Kirkwood sophomore Becca Bell thought somebody in the Student Life department exaggerated a tad Wednesday morning when they were promoting Wednesday night's volleyball match against DMACC and encouraging students to attend.

"They said, 'Come support your No. 1 Eagles.' We thought it was just a mistake," Bell related. "Then someone checked it out and looked and she was like, 'Oh my gosh, they weren't kidding. We're really No. 1.'

"There were smiles all day," said Bell. "It was really exciting."

The top-ranked Eagles were still smiling Wednesday night after they swept No. 8 DMACC, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22, at Johnson Hall.

This is the first time Kirkwood has been ranked No. 1 in volleyball during Jill Williams' 10 years as head coach.

"I'll take it," she said happily after the Eagles beat one of their arch-rivals in the ICCAC conference. "We get to enjoy it for a few more hours now."

Kirkwood (23-2, 6-0) climbed from No. 7 to No. 2 in the national rankings last week. The Eagles moved into the top spot after Parkland, last week's No. 1 team, lost to Illinois Central.

Kirkwood lost to Parkland, 3-1, earlier this season, but now the Eagles have the target on their backs. They handled their first assignment as the No. 1 team with a strong overall performance.

"It was awesome. It was so exciting to knock out DMACC," said Bell. "We got really pumped for this game.

"We were all like, 'No. 2 yesterday, No. 1 today, not that big of a difference.' We're a bigger target now for people coming at us."

There was a lively crowd at Johnson Hall for the match. Members of the Cedar Rapids Prairie volleyball team attended to support Bell and Halle Lueck, a pair of Prairie grads. And members of the West Branch volleyball team came to Cedar Rapids to cheer Heather Poula, one of their own.

It was one of the biggest and loudest volleyball crowds in years.

"It was awesome," said Williams. "Our students were here. There were a couple of high school volleyball programs here to watch us. So it was a lot of fun."

DMACC (18-5, 4-1) challenged the Eagles, but the home team responded each time.

"We came back with some big points at the right time," said Williams. "I think overall we played pretty darned well."

All 16 players on this year's team are from Iowa and many of them made contributions. Poula (West Branch) and Erin Wenzel (Clinton) had 12 kills. Lueck (Prairie) collected 31 assists and 12 digs.

Nicole Snyder (Maquoketa) had 12 digs. Megan Allmandinger (Linn-Mar) contributed six kills. Bell (Prairie) had four blocks.