{"id":2692,"date":"2025-11-18T13:25:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T19:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/?p=2692"},"modified":"2026-02-22T10:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:59:16","slug":"freshman-force-ava-esser-leads-the-cavalier-charge-in-playoff-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/2025\/11\/18\/freshman-force-ava-esser-leads-the-cavalier-charge-in-playoff-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshman Force: Ava Esser Leads The Cavalier Charge In Playoff Run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ava Esser rises to add to her 406 kills against Cowley Community College on Nov. 9. (Photo by: Will Bensman)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The JCCC Women\u2019s Volleyball team is making big moves this season. With a current overall record of 24-7, they are averaging 13.06 kills per set and are ranked 6th in the NJCAA Dll. At this point, the Cavaliers are well into the playoffs after another hard-fought win against the 4th-ranked NJCAA Dll Cowley County Community College on Nov. 9. So, what brought our Cavaliers to such high standing? Look no further for the answer, as one Cavalier in particular has been turning heads all season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAva has had a crucial impact on the team from the moment she stepped into our gym,\u201d said Women\u2019s Volleyball head coach Jennifer Ei. \u201cHer physicality at the net, matched with her strong work ethic, has allowed her to push the team to strive to be better every day in practices and games.\u201d<\/p>\n

While watching her play, one likely wouldn\u2019t think that this is Ava Esser\u2019s first season as a college athlete. Believe it or not, JCCC Volleyball\u2019s top performer stepped on her first college court as a player only three months ago. Since then, she has given her team 406 kills, 191 digs and 77 total blocks. She has also made 894 total attacks, making 45% of her attacks end with a kill.<\/p>\n

Despite being a top performer, Esser isn\u2019t one to swipe up all the credit. When asked what she credits her performance to, she spoke only of her teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just there for me. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m doing it by myself, we\u2019re all a part of it,\u201d Esser said.<\/p>\n

By watching a game, it\u2019s easy to see what she means. The team is highly coordinated through verbal and non-verbal communication. Their chemistry goes beyond what words can describe. The ball comes over the net, the setter puts it up; then, from out of nowhere the player I least expected to hit it spikes it down hard on the opponents\u2019 floor, sometimes without a single word being spoken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what we would do if we didn\u2019t have team chemistry,\u201d Esser added.<\/p>\n

The JCCC Women\u2019s Volleyball team will take on Pensacola State College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the NJCAA Dll Women\u2019s Volleyball Championship on Wednesday, Nov. 19th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The JCCC Women\u2019s Volleyball team is making big moves this season. With a current overall record of 24-7, they are averaging 13.06 kills per set and are ranked 6th in the NJCAA Dll. At this point, the Cavaliers are well into the playoffs after another hard-fought win against the 4th-ranked NJCAA Dll Cowley County Community College on Nov. 9th. So, what brought our Cavaliers to such high standing? Look no further for the answer, as one Cavalier in particular has been turning heads all season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1008,"featured_media":2716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[126],"class_list":["post-2692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Seth Lampton","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/slampto1\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/11\/willbensman8847.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/slampto1\/","display_name":"Seth Lampton"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Sports<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Sports<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 months ago","modified":"Updated 7 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 18, 2025","modified":"Updated on February 22, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 18, 2025 1:25 pm","modified":"Updated on February 22, 2026 10:59 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":126,"user_id":1008,"is_guest":0,"slug":"slampto1","display_name":"Seth Lampton","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f2e586f19d0db2ca6e0f54eba249df3470c40ec567565bda6e765754ffc14994?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"Seth","last_name":"Lampton","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/11\/willbensman8847.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2692"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2960,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions\/2960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}