LEADERSHIP STAFF

Boys Director + Recruiting Coordinator

Playing Experience: Matthew McCarthy grew up in the Western Suburbs, where he started playing volleyball at Wheaton Warrenville South High School and Sports Performance Volleyball Club. He was fortunate to be a part of some great teams - taking two fifth-place finishes at the USA Open Championships and winning the Illinois Boys State Championship in 2004 with an undefeated season. After high school, Matthew played at Ball State University from 2005-2009. He was a two-year captain and achieved 3x All-MIVA awards. During this time, McCarty was selected to the U21 Men's National Team, which placed 8th in the World Championships in Visakhapatnam, India. After college, Matthew's indoor playing days were over, but he found a new passion for the sport after he started playing beach volleyball. He has played at the Professional level after qualifying for AVP Open events. He has also won many outdoor semi-professional tournaments and still tries to play at the highest level possible today.

Coaching Experience: Matthew went straight into coaching collegiate volleyball at Lewis University in 2010 after graduating from Ball State. McCarthy spent the next 11 years coaching at the NCAA Division I level at Lewis University (2010-2018) and Loyola University (2019-2021), going 257-115 in match play. Which included 1 NCAA National Runner-up Team, 1 MIVA Championship, 4 Regular-Season Championships, 3 NCAA Tournament appearances, 2 AVCA 30 under 30 awards, 1 AVCA National Assistant Coach of the Year award, 6 Top 10 Recruiting Classes, and helped produce over 30 All-American Players. During this time, McCarthy was also involved with the USA Volleyball Pipeline. Coaching various teams, including the U21 Men's National Team, A1 Youth Coach, and A2 Select Coach.

Personal: Matthew Studied Business Administration at Ball State University and graduated with his MBA from Lewis University in 2012. Matthew is also married to a volleyball player with a son named Milo and a dog named Ronnie. In his free time, he loves hanging out with his family and friends, drinking coffee, and playing beach volleyball.

Girls Director + Recruiting Coordinator

Playing Experience: Joe grew up in the Chicagoland Area playing volleyball from his early high school years. As a graduate of Barrington High School, Joe also played club volleyball for  Sports Performance and Rolling Thunder volleyball clubs. after High School, Joe played at Graceland University for his freshman season. Joe rounded out his collegiate playing career competing at Ohio State and Northern Illinois University on the club teams.   

Coaching Experience:  Joe began his coaching career at the club and high school levels while in college. During that time he helped Lake Park boys teams to back to back top 4 finishes in the state playoffs.  While coaching girls club volleyball, Joe’s teams finished with back-to-back runner up finishes at AAU National Championships. Joe began his college coaching career at Elmhurst College, helping the Bluejays to a 2nd round NCAA tournament run. Following, Joe took a position at Northern Illinois University, and spent 8 years on staff. His time at NIU included 2 regular season MAC championships, 1 MAC Tournament Championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance.  Most recently Joe spend one season coaching at the University of North Dakota. During his college coaching career, Joe has coached multiple All-Conference, All-American, and professional athletes who are currently competing in some of the top leagues all over the world. 

Boys Associate Director

Playing Experience: Austin grew up in Southern California and started playing volleyball as a freshman at Laguna Hills High School. He went on to have a successful high school and club career garnering a multitude of awards including being named to Volleyball Magazine’s Fab 50 list and an AVCA All-American. He went on to play Division 1 volleyball at UC Irvine from 2008-2012 where he was a 3-year starter and 2x NCAA Champion. Additionally, Austin spent 4 years playing with USA Volleyball on the U19 and U21 National Teams.

Coaching Experience: Austin started his coaching career with 949 Volleyball club in San Juan Capistrano, California where he coached 2 teams that finished in the top 10 at the USAV Junior National Championships. His collegiate coaching career began in 2013 with Springfield College. He went on to make stops at Roger Williams, the University of Illinois, the University of Texas Arlington, Texas Christian University (TCU), and the University of Delaware. During his time in the college ranks, he was a part of an NCAA championship team and coached 11 All-Americans including Olympian Jordyn Poulter. D'Amore was also involved with the USA Volleyball pipeline from 2014-2018 as an assistant coach for multiple A1 and A2 groups.

Youth Director

National coach: 2021-present

Playing Experience: Lauren began her career at 12 years old in middle school volleyball. After finding her love for the game she started her club career at Fusion Marengo. For two years, Lauren developed her skill and IQ as an outside hitter through an influential coach, helping her stay in the position at just 5'6". In high school, Lauren transitioned clubs to Top Flight, where she helped her team earn 1st in the silver bracket at the Windy City Qualifier at Navy Pier. Her senior year, she dedicated more time in the gym doing private lessons on her days off, extra training in the weight room to improve agility and to increase her vertical to 27", to prepare for college season. This extra time she put in earned her the recognition of Female Athlete of the Year in 2015.

Lauren went to Burlington Central High School and was a 4x Varsity athlete, 4 year letter winner for high academics, and earned numerous MVPs and all-tournament player awards. She helped lead the Rockets to Regional Champions her Senior year.

After high school, Lauren continued playing at North Park University in downtown Chicago. She finished her career as a four-time all-conference selection, including being named to the first team as a junior, second team recognition as a sophomore and senior, and third team as a freshman. Lauren finished with 1,419 kills, leading the Vikings in that category for four consecutive years and holds second in the school record, even after missing part of her junior season due to a meniscus tear. She added a career total of 1,390 digs and was named North Park's Athlete of the Year during her senior year. Finally, she helped lead the Vikings to the semifinals of the CCIW Tournament for the first time in school history in 2018.

Lauren was inducted into the North Park University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023!

Coaching Experience: When Lauren graduated from North Park, she became a graduate assistant at Elmhurst University where she earned her MBA and coached the volleyball team. She created and ran the team's strength and conditioning programs, along with practices. Her final year coaching, the team placed third at the AVCA tournament and finished in the top-25 ranking in NCAA Division III. In 2021, following her graduation from Elmhurst, Lauren accepted an assistant position at DIII Colby College (Maine).

Coach Wiltsie joined Pipeline Volleyball Club in 2021, where she is a head coach, lead trainer, and Pipeline’s Youth Director.

Personal Information: At North Park University, Lauren studied Exercise Science and graduated with a Bachelors of Science. In 2020 she graduated from Elmhurst University with an MBA in Market Research.

Owner

Playing Experience: BJ began playing volleyball freshman year of high school at Palatine High School as a way to stay in shape for basketball. Fast forward a year and he decided to give up basketball to play club volleyball for Pipeline Co-Founder, Rob Ridenour. He played for three seasons under Coach Ridenour and his team qualified for the “Open” division at JO’s each season. He was awarded All-Conference, and All-Area his Junior and Senior seasons at Palatine High School.

Upon graduation BJ chose to attend Lewis University, where he would leave the program as the All-Time Leader in Assists. During his time at Lewis his team was ranked consistently in the top 15 in the country, won the MIVA Regular Season Championship twice, and twice was given the opportunity to compete for a national championship with an NCAA tournament berth. His team made it to the Final Four in 2012 falling to host USC, and made it to the Quarterfinals eventually losing to Penn State in 2014. He was a 2 year Captain, 4x All-MIVA player, 3x AVCA All-American, 3x VolleyballMag All-American, 2x All-MIVA Tournament player, and a 2x Capital One Academic All-American.

Following graduation from Lewis, BJ was invited to train at the USA Volleyball training facility in Anaheim, California to compete for a spot on a team that would represent Team USA and play at the Pan American Cup games in Tijuana, Mexico. He was named the team’s starting setter and following the games was awarded “Best Setter of the Tournament”. The team went undefeated until the Gold Medal match when they lost to Cuba.

Next BJ went overseas to compete in one of the higher level leagues in the world, the German Bundesliga 1.

BJ has also competed in the PVL earning two Silver Medals and an All-Tournament Team honor in 2015. He was a setter on the Chicago Icemen team for the first tournament in the newly established pro league in the US, the NVA (National Volleyball Association). He has also been an on-court demonstrator at the AVCA Coaches Convention, which runs during the Women’s NCAA Final Four, representing the VLA (Volleyball League of America) working with coaches like Team USA Men’s Head Coach John Speraw, Team USA Women’s Head Coach Karch Kiraly among others.

Coaching Experience: BJ began coaching in college with Pipeline Volleyball Club as a coach during the summer, while balancing training for the next college season. He spent three years as a summer coach. Once he returned from overseas he was able to coach a team for the full season and also became the Lead Trainer for the U16/15/14 programs. The next season BJ became the Co-Owner, and boys Director and has been in that role since. He has been the Varsity Head Coach at Plainfield Central High School, Barrington High School and the Assistant Men’s Volleyball Coach at Benedictine University. He has also coached at Lewis University camps and was on staff with the Loyola University Chicago Men’s Volleyball Team.

Personal Information: At Lewis University, BJ graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and his MBA in five years.

Owner

Playing Experience: Stephanie began playing volleyball competitively at the age of 11 for Club Fusion-Marengo, where she was known as the club's "gym rat".  Driven by her passion for the game, competitive attitude, and work ethic, Stephanie spent every day in the gym, joining other teams practices and getting private lessons on her teams' "off days".  Over time, Stephanie's club team rose through the ranks of club volleyball and won numerous national tournaments.  Her team finished fifth in the "open" level at nationals as 15s, 17s, and 18s, and won a National Championship as 16s, where Stephanie was named the tournament MVP.  

Stephanie attended Burlington Central High School, where she was a four year Varsity starter and helped lead her team to a 3A State Runner Up finish her junior season.  Stephanie still holds the 3A state tournament record for number of kills in a semi-final match.  Her senior season, Stephanie was one of 24 high school seniors named an Under Armour All-American and was flown to the final four to compete in the High School All-American Match and attend the NCAA Division I National Championship semis and finals.  In the Under Armour All-American game, Stephanie was named the "Most Undeniable Player" (MVP).  In 2016 Stephanie was inducted into Burlington Central's Athletic Hall of Fame.  

At the age of 15 Stephanie verbally committed to play her collegiate career at Northwestern University, where she was a four year starter at outside hitter.  After being named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team in 2010, Stephanie went on to be a 3x All Big Ten performer and a 2x AVCA All-American in the country’s toughest volleyball conference.  Racking up numerous Freshman of the week and Big Ten Player of the week honors during her career, she was also named the Sports Imports / AVCA Division I National Player of the Week (9/24) after averaging 6.18 kills and 4.1 digs per set in three wins.  She was also named a Senior CLASS award candidate, an annual award given to a student-athlete who most embodies community, classroom, character, and competition.  Stephanie still holds Northwestern's All Time Kill Record with 1,797 career kills.  

Immediately after completing her collegiate eligibility in December of 2013, Stephanie left to begin her professional career overseas.  She played one season with Lancheras de Catano in Puerto Rico, one with Club Regatas in Peru, and then finished her professional career in England, winning a National Championship with Team Durham.  

Coaching Experience: Stephanie began her coaching career her freshman year at Northwestern.  Balancing her academic course load with her athletic commitments, Stephanie set aside time to coach for Wildcat Junior Volleyball Club, where she was an assistant coach.  She spent four years at "Wildcats" before taking time out of coaching club to play professionally overseas.  

In 2017 Stephanie accepted a coaching position with Schaumburg High School as the Junior Varsity Head Coach and Varsity Assistant.  

Personal Information: At Northwestern, Stephanie studied Secondary Education and graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Education and Social Policy.  In 2018 she graduated from University of Durham (England) with her Master of Arts in Education.  She currently holds her Illinois teaching license in High School Social Sciences.