By Evan Sandel
The Scene staff
The St. Louis Community College women’s volleyball team finished its tournament season with a first-round loss to Kansas City’s Metropolitan Community College at Longview in three straight sets.
The speedy exit came as no surprise after the Lady Archers lost 30 games in its winless regular season.
Head Coach Johnna Kinney attributes at least part of the team’s struggles to inexperience.
“We don’t have one returning starter this year,” she said. “Some players have club experience, but we’re mostly freshman. Also, we don’t have a lot of height. We suffered the loss of some recruits before the season started, kids who decided they didn’t want to go the community college route.”
Co-captain Eryca Sutherlin feels the team also lacks “chemistry” on the court.
“We have 14 girls on this team with 14 different personalities and 14 different backgrounds with only limited time to pull it all together,” she said. “It was hard.”
Sutherlin, 22, is a criminal justice major on the college’s Florissant Valley campus, where the volleyball team is based. She came from Hazelwood Central.
Despite frustration with the team’s losing streak, Sutherlin felt the women bonded.
“The fun seemed to come along in waves,” she said. “There were a lot of ups and downs over the season. But away from the game, when it was just us, we always had fun.”
Co-captain Paige Masterson echoed that sentiment.
“We get along great,” she said. “The whole team loves each other.”
Masterson, 19, is a psychology major at Florissant Valley who attended Carmel High School in Carmel, Ind. She’s one of the team’s most valuable players, having been selected for both All-Conference and All-Region honors.
But Masterson won’t be returning as an Archer next semester. She’s switching to the Meramec campus, which is closer to home, before eventually heading to Indiana University.
“Masterson leaving is going to create a huge gap to fill,” Kinney said.
Sutherlin won’t be returning to the team, either. She’s transferring to University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Kinney played volleyball at Park University, earning All Conference and All District honors. She started coaching at Florissant Valley in 2000, before St. Louis Community College consolidated its sports teams. The following year, she led the Fury to a district championship and earned District Coach of the Year recognition.
This is the first time Kinney has faced a winless season, although the past two seasons have been disappointing with a first-round tournament loss last year and a 6-30 record in 2011.
Things may not get easier considering strong local competition and inflexibility of the National Junior College Athletic Association to restructure the team’s division or district.
“The NJCAA does not have a policy or rule that bumps teams down a division based on performance,” said Assistant Executive Director Mark Krug.
Kinney plans to focus on recruiting taller players to control the net next season, but experience and chemistry can be more difficult to find, and with the team’s leadership evaporating, 2014 could be a challenge for the Lady Archers.
Challenges aside, Kinney remains optimistic.
“Despite (Masterson’s transfer), we’ll have a lot of returning players next year,” she said. “And if we manage to recruit some height, I anticipate immediate improvement next year.”