Johns Hopkins – Champions

This article is a tad late, I realize, but I still wanted to do it. It’s a nice way to close out the season and what a story the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays have been.

JHU is only the third team in NCAA DIII history to go undefeated and the first in two decades. It rather strange to me that this could happen in today’s game where the talent is more spread out and running into a roadblock is more likely night in and night out. It’s one thing if a “superpower” like Emory or Calvin or Washington-St. Louis do it, but a team that has never won a Regional Final? The talent is so spread out that we can have this first-time Elite 8 team win a championship but not so spread out that they can beat all comers? Again, strange.

Strange. A team that has only 10 rostered players and a first year coach (don’t quibble on that…it’s his first year with this team) won 40 straight sets before dropping one to Trinity in the Final 4. They may not drop that one if not for an injury to their libero. That injury may have prevented the Blue Jays from being the first team in NCAA DIII history to sweep every match in the NCAA Tournament. In some ways this is good, because what other goals are there for the Blue Jays next season?

What’s not strange is the top hitting team in the nation won the national championship. You have to be one of the top teams in the nation in hitting percentage to win this thing and the Blue Jays were the best of the best. It’s true that some hack bloggers out west may have doubted the competition that constructed those statistics but it’s tough to believe in someone when they don’t seem to get challenged. When they win too easy. There was a sweep over then ranked Clarkson but they fell out of the rankings so how good are they? A 4-set win over ranked Ithaca but they also tumble out of the rankings. Sure, a 4-set win over Juniata but teams get lucky. It’s not like they beat them at Juniata. (Yeah, don’t check me on that.) A 4-set win over (at the time) unbeaten Stevenson but they didn’t play anyone, either. Another sweep, this time over ranked Susquehanna, and the excuses on why not to believe in this team start to get fuzzy. The Blue Jays win the  Centennial title while not losing a set and playing with a back-up setter (the only freshman on the team). See, it proves their competition is easy when even the back-ups excel. Three more sweeps to start the NCAA Tournament…but their regional was light and the top teams got upset before they could face them. They can’t be this good was the best reason I could give anyone that would listen. A sweep over Saint Benedict and a 4-set win with a key injury over Trinity still wasn’t enough. They would have to play the defending national champions in Emory. Great season but it would be over soon and probably very quickly. Boy was I right and oh so wrong.

Here’s the thing from the Johns Hopkins side. You line up against us and we’ll beat you. You can not like our opponents but that’s no reason not to like us. Yes, it looks easy and that’s because we work our tails off to make it so. If liking a 5-set win over Susquehanna more than a sweep makes sense to you then please don’t bring your brand of crazy into our locker room. It’s okay for people not to believe in us as long as we believe in each other.

I’ve written this article without mentioning a name. Not a coaches name or a player’s name and I think I’m fine with it. This was a team. A perfect team. No matter how good a coach is or a player performs they will make mistakes. They are not perfect. But this team made sure that those mistakes were few and when they occurred they were minimized. The team was perfect. This team was perfect. The 2019 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays women’s volleyball team was perfect.

Congratulations to the Blue Jays and their perfection. I’m sorry I ever doubted you.