LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Aiko Jones was named to the All-ACC volleyball team for the fifth time this week. The graduate student and team captain making the most of her bonus COVID year, she has been an indispensable cog in the Cardinals' rise to national prominence, hoping for one last deep run in the NCAA tournament.

The decision to stay at Louisville for a sixth year was pretty straightforward.

"One more year to be with this program and continue to grow as a person," said Jones. "It's priceless. So why would I give that up?"

The decision to come to Louisville originally was a leap of faith.

"I joke sometimes," continued Jones. "People ask how I ended up here and I tell them 'I met Dani and she asked me to leave my country and my family and I've trusted her with my life ever since.' But that's kind of the story."   

Dani Busboom Kelly had Jones at a camp at Nebraska when Busboom Kelly was still an assistant coach there. When she got the head coaching job at UofL, the raw talent from Jamaica, who had accomplished more in track and field, was one of her first recruiting calls.

"They have club (volleyball) but it's nothing like they have here," said Busboom Kelly. "Her high school court is outside. She was really a blank canvas that we could work with. She also could see her potential. So it was really fun to train her. Everything was new. She could see the progress. She could see the changes. That made her work even harder."

Jones admitted that it was somewhat overwhelming at times.

"It was scary," she said. "When I first came to the U.S. to come to a volleyball camp it was scary because I was with kids my age or younger who were so good. I remember sitting and writing in my journal, 'your story's different. It's OK that they are so much better than you and how you perceive things to be.' But it was intimidating for sure and sometimes still is. Also, it's pushed me to work much harder." 

They have grown together, coach and player, in concert with the Cardinals' growth as a national power that has now included back-to-back final fours.

"And I tell her all the time, I would follow her anywhere," said Jones of Busboom Kelly. "And that was a huge part of my decision and the culture that she's built here and I feel like we've built together." 

"It's amazing when you feel like you get the total package," said Busboom Kelly. "Not only a great athlete, but a physical athlete and then somebody that really loves Louisville. We have everybody vote for captains and they have to write why they voted for so and so and we had somebody wrote for Aiko, 'she just loves Louisville.'"         

"I always have family here," said Jones. "I love Louisville. It's home to me. Jamaica will always be home, but Louisville is home and I just love it."

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