WHEELING – National champions.

It is a title few teams or coaches can lay claim to. Christy Benner and her Wheeling Jesuit University volleyball team are freshly minted members of that exclusive club.

Benner’s Lady Cardinals put the exclamation mark on a remarkable season last weekend by winning the NCAA Division II national crown. They did so by downing Palm Beach Atlantic in Tampa, Fla., in straight sets.

It marked the school’s first national crown. It came on the heels of the WJU spikers knocking at title’s door for several seasons.

The Lady Cardinals have advanced to the Elite Eight the past five seasons, each time claiming the Atlantic Region championship.

WJU concluded its magical ride with a remarkable 39-4 record – a new single-season victory standard.

“I am still in shock. We knew we could do it, but to actually realize and let it sink in is overwhelming,” Benner said early last week. “Once we won the title, I think I immediately experienced every emotion possible.

“My grad assistant picked me up and then I cried in my husband’s arms,” she added. “Then we got to cut down the net. I just soaked up the moment. It was total exhilaration.”

The national title is the exclamation point on a brilliant 14-year run by the WJU spikers under Benner’s expertise. The John Marshall grad, with her husband Matt as her top aide, has scripted an amazing 459-114 record. That translates into a winning percentage of 80 percent. Her Cards have won 14 regular-season conference crowns and 12 conference tourney titles.

Benner’s passion for volleyball was transmitted from her father, Don Chamberlain, a longtime and well-respected college volleyball coach and ambassador. Her coaching career literally got its start in the sand.

“Matt and I took an interest in beach volleyball and built a sand volleyball court near the river in Moundsville. He and I played doubles, and we eloped in Myrtle Beach at a volleyball tournament,” Benner said. “Then we started to do some coaching at John Marshall and Bishop Donahue. Matt went on to become a volunteer at Wheeling Jesuit.

“The next year, Jesuit again needed a volleyball coach. The post was still vacant in August, so we asked the athletic director (Jay DeFruscio) if we could coach Jesuit together,” she added. “Jay agreed to hire us. We are indebted to him for having faith in us.”

Benner, with hubby at her side, hit the ground running. Her inaugural team set a solid foundation for continued success by winning the conference’s regular-season title.

“We inherited a team with some good recruits and Jesuit was already pretty good. Then our 2003 team was one of our best ever. We went 38-3 but lost to Grand Valley State in the regional finals. We had seven seniors on that team.

“We had to rebuild the next few years, but we still did well in the conference. We had to learn how to recruit more effectively,” she continued. “Matt and I had a lot of contacts in Ohio and it is a state with great high school volleyball. Once we figured it out, we landed some super recruits.”

That is reflected on this year’s championship roster. The varsity team is composed of 12 players from Ohio, one each from Missouri, Michigan and Colorado. Benner also has one recruit from Canada.

The dozen Buckeyes on the team come from all parts of Ohio, save Eastern Ohio. WJU has no OVAC products on its varsity roster. There are some on the jayvee squad.

“We put together a blueprint on how to win the conference and regionals, and recruited accordingly. The recruits bought in,” Benner said.

Talent is one key ingredient to success. Another is how that talent meshes.

“Our chemistry this year was wonderful. A lot of these Ohio girls are connected,” Benner noted. “We have two sets of sisters on the team. One set also has a cousin on the team.

“Four other girls play on the same club team. This coming year, we have twins coming on board,” she added. “We have broken the mold with how we recruit.”

WJU entered the 2015 campaign with high hopes, buoyed by year-in and year-out success. But the Lady Cardinals’ glowing resume of success was still void of one entry – a national title.

“This was a season we wanted to get over the hump. We were really close the last two years. We had special teams. We had to replace our libero, but Jessica Thobe really filled those shoes,” Benner said. “We played at Tampa early in the year and went 2-2. We lost to the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation, but we competed well and learned a lot about ourselves.

“We played some tougher schools after that and kept tweaking the lineup as the season progressed. We kept getting better and better, and the players got to know what each could do,” she added. “We lost to Findlay prior to the MEC tourney. Findlay is a good team, but it was a great wakeup call for us. It showed us that we still needed to step up.”

And step up is what they did, winning the MEC tourney and regionals, punching their ticket to Florida and the Final Four.

“We flew to Tampa on Tuesday afternoon. We had a big NCAA itinerary on Wednesday, including practice. It helped that we played on the same floor in September. We were involved in community involvement. We talked to students at an inner-city school,” Benner said. “We played the first match of the tournament Thursday at noon. We lost the first set of that match, but never lost another set the remainder of the tournament.

“The team really jelled in the Final Four. Teams couldn’t focus on just one or two of our players. We have five or six hitters that teams must pay attention to. Our middles also played extremely well.

“We had great balance on this team. We are not the biggest or strongest team by far,” she continued. “We have to play smart and take care of the ball. We did just that in Tampa.”

Now with the ultimate prize firmly in hand, what is next for the 44-year-old Benner and her program?

“Jay took a great chance on Matt and myself, and the university and community support for our program has been amazing. For the immediate moment, it is time to relax with the family,” Benner said. “Our big recruiting time is February through July. We want to make a big push forward for next year. We will also put our schedule together.

“Once you are winning, you get a taste for it,” she said. ” The national title will be our goal every year now … it will always be a goal for us.”

HOOVER SHINES

TREY HOOVER is a talented fifth grader at Ayers Elementary School in Martins Ferry. The 12-year-old is enjoying great wrestling success at an early age.

Earlier this month, Hoover took part in a Virginia wrestling tournament which attracted teams from California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Tennessee among others. Hoover is a member of the Ohio National Team, based in the Canton-Akron-Cleveland area.

The Ohio team defeated California for the overall team title. In the process, Hoover was selected as the tournament MVP after winning the 90-pound K-6 division.

His achievement was made more impressive as he wrestled all weekend virtually one-handed. He separated the growth plate in one of his thumbs in a tournament a week prior in Toledo.

Trey is the brother of Ferry sophomore grid and mat standout, Dalton Hoover. Their dad, Jim, coaches and teaches at Ferry High.