed the Hawks late, 20-18. However they found a way to score seven of the remaining nine points and win 25-22. In the fifth set, the Hawks never trailed and would end up winning 15-10 to take third place.
It was a historic run for the Blue Devils after winning four straight matches against top-20 teams. Although coming up short in the final match, Head Coach Mary Bruno Ballou was proud of how her team performed.
"After our five set loss to Gulf Coast in the opening round, we had a meeting that night and we decided that we were going to make the best run possible that we could," she said. "We knew that we had an opportunity to play for a third place match even after our first round loss and that is what they decided to do. The resiliency and heart this team showed is unmatched. Making it to the third-place game was pure grit. We worked and I could have been more proud of this group.
Sophomore Team Captain, Mercedez Brown, received All-Tournament team honors after recording 92 kills, 111 digs, 10 block assists and eight service aces in the six matches played. On Dec. 3, Brown also was recognized as All-America third team averaging 3.20 kills per set, 3.66 digs per set, .47 service aces per set and .38 blocks per set.