“It was definitely like we were appointed to be enemies”—the Cavaliers locked in an eternal struggle with the Eagles—swords and talons drawn. 

At least, that’s how it felt to Community’s libero Anna Dunne before her freshman volleyball season.

Dunne, now a senior, attended Kingsley Jr. High, playing volleyball for the Cavaliers.

At Kingsley, Dunne took the court with future Ironmen volleyball teammates setter Sophia Feeney and outside hitter Lizzy Horton. 

Twice each year, Dunne, Feeney and Horton would face the Evans Eagles in regular season action. 

Across the net, donning Evans’ orange and black, were defensive specialist Emily Reel and setters Chloe Jannsen and Emily McMullen.

When the Cavaliers and Eagles met, Janssen said, “it was always an intense game we looked forward to.”

In each of the teams’ four regular season matchups, Kingsley defeated Evans—sweeping the Eagles in their seventh- and eighth-grade seasons.

The teams would clash twice in the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) Regionals before graduating from junior high. 

Again, the Cavaliers defeated the Eagles, winning both postseason contests in two sets—outscoring their opponents 100 to 33.

Dunne, Feeney and Horton went 6-0 against Reel, Jannsen and McMullen in junior high, as the trio from Kingsley ended the Eagles season two straight years. 

For the Kingsley players, streaks like that were the norm. 

After dropping a few games early in their seventh-grade season, Dunne, Feeney and Horton’s  Cavaliers would put together a 23-match win-streak to finish the season.

That streak carried them to the IESA State Championship match against Manteno.

The Cavaliers dominated, winning 25-6 and 25-8, and scoring an IESA record, 18 consecutive service points. 

In the Championship contest, Feeney wrote her name in the record books with 15 service points in the match.

Their eighth-grade season, the Cavaliers went 29-0, bringing the trio’s winning streak to 52.

That streak brought a second State title when the Cavaliers beat Champaign Edison 25-23, 25-22.

While it felt like the six volleyball players were “appointed to be enemies” in middle school, Dunne said that all changed walking into Community’s gym as freshmen.

Records, winning streaks; the competition as Cavaliers, as Eagles—a thing of the past. 

“Even though you’re still competing for a spot when you hit freshman year,” Dunne said, “you are working together as a team.” 

Would they play on the freshman team, the JV, or on the varsity roster for head coach Ms. Christine Konopasek?

“Coming in as freshmen,” Konopasek said, “I don’t know that there [were] any issues; For as long as I can remember, [with] doing what we needed them to do and what was expected of them.”

“They share a lot of those same qualities,” the veteran coach said, “love of the game, work ethic and discipline.”

As a freshman, Feeney would set for the varsity team. 

Dunne would dress varsity by the end of the season, playing with Horton on JV. 

Emily Reel and Chloe Janssen would join Feeney and Dunne on the varsity roster as sophomores.

COVID, different practice times and spaces and different tournament schedules would create a separation between the six.

So would distance, as Lizzy Horton moved to Arizona after freshman year. 

McMullen joined her former rivals and former teammates on the varsity team as a junior.

Horton would return to Community for her senior season.

The six were reunited.

This season, the relationship between the teammates this season was a much “different dynamic,” McMullen said, from middle school.

They were Ironmen. 

That dynamic wasn’t a surprise for Sophia Feeney. 

Heading into high school, Feeney could already see a friendship forming among the former rivals; she was excited to play with “such good people,” she said.

Those good people, Konopasek said, are “definitely good friends.” 

Every year before the Senior Night contest, Coach Konopasek pulls the upperclassmen aside to address them.  

When the coach finished her speech, she said, the six stood and started down the hallway toward the gym as one: “Everyone had their arms around each other—they were all linked.”

“You just know that they all care about each other. It is evident when they are around each other,” Konopasek said, “that there is genuine care and enjoyment.”

Feeney is no stranger to having close relationships with teammates after spending years on volleyball and basketball squads alongside her older sister, Madison. 

After Madison’s 2021 graduation, Sophia Feeney realized her classmates on the volleyball team were “all like my sister.”

“Growing up with these five other girls,” she said, she’s seen “how much they have become just like Madison,” like sisters.

“We all cheer for each other,” Horton said, “ we love each other and care for each other.”

Long practices, long bus rides; managing volleyball and school work; bruised knees, hard-fought losses—knowing they were facing those experiences together was enough for the six.

“Every single day,” Anna Dunne said, she entered the gym “knowing” she was going to have fun “no matter what is going on in [her] life.”

That Senior Night conversation before the girls took the court against Bloomington this season, “was particularly difficult,” Konopasek said, “because they are all wonderful. I know I am going to miss them next year.”

“They were an exceptional group,” the coach said, “to be around. Whether it be practice, on the bus—just a great group of kids.”

That exceptional group was also a successful one. 

The seniors earned a combined 52 wins over the past two seasons, earning two Regional titles and one first-place finish in the Big 12 conference.

Last season, the team finished with an undefeated home and conference record, going 10-0.

This streak included a conference win over Normal West in a nail-biter third set (25-23).

West finished the 2021 season third at the IHSA State 3A Volleyball finals and ranked 16th in Illinois.

“We worked so hard to beat them, and we were so excited,” Feeney said.

The team’s successes didn’t stop with the ’21 win over West. 

Adding 25 wins to their record this season, the team placed second at the Metro Classic Invite Tournament in Belleville.

“We played really well as a team, and that’s the farthest we got in a tournament,” Dunne said.

Community won each of its first four matches 2-0 in the tournament before falling to the O’Fallon Panthers.

That O’Fallon (32-7) team would make it to the IHSA Super-sectional round—one match away from State—before being eliminated by eventual 4A State Runner-up Benet Academy. 

Community would be eliminated from the IHSA postseason in the Sectional Semifinals, losing 2-0 (25,23; 25,20) to Moline.

The loss marked the last time Horton, Dunne, McMullen and Reel will take the court as players, but not the end of the teammates’ friendship. 

Friendships they partially attribute to their coach.

Konopasek, Feeney said, “does a great job building friendships.”

Each season, the program’s team bonding activities revolve around a theme.

This year, that theme was “Unity is Strength”—kettlebells emblazoned on team t-shirts. 

“She put so much effort into our team bonding activities,” Dunne said. 

The girls competed in “feats of strength”—“battling” each other in a competition of burpees. push-ups and planks, racing to finish a Fruit By the Foot without using their hands, performing in a team talent show…

Competitions like these have had a way of uniting the teammates, of building the bond of friendship.

“Everyone here is my best friend every single day.” Reel said. “I know I can help them and they’re always there to support me.” 

Those push-up competitions developed relationships, pulling the girls closer together. 

“We can tell each other anything.” Reel said. “I can lean on them for anything.”