The hallways should be even louder this Riverside Brookfield High School girls volleyball season thanks to the team tradition started in 2024.
“Before games, as a warmup, we run through hallways and slap the top of the doorways as we’re running together,” RBHS senior Lucy Boyle said. “It’s our team and a whole bunch of energy and it’s just a loop. Everybody can see us and we’re all excited.”
These Bulldogs have reason to be excited. This season could challenge the best in program history. Nine seniors lead a group that finished 24-12, won their debut season in the Upstate Eight Conference East Division with a perfect 6-0, and reached the Class 4A York Regional final before losing to the host Dukes 25-23, 25-19.
Outside hitter Boyle and senior setter Claire Cameron were among the Bulldogs’ four All-UEC players.
“I think once we passed that first regional game, got to the [final], that gave us hope and now this year we’re more locked in to be able to do that,” Cameron said. “Step one is winning conference and after that, look forward, get us going as far as we can to state.”
It’s a natural progression as Caitlin Staib-Lipinski enters her fourth season as RBHS head coach.
Cameron was moved to varsity halfway through that first season and Boyle and junior outside hitter Mackenize Sloger are in their third varsity seasons. Seniors Kate Zobel and Lillian Mills and sophomore Nina Johnsen also return.
The Bulldogs’ last regional title was 2016 in 2024 USA Olympian Dana Rettke’s senior season. They also won sectionals but lost in the super-sectional.
RBHS also captured sectional titles in 1984 and 1988, when the team made its one downstate appearance and lost in the Class AA quarterfinals to fourth-place Downers Grove North.
“[Our goals are] to win conference, then do everything we can to get to state. If we’re putting in the hard work, supporting each other, then if it’s the right time, it’s the right time,” Staib-Lipinski said. “[Our keys are] being assertive in practice, holding each other accountable, providing a ton of energy, trusting your teammates and coaches, just giving everything you have, especially the seniors. This is your last season. Why not go after it?”
This year’s roster expands from 11 to 16. New varsity seniors are Simone Arazy, Chloe Borkowicz, Fiona McQueeney, Nora Mulcrone and Ashlee Wudi. Other newcomers are juniors Asha Ponnappan, sophomores Claire Evans and Demetra Foster and freshman Sage Roldan and Ella Wilkowski.
“[The roster is] whatever feels right for the program,” Staib-Lipinski said. “They’re such a solid [senior] class. I feel they have been with me, building up the program, aligning with my goals. Those nine seniors earned a spot on the varsity team.”
Cameron led RBHS last season in assists (614), digs (190) and aces (64). Boyle had a team-high 448 serve receptions along with 183 kills and 174 digs and Sloger had 189 digs, 151 kills and 373 serve receptions.
Cameron posted the program’s No. 2 totals for assists in one season and one match and is ranked No. 3 in career assists (1,150) and No. 9 in career aces (135). The Bulldogs could run a two-setter offense using Johnsen, primarily a defensive specialist last year, or Foster.
“We’re definitely going to be able to sub people in and out,” Cameron said. “We were so close with our seniors last year and now we know how to trickle that down and become friends with our team outside of school.”
Staib-Lipinski also noted the progress of middle Ponnappan, a 2024 junior varsity player who earned All-America honors this past club season.
“I feel like we’re going to have really strong leadership. [As veterans] we have a really good understanding of what needs to be done,” Boyle said. “We would like to make it to state. I think that is the ultimate goal. It would be really exciting because this is our last year [as seniors].”
