Hall of Fame
With several sophomores, including NJCAA All-Americans Tandy Johnson and Rachel Schrader, returning from the 1996 national championship team, expectations were sky high for the RVC volleyball team in 1997. In an interview with the Rockford Register Star’s Matt Trowbridge in 1997, Tandy Johnson was quoted as saying, “Every single day—every single day—people would ask, ‘You going to do it again?’ We were really challenged to do it.”
If the high expectations created any pressure on the Golden Eagles that year, it certainly didn’t show up on game days. While the 1996 team was a bit of a Cinderella story after finishing just a few games above .500 in the regular season before marching to the national title, the 1997 team rolled much more comfortably to a 32-14 record entering the national tournament. While tested a little by Ridgewater College in the semi-finals, RVC prevailed, 15-13, 15-13, 13-15, 15-9, to advance to the national championship for the second straight season. In the championship, Hesston College proved to be no match for the Golden Eagles as RVC cruised to a 15-8, 15-6, 15-5, win to hoist a second consecutive national championship trophy.
A credit to the true team effort on display by RVC at the national tournament was given by an opponent from Hesston who stated after the match, “They are all excellent players who can hit the ball anywhere and place it so well. They can just go to anybody. You can’t key on anybody because they can all hit winners.”
Some individual accomplishments included:
- Sarah Berger: honorable mention All-Conference
- Tandy Johnson: first team All-Conference, Region IV All-Tournament team and All-Region selection, NJCAA All-Tournament team selection, national tournament MVP, first team NJCAA All-American
- Rachel Schrader: second team All-Conference, Region IV All-Tournament team and All-Region selection, NJCAA All-Tournament team selection, first team NJCAA All-American
- Kara Smith: honorable mention All-Conference, honorable mention NJCAA All-American
- Sheila Zander: honorable mention All-Conference, NJCAA All-Tournament team selection
- Heidi Hutchison: Coach of the Tournament, NJCAA Division III
