{"id":11559,"date":"2025-10-22T02:34:30","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/11559\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T02:34:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:34:30","slug":"brooklyn-ritter-leads-lincoln-way-east-past-h-f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/11559\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Ritter leads Lincoln-Way East past H-F"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up for Lincoln-Way East\u2019s Brooklyn Ritter<\/a>, it was volleyball, volleyball and more volleyball.<\/p>\n

Her dad, Ken<\/a>, is a St. Laurence graduate who played club volleyball while building a College Baseball Hall of Fame career at North Central in Naperville. Her mother, Maureen<\/a>, maiden name O\u2019Keefe, played volleyball at Mother McAuley and won a state championship in 1994.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn\u2019s six siblings, including a shortstop for the Colorado Rockies who was taken in the fourth round of the 2022 MLB draft, also played volleyball during family functions. And that\u2019s not all.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my aunts and uncles played,\u201d Brooklyn said. \u201cAt family parties, we would play with all of the cousins. I grew up in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ritter, a Southwest Missouri State-bound senior setter, has also grown up as a player \u2014 becoming a dangerous threat on offense with dumping the ball for kills and with service aces.<\/p>\n

Those skills were on display Tuesday night as Ritter scored four of the Griffins\u2019 final five points via three aces and a dump kill to clinch a 25-18, 25-18 SouthWest Suburban Conference victory over host Homewood-Flossmoor in Flossmoor.<\/p>\n

\"Lincoln-WayLincoln-Way East’s Brooklyn Ritter (13) congratulates Klarke Mosby after a kill against host Homewood-Flossmoor during a SouthWest Suburban Conference match on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Vincent D. Johnson \/ Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n

Ritter finished with 11 assists, four aces and three kills for Lincoln-Way East (26-8, 8-0), which earned its second straight conference title, both with undefeated records.<\/p>\n

Sophomore outside hitter Kolby Ross<\/a> added 12 kills, while Eastern Michigan recruit Klarke Mosb<\/a>y followed with eight and fellow junior Leila Taylor<\/a> had six. Missouri-St. Louis commit Maggie Simon<\/a> recorded 16 assists, while Charlotte Buck<\/a> tallied seven digs.<\/p>\n

Back when the Griffins were sputtering along with a 7-6 record, running the table in a tough conference didn\u2019t seem like a strong possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the season, I didn\u2019t know what this was going to look like going later in the season,\u201d Ross said. \u201cBut two weeks ago, things clicked and we started to mesh well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lincoln-WayLincoln-Way East’s Leila Taylor (11) goes up for a kill against Homewood-Flossmoor during a SouthWest Suburban Conference match in Flossmoor on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Vincent D. Johnson \/ Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n

H-F (16-16, 5-3), which also looks to mesh with the playoffs looming, was led by a pair of Division I recruits.\u00a0Ihuoma Ozoh<\/a> (Clemson) tallied nine kills, while Kymora Scott<\/a> (Wisconsin) added four.<\/p>\n

Ritter, meanwhile, enjoyed putting those big points on the board to close out the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it \u2014 it\u2019s so much fun,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of player I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln-Way East coach Sean Burns<\/a> has had a front-row seat for those types of performances, watching Ritter the past couple of years after she transferred in from Marist.<\/p>\n

\"Lincoln-WayLincoln-Way East’s Brooklyn Ritter (13) jumps and sets the ball against Homewood-Flossmoor during a SouthWest Suburban Conference match in Flossmoor on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Vincent D. Johnson \/ Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s amazing,\u201d Burns said of Ritter. \u201cWe were ecstatic to get her. She became a team leader right away like she was playing with these girls forever. We really love having her here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooklyn isn\u2019t the only Ritter who has starred for the Griffins.<\/p>\n

Ryan<\/a>, the oldest, was called up to play for the Colorado Rockies this year. Kaleigh<\/a>, a graduate assistant coach at Valdosta, set numerous setting records at Lincoln-Way East and St. Xavier.<\/p>\n

Twins Kendall and Kasey stopped playing volleyball in high school. Matt, a sophomore, plays baseball and football. Kenny,\u00a0 who\u2019s in seventh grade, plays baseball, basketball and football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all close and have a good bond with each other,\u201d Brooklyn said. \u201cWhen we get together, yes, we talk about sports, but we also like just being there in the moment with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Lincoln-WayLincoln-Way East’s Brooklyn Ritter (13) serves the ball against Homewood-Flossmoor during a SouthWest Suburban Conference match in Flossmoor on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Vincent D. Johnson \/ Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n

They were all there for a big moment on June 6 as Ryan made his MLB debut.<\/p>\n

The family rented a big van and drove from their home in Tinley Park to Denver to watch him play. Ryan became the first player in Colorado Rockies history to hit a triple in his first MLB at-bat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe drove 15 hours,\u201d Brooklyn said. \u201cWe stayed for three days for the whole series.\u00a0It was a great weekend to get us all together, too. No one had anything. It came at the right time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turned out perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 21, 2025 at 9:19 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growing up for Lincoln-Way East\u2019s Brooklyn Ritter, it was volleyball, volleyball and more volleyball. Her dad, Ken, is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9222,9223,2641,267,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-11559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-daily-southtown","tag-daily-southtown-sports","tag-high-school-sports","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}