Expect a dogfight: Volleyball primed to begin Ivy Play

Starting this Saturday, the Brown volleyball team (3 - 6) will once again embark on their annual journey to fight for an Ivy League title.

Following a 2021 Ivy Championship, the Bears have finished the regular season in third place each of the past two seasons, coming up short last fall in the final game of the inaugural Ivy playoff tournament.

“This team is a great combination of veteran players and new young talent,” Head Coach Taylor Virtue wrote in an email to The Herald. “Our first month together has been all about figuring ourselves out and getting a little bit better every day.” 

“This group has a lot of grit and I'm excited to see us take that into Ivy play here,” Virtue added. 

This is Virtue’s second season as head coach after serving two as assistant coach. Her 2023 campaign, which kicked off with an incredible eight-game win streak, yielded the best record for a first-year head coach in program history.

“I learned a great deal in my first year and look forward to applying many of those lessons to help lead this team towards a championship,” Virtue wrote. 

This season will also mark the final year in the collegiate career of Beau Vanderlaan ’25, who in her first three years with the Bears has been awarded three First Team All-Ivy honors, was unanimously named Rookie of the Year, and twice led the league in hitting percentage.

Vanderlaan also currently sits at 353 career blocks, good for third in program history and 75 away from tying the program record currently held by Leyla Goldsmith ’97.

In addition to her ultimate goal of winning a second Ivy Championship, Vanderlaan wrote, “I’m really putting an emphasis on leaving Brown the best I can by supporting and building up our freshmen.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to break the block record either,” she added.

Along with Vanderlaan, the Bears have a strong core of returning players, including attackers Kayla Griebl ’25 and Mariia Sidorova ’26 and defensive specialist Jessie Golden ’26, who was named Ivy League Co-Defensive Player of the Year and awarded First Team All-Ivy honors last season.

“Beau and Jessie have been very important pieces of our success over the past few seasons, and they will anchor us again this season,” Virtue wrote. “This team has a lot of depth on the court and a lot of love for each other off the court, which is a great combination.”

The team will also work to compensate for the departure of Cierra Jenkins ’24, a star setter who twice earned First Team All-Ivy honors and was named 2021 Ivy Player of the Year. 

“It’s always an adjustment losing someone that you are so used to playing with, but each of our setters has been working hard to lead our team,” Golden wrote.

Ella Park ’26 has set the setting tone thus far early in the season, averaging 8.28 assists per set — a mark good for third in the Ivy League. 

“I am so proud of my girl Ella,” Vanderlaan wrote. “She has worked endlessly this spring and preseason to help lead this team.”  

Park “has been working towards being a leader for this team, and it’s paying off,” Golden wrote. “She’s showing that she can bring out the best in our attackers, while staying steady and determined.”

Vanderlaan, Golden, Park and Hannah Flannery ’26 will serve as Brown’s four captains this fall. 

I want to do anything it takes to make our team successful and help my teammates reach their full potential,” Golden wrote. “Being a leader (comes with) a lot of pressure, but I want to embrace this pressure and help guide my team to success.”

Co-captain Golden praised Virtue’s leadership style, calling her a “role model.” Golden wrote, “I always want to play at my best to make her proud. She always makes sure we feel valued and pushes us to gain the confidence we need to win.”

Vanderlaan wrote that she and Coach Virtue share “a special bond that’s rooted in honesty and trust. I know she trusts me and I darn well trust her. She cares about this team so much and will do anything to get us to that championship.”

While Bruno exits the preseason to the tune of a 3-6 record, Vanderlaan and Golden expressed confidence in the Bears’ capabilities despite the early mixed results.

“Our preseason was a time for us to learn about ourselves and how to cohesively play with each other,” Golden wrote. “It was more about improvement than winning (or) losing.”

“We’ve learned that this team has so much fight in us and we refuse to give up,” Vanderlaan wrote. “Starting strong and aggressive will be essential as we get into conference play.”

Ivy Play will kick off for the Bears at home against the Yale Bulldogs — two-time defending champions who ended Brown’s season last November — this Saturday at 5 p.m.

Fans can “expect each game and each point to be a dogfight” this season, Vanderlaan wrote. “Every team in the Ivy League has incredible talent but the ones who can stay focused and intact will make it to that championship.”