Hollis Brookline girls volleyball could be in line for a big run

The Hollis Brookline High School girls volleyball team has figured out the blueprint to winning championships.

Start off the season with a couple wins, play some close matches against some tough opponents, and by the time September ends, get ready to cruise through the rest of the year.

That's how it worked in 2015, when the Cavaliers started off the year by winning five of their first eight, and then put the pedal to the floor, winning 14 in a row to capture the Division I title.

HB got off to a slightly better start this season, going 7-1 through its first eight matches, but back-to-back losses in late September to Bishop Guertin and Concord showed the Cavs what they needed to do to improve. A win over Exeter on Sept. 30 started another long win streak - this time 12 in a row - that ended with last Saturday's 3-1 win over Concord in the D1 final.

"It all made us stronger," HB coach Becky Balfour said. "We have a great group of girls all the way through. We're like the little engine that could."

In 2015, the Cavs lineup had plenty of senior leadership, with a sprinkling of freshmen who provided some much needed talent.

This year, it was the younger kids who provided the boost to what was a steady senior backbone. While upperclassmen Hannah Balfour, Taylor Hamel and Rachel Bill were key components to HB's success, often times Balfour was the only senior on the floor.

"At any given time, we've got freshmen and sophomores outnumbering the older kids on the floor," Becky Balfour said. "It's a different group (from 2015). I know we were in last year, but this isn't the same team. We lost seven seniors last year."

But the Cavs had two sophomores - Maddie Norris and Elizabeth Atkinson - returning who played key roles in the playoffs as freshmen. Along with Natalie Cook and Kyra Belden, HB has a solid class that could get it back to at least the final four two more times.

And that doesn't even take into account the two freshmen, Sammie Sheppard and Kaleigh Whalen, who also were a big part of this year's postseason experience.

"They peaked at the right times," Balfour said. "We're more than just one or two players. Maddie and Elizabeth were cranking it, and Sammie Sheppard, a freshman, too, to come out there. Belden is a setter who has been in the back row for Elizabeth. Would she rather set? Sure, but she wanted to play and get better, and she did."

The potential for a return trip - or two - to the final hasn't gone unnoticed.

"I hope so," Norris said when asked if the Cavs could be back. "We're building our team. Every year, after the season is over, we still hang out as a team. That's so important, to have a bond with your team, that's one of the biggest things in volleyball. I hope next year we can do the same thing."