Volleyball: Richmond-Burton sweeps Woodstock North, remains unbeaten

RICHMOND – Richmond-Burton’s Dani Hopp made an instant impact at middle blocker last season as a freshman.

This season, Hopp has been moved to outside hitter and – much like she did a year ago – has flourished there for the Rockets.

Hopp was the leading attacker for R-B on Monday night against Woodstock North in a pivotal early-season Kishwaukee River Conference match. Hopp delivered nine kills, including six in the first set, as the Rockets remained undefeated with a 25-15, 25-20 sweep over the Thunder.

Richmond-Burton (13-0, 5-0 KRC), last year’s undefeated conference champion, has yet to lose a set this season.

“Not only does our team have such great players, we just have such a great connection,” said Hopp, who added four digs and two aces. “We’re all great teammates, and we all play so well together. I feel like we’re really excited to see what we can do every day.”

Senior setter Alex Hopp, Dani’s sister, had 18 assists, 10 digs, two blocks and two aces, and senior outside hitter Elissa Furlan added seven kills and nine digs. Sophomore libero Lanee Cooley added eight digs and an ace, and sophomore Zoe Freund had two kills and four digs.

Richmond-Burton and North (7-3, 4-1), which suffered its first conference loss, were tied six times in the opening set. The Rockets went on an 8-0 run to take a 17-11 lead, with Dani Hopp getting three kills during that run. She ended the set with back-to-back aces.

Richmond-Burton coach Mike Kamholz said Dani Hopp already has shown the ability to change matches.

“I see more of a drive this year,” Kamholz said. “She wanted to be good last year, but she wants to be really good this year. Just a lot of time spent working on little techniques and tweaks to help her be more effective. I really hope without putting too much pressure, and she becomes someone we can count on.”

Cooley, who also played on varsity as a freshman, said the team hasn’t overlooked any opponent.

“It was awesome, it was the coolest experience,” Cooley said of playing last year as a freshman. “Tonight we had to be on our toes on defense, just always stay ready.”

North was led by senior outside hitter Devynn Schulze with 10 kills and 11 digs and junior setter Gabby Schefke with 10 assists, eight digs, two kills and two aces. Maddie Sofie had six digs and Gwen Flores added four digs.

Thunder coach Eric Schulze said his team has had to contend with a significant height difference all season.

“The size at the net, there was a big difference,” Eric Schulze said. “To be able to compete with them, we had to try and muddy up the match a little bit, try to get them out of system. Those are hard things to execute. They’re a good team. I think we were a little conservative in the first set. I think their size threw us off a little bit. ... We just have to figure out a way to not worry about that stuff.”