At 5-foot-6, Andrew freshman Brooke Haggerty is four inches shorter than her older sister, Brianna.

Their hearts, however, seem similarly sized.

As in extra large.

Thunderbolts coach Emily Connolly sees that when they show up in the gym.

“Both of them just have this natural volleyball instinct,” Connolly said. “They come to play every single practice and every single match.”

Brianna Haggerty, an outside hitter, had a good freshman season in the spring at North Carolina Wilmington.

Brooke Haggerty, a defensive specialist, is making a major impact as a freshman at Andrew.

In victories last week over Stagg and St. Laurence, Haggerty totaled 31 digs and seven aces.

“Brooke is very intuitive on the court,” Connolly said. “She knows what she is supposed to be doing. She realizes all of her errors almost immediately. There are not a lot of times where I have to tell her what she did wrong.”

Haggerty was particularly effective at the service line in Wednesday’s 25-10, 25-21 win over St. Laurence.

In Game 1, she started a seven-point service run with back-to-back aces. She later added two more as the Thunderbolts pulled away.

In Game 2, she went to the line with Andrew clinging to a 23-21 lead and served out the match. Her last serve deflected off a St. Laurence player.

Haggerty doesn’t hit them all the same way, but the most effective ones sort of snake over the net and then break sharply down to the floor.

“Yep, kind of,” Haggerty said, laughing. “I have no idea where it comes from. But at club I always serve like that, too.”

And that’s not even what she likes doing the most.

“Oh, I love defense,” Haggerty said. “That’s my favorite part. It’s a big part of the game. It can be make or break during a match.”

Haggerty’s sister, Brianna, was a first team all-area selection in 2019. She finished her freshman year at UNC Wilmington with 47 kills, six aces and 77 digs.

They have always stood tall together.

“She has been practicing with me my whole life,” Brooke said. “We used to play beach volleyball together, too. I wasn’t able to go down and see her play, but we FaceTime after every single match.

“She was great. I know I have big shoes to fill at Andrew.”

Sister Act II: Sophomore Ryanne Jasica is continuing her family’s role as pioneers of St. Laurence volleyball.

The 5-11 outside hitter was a leader in Thursday’s 16-25, 25-18, 25-20 victory over Resurrection with nine kills, 12 digs and three aces.

And she did it with few, if any, breaks.

“We demand a lot out of her,” St. Laurence coach Ellen Yopchick said. “She’s a six-rotation outside hitter for us, so she does not leave the court at all. She really held her own against Resurrection and came up big in the third game.”

Ryanne is the second in her family to play at St. Laurence. Her older sister, Reagan, was among the first transfers when Queen of Peace closed its doors in 2017.

Reagan Jasica is finishing up her freshman season at Marian University, where she leads the team as a defensive specialist with 11 aces and is third on the team with 82 digs.

Ryanne, meanwhile, will have the leadership reins at St. Laurence for the next two seasons.

“Each year she has continued to improve her overall court demeanor,” Yopchick said. “As a freshman playing at the varsity level, she really kind of threw her shoulders back and held her own.

“We expected a lot of her as a freshman. And now we’ve upped the ante as a sophomore. We know she can handle it.”

Did you know? One Illinois High School Association record that would seem unbreakable is Mother McAuley’s 135-match winning streak from Nov. 18, 1979 to Sept. 16, 1983. Marist has the next-longest winning streak, with 57 in a row from 2017 to 2018.

Of McAuley’s 135 victories, 133 were achieved under coach Mary Anne Malone. Nancy Pedersen took over the program in 1983 and won two matches before the streak ended in a three-game match against Lyons. Pedersen would finish her McAuley career with 829 victories and nine state titles.