Former Naperville Central tennis ace set to make history with the Illini

Posted June 17, 2026 6:48 pm

Elizabeth Lumpkin Robinson, a four-time state singles champion while at Naperville Central High School, on Wednesday was named head women's tennis coach at the University of Illinois. Courtesy of University of Illinois-Chicago Athletics

As a student at Naperville Central High School, Elizabeth Lumpkin became the first and only Illinois girls high school tennis player to win four state singles titles, from 2000-03.

Now Elizabeth Lumpkin Robinson, she made history again Wednesday when University of Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman announced her hiring as the Illini’s ninth head women’s tennis coach.

“I am excited for the honor and responsibility of joining the Big Ten and striving for greatness,” Lumpkin Robinson said Wednesday in a release by Illinois.

She’ll head south from sister school University of Illinois-Chicago, where she produced a 41-24 record in dual matches in three seasons.

While UIC has long fielded a strong women’s tennis program, including 11 straight undefeated Horizon League seasons before moving to the Missouri Valley Conference, Lumpkin Robinson was 2026 coach of the year after taking the Flames to the regular-season title.

That was UIC’s first MVC regular-season title in any sport, 7-0 and unbeaten in league play for the first time since going 8-0 in 2011-12. In 2024-25 Lumpkin Robinson led the Flames to the NCAA Tournament after winning the MVC Tournament, again UIC’s first in any sport.

Lumpkin Robinson won 101 matches at UCLA, No. 8 all-time there. The Bruins’ captain in 2008, in singles she went 24-1 and paced UCLA’s first NCAA women’s tennis championship.

After giving it a shot on the pro circuit while also coaching juniors in California, Lumpkin Robinson joined the Oregon program in 2017. Over the next six years she was an assistant and associate head coach before going to UIC in 2023.

Now she’s in Champaign.

“Our family is thrilled to remain in our home state and for the opportunity to make history,” she said.

Memories forever

William “Bill” Leeberg, part of Montini Catholic High School's first graduating class in 1970 and a hall of fame baseball coach, died June 15. Courtesy of Barbara Dawson/Montini Catholic High School

Bill Leeberg was a true original of Montini Catholic High School.

Part of the Lombard school’s first graduating class in 1970, Leeberg was its first alumnus to return to its faculty. As a fresh graduate from Lewis University in 1974, he got hired to teach English and coach sophomore baseball.

The legendary Gordie Gillespie trained Leeberg on the college diamond, which put Leeberg in scoring position for Montini’s head baseball job in 1978.

Over 33 seasons until his 2011 retirement, Leeberg won 732 games, 17th on the Illinois High School Association list and the most of any baseball coach in the Daily Herald coverage area.

Inducted into the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1995, Leeberg lead the Broncos to second place in Class A in 2005, third in 2002.

He won 14 regionals and 12 conference titles — including both in his first year as head coach in the old West Suburban Catholic Conference.

An untimely loss, Leeberg died Monday. Formerly of Downers Grove, he lived in Plainfield, where for the past 13 years he’d served as a school crossing guard.

Bill Leeberg, left, and Chris Andriano both came to Montini as teachers and coaches in 1974. Courtesy of Montini Catholic High School

Another Montini GOAT, retired football coach Chris Andriano, also came to Montini in 1974, via Millikin University by way of Palatine High School.

When Andriano became head football coach in 1979 he asked Leeberg to be his sophomore coach, and Leeberg did that for a spell. Later, when Andriano’s own sons began playing Broncos baseball, Andriano kept the book on Leeberg’s bench.

“Off the field he was a very humble guy,” Andriano said. “He’d take the shirt off his back if he could help you. It was important to him to be kind to other people.”

On the diamond Leeberg often wore mirrored, wraparound sunglasses, but you could tell his eyes were twinkling by his smile.

“Bill was one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet,” Andriano said.

Many among the nearly 200 commenters to Montini’s Facebook announcement of Leeberg’s death noted his renditions of “Casey at the Bat.” (“Suitable for a one-man show on Broadway,” one former student said.) He’d even perform it at charity functions.

“It wasn’t like he was reciting it,” Andriano said, “he was living it.”

Visitation will be Monday evening at Cappetta’s West Suburban Funeral Home in Downers Grove. There’s no better place for a Bronco as owner Pete Cappetta put his three children through Montini and was a staple on the campus.

“He was a great guy,” Cappetta said of Leeberg. Andriano added to that.

“A Montini legend, really,” the old coach said. “His memory will be forever.”

doberhelman@dailyherald.com