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# At the Net: Championship feeling came early for Hollis Brookline volleyball
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/at-the-net-championship-feeling-came-early-for-hollis-brookline-volleyball/
- Published: 2015-11-10T14:55:25.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-10T14:55:25.000Z
- Description: When the Hollis Brookline High School girls volleyball team made the move to Division I before the 2010 season, the coaches and administration knew it was going to be a challenge. Despite that, when a talented team came up short of making the championship match that year, there was some disappointme
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, At the Net, championship, girls volleyball, Hollis Brookline, playoffs, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

DERRY - When the Hollis Brookline High School girls volleyball team made the move to Division I before the 2010 season, the coaches and administration knew it was going to be a challenge.

Despite that, when a talented team came up short of making the championship match that year, there was some disappointment. But the Cavaliers erased that the following year, when they beat Merrimack in the final to win the program's fourth title.

![Hollis Brookline's Bella Zampieri, left, and Sierra Dinman celebrate Saturday's win.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bc/58/bc5866d0-9fd9-4113-b959-670d6f16471d/content/images/www-nh-highschoolsports-com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/jmd1vball110715-h6h3-1.jpg)

Hollis Brookline's Bella Zampieri, left, and Sierra Dinman celebrate Saturday's win.

That championship run was HB's sixth trip to the final in 10 years, and the Cavaliers had at least made the final four in all of those seasons.

But back-to-back loses in the first round in 2012 and 2013, followed by a loss in the quarterfinals last year, meant this year's senior class was close to going its entire four years without a trip to at least the semifinals.

Early this season, Cavs coach Becky Balfour noticed something about this group.

"I said to the girls at the beginning of the season, the 2011 team, they really reminded me of that group, the cohesion that we had," she said. "Every team has been special, but winning that first title in Division I and seeing what we had here, I knew that this group ... in many ways they were reminiscent of that great group."

There was one big difference - that team, and HB's previous championship teams, had a player or two who would shoulder the load. This year, there wasn't one player dominating matches.

Instead, the Cavs (19-3) got solid play from a mix of veteran players, like seniors Maddy Blake and Bella Zampieri, and a ton of support from younger players, including freshmen Elizabeth Atkinson, Maddie Norris, and in the playoffs, Mackenzie Powers.

"The combination of our younger kids stepping up and our older kids, our junior and seniors, leading, it's been beautiful," Balfour said. "Atkinson worked her way into the front row during the season, but in a different position. We had Kaitlin Johnson get injured our last match in the (regular) season. She was our No. 1 middle. Elizabeth we slid into that spot."

All three freshmen played a key role in the final win over Bishop Guertin, which was the last team to beat HB back on Sept. 28\. The following match, the Cavs went to Merrimack, which had won 31 in a row, and left with a 3-2 win, starting HB on a 14-match winning streak to end the year.

"When we played them (Bishop Guertin) the first time, that was our wakeup call," Zampieri said. "From then on, we just pushed like we can."

That included a playoff run that saw HB play 19 of a possible 20 sets in its four tournament matches.

"Those two matches (against Bishop Guertin and Merrimack) made us so much stronger," Blake said. "Our team, we have a habit of going to five and somehow we pulled through. Every time, we become stronger and it feels great.

"It feels amazing, it's unreal. We finally did it senior year, it feels great to put a banner on the wall."