Thanks to a 3-0 sweep of North Central Community College Conference (N4C) rival Joliet Junior College Thursday evening, the Madison College volleyball team secured head coach Toby Parker his 250th career win. When asked about the milestone after the match, Parker very quickly joked, "It makes me feel old."

Joking aside, the defending national champs are now off to a fantastic 6-0 start in 2014. Key to that early success has been the team's ability to focus on the present, instead of looking at the past or into the future.

"I'm a movie quote guy," said Parker. "Rule number one, with fight club, is we don't talk about fight club. Rule number two, as a matter of fact, we don't talk about fight club. We don't talk about last year, and to be honest they shouldn't. Defending that title is exciting. Celebrating last year, we were done doing that in December."

Thursday, in what was the team's home opener, it was sophomore outside hitter Katlynn Wirag who led the WolfPack offense. Wirag finished the match with 13 kills, as Madison College won by scores of 25-18, 25-10 and 25-15.

"I took my time and played at a pace that I could handle," Wirag said postgame. "I just played smart, and as a team I think we did the same thing. We took our time, got into a comfortable position, and just kept pushing from there and took 'em away."

Three other sophomores, who were also a part of last year's title team, left their mark on the stat sheet against Joliet as well. Hannah Grahn finished with 19 assists, while Sydney Clarson came up with 17 digs and Brooke Gilbertson finished with four service aces.

"We do have a lot of returners, so that helps, but we definitely couldn't be winning without our freshmen," said Wirag. "It's a whole team effort."

"I'll tell you what I really like about this group is they're coachable," said Parker. "This group is adjusting quickly and it's going to help us. Our 6-0 start attributes directly to that."

Madison College (6-0, 1-0) will look to remain unbeaten as they travel to College of DuPage next Tuesday, Sept. 2. Their match with the Chaparrals is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.