Photo by Iowa Central Athletics: Iowa Central gathers together before making their trip to Cedar Rapids for the NJCAA national volleyball championships this week.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Starting the season with an 0-4 record, some may have wondered if this would be the season Iowa Central’s run to the NJCAA Div. II National Volleyball Tournament was going to come to an end.

But the seventh-ranked Tritons embraced their early growing pains, turning it into another banner year by advancing to nationals for a sixth consecutive time.

Iowa Central (30-7 overall) begins play on Wednesday against No. 15 St. Johns River State at 3:30 p.m. Led by head coach Sara Horn, the Tritons have finished as high as third at nationals, doing so in 2020. They have now won at least 30 matches each of the past four seasons, and seven times overall since 2014.

“I think the girls felt a lot of that pressure after that 0-4 start,” Horn said. “But they also knew that if they wanted to be part of a good program with high expectations, pressure came with that.”

Iowa Central has gone 227-43 overall during this current streak of qualifying for nationals, capturing five ICCAC regular season and five regional titles. They have twice reached the NJCAA semifinals.

“It feels great,” Horn said. “I still remember trying to qualify that first or second time and the drive of wanting people to know just how good we are. Now, we know people know how good we are. So it’s about meeting those expectations.

“Our girls have really bought into those lofty goals.”

Talya Sampson currently leads Iowa Central with 643 kills. Shirley Monaghan has 392 kills, and Cooper Griffin 250. Anabel Seaman has 1,277 assists to go along with 286 digs, 53 aces, 40 total blocks and 33 kills.

Meah McCaleb, a former Fort Dodge Senior High standout, has stepped right in as a freshman with Griffin to the rotation, recording 582 digs with 72 assists and 33 aces. Addi Hindt, a Southeast Valley grad, has 105 kills on the year.

Sampson, Monaghan, Seaman and Hindt are all sophomores.

“Talya and Shirley are among the national leaders in kills,” Horn said. “Anabel is up there in assists and Meah is in digs. Our middles are smart and get a lot of blocks.

“We have 24 girls on this team with 24 different roles. They understand that and have really done their jobs very, very well this year.”