Lyons senior outside hitter Taylor Carroll is driven to succeed.
Being the middle child in a sports-obsessed family will do that. Carroll’s father, Dennis, played basketball and tennis at Notre Dame, and that athleticism has been passed on to his children.
“We’re very competitive and very close,” Carroll said. “Everything we do is games and competing with one another, but it’s a lot of fun.
“It’s really instilled in me a want to win. I love to win and I really hate to lose just because of having three older brothers who are super competitive and really good at everything.”
The Xavier-bound Carroll, a four-year varsity player and three-year starter, is the fourth of seven siblings to star for the Lions. Her eldest brother, Will, played basketball and tennis, while Connor and Owen played volleyball and basketball. Connor now plays college volleyball at Aurora.
“Owen and I are only 15 months apart.” Carroll said. “When I was younger, my parents didn’t want to drive to two camps, so I would go to his basketball camps. A lot of times I would be in fifth grade but I would play with a lot of the older guys.
“I have a lot of cousins my age who also do sports so we would all go do stuff. That helped me be more athletic.”
The Lions (17-1, 1-1 West Suburban Silver through last week) are literally a family affair. Carroll’s younger sister, Shannon, is a sophomore outside hitter, and cousins Colleen Chambers and Reagan Veeser, are setters.
Those family ties add to the team’s chemistry. It was on display during the Lions’ 25-19, 25-12 win over Wheaton-Warrenville South on Sept. 23.
The 6-foot-1 Carroll led all players with 10 kills, including five straight in the second set off assists from Chambers, a Wisconsin-Platteville recruit who had 16 assists.
“She’s just so good,” Chambers said. “She’s just such a great asset to have on the team.
“It’s so fun to have the cousin connection. I know she’s always going to be there to get a kill and I think especially with our relationship, we both know that we can push each other to help us get better.”
Lyons coach Jill Bober has watched Carroll get better with every passing year.
“It’s incredible,” Bober said. “She’s been able to develop, not only as an athlete but also as a leader, just her mentality on the court to make sure that she’s bringing the team together, but then also executing in a really awesome way.
“She’s so thoughtful and intentional about what she does and I think that really adds to the cohesion of the season.”
The Lions are off to their best start since their 2010 state championship team went 41-1. They, too, have high expectations.
“We’re a team to beat right now,” Carroll said. “We had been talking about this season for a couple years, about how when Colleen and I are seniors we’re going to have such a good roster stacked with talent.
“Now we’re proving it to people and that’s been really awesome.”
Carroll, who has a weighted 5.3 GPA (out of 4.0) plans to major in neuroscience and aspires to become a doctor.
But first, she wants to accomplish something her brothers did not.
“We want to win state,” Carroll said. “That’s what we’ve talked about since I was a freshman. As a team, we’ve been really locked in on that this year.”