Senior's Parting Goal Seals Pilgrims' Repeat
June 15, 2018
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
WILLIAMSTON – Lansing Christian senior Kasey Jamieson scored nearly 200 goals during her terrific high school career. But it’s pretty obvious which one she’ll remember most: The last.
Playing in her final high school game Saturday, Jamieson scored what turned out to be not only the last goal of her career, but also the entire season in Division 4.
Her tuck inside the near post was the decider as Lansing Christian claimed its second consecutive MHSAA title with a 1-0 win over Kalamazoo Christian at Williamston High School.
“You can’t get much better than that,” Jamieson said. “It’s fun to end the year with a final goal. My final goal was in the state championship, and it was the final thing I’ll do at LCS. It’s pretty exciting.”
With 14:46 remaining the first half, Jamieson took a long pass from junior teammate Rilyn Ross in the left corner of the penalty box, beat a defender one-on-one and put a shot past the keeper to make it 1-0 Pilgrims.
It turned out to be the only goal of the game as the Pilgrims and Comets met in the Division 4 Final for the second consecutive season.
In 2017, Lansing Christian scored the first goal in overtime and thought it was on its way to the title before Kalamazoo Christian scored off of a corner kick with four minutes left in the second overtime period to force a shootout.
Lansing Christian ultimately prevailed in that shootout to win its first girls soccer title.
A year later, the Pilgrims won title No. 2 by holding on to the early lead through relentless pressure up front, winning balls in the midfield and playing stout defense on the backline.
Lansing Christian (20-3-2) outshot Kalamazoo Christian (20-3-4) by a 26-9 margin and had plenty of chances to increase its lead. But the game stayed 1-0 – although Kalamazoo Christian found a little life during the final 10 minutes with three corner kicks, which brought back bad memories for Lansing Christian head coach Joel Vande Kopple.
“That’s how they scored on us last year,” Vande Kopple said. “My stomach was up in my throat. But (goalie Lynn Cullens) and our defense were amazing. We didn’t give up a goal the whole tournament run.”
Lansing Christian indeed held on and now will say farewell to a senior class that will be hard to top in the future.
Jamieson, Cullens, Jessie Kruger, Sarah Voss, Alex Hanks, Jenna Li and Ally McHugh went to the MHSAA Finals three times, made Semifinals all four years and leave with two championships.
“It was a great way to send them off,” Vande Kopple said.
Sophomore goalie Jenna Blackwell made 25 saves in goal for Kalamazoo Christian.
“We battled to the end,” Kalamazoo Christian head coach Jay Allen said. “We made a few mistakes in the back there. In a game like that, you make one mistake and you lose.”
While disappointed over losing in the Final for the second straight year, one look at the roster offers a smile for Kalamazoo Christian.
The Comets graduate just two seniors off their squad, Carmen Katie and Madelyn Batts, and will return 10 sophomores and three freshmen.
“It’s a loaded roster, but what you have to understand is that those two seniors kept that roster together,” Allen said. “They brought the team together, led the team and got us to where we are. It was their leadership.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Lansing Christian’s Eliza Lewis (17) pushes the ball upfield as Kalamazoo Christian’s Mikayla Tiesman chases. (Middle) Karina Deering keeps possession for the Comets.
US District Court Approves Realignment of UP Teams to Statewide MHSAA Soccer Tournament
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 18, 2023
Upper Peninsula teams playing boys and girls soccer will have the opportunity to participate in a statewide Michigan High School Athletic Association Tournament beginning with the 2023-24 school year after the U.S. federal court in the Western District of Michigan granted on Wednesday, Aug. 16, a joint petition to adjust that portion of the 2000s seasons litigation compliance plan that had required Upper Peninsula boys and girls soccer teams to play in opposite seasons from their Lower Peninsula counterparts.
The petition, filed together by the MHSAA and Communities for Equity, requested that Upper Peninsula soccer teams’ postseason tournaments be realigned with those of the Lower Peninsula soccer teams, such that boys teams be allowed to play with Lower Peninsula teams in a fall statewide MHSAA Boys Soccer Tournament and Upper Peninsula girls teams be allowed to play with Lower Peninsula teams in a spring statewide MHSAA Girls Soccer Tournament.
Almost 20 years ago, the federal court had assigned a separate Upper Peninsula boys tournament for the spring and a separate Upper Peninsula girls tournament for the fall as part of the compliance plan emerging from litigation in a lawsuit filed by Communities for Equity in 1998. The resulting compliance plan, with Lower Peninsula boys soccer season in fall and girls soccer in spring and Upper Peninsula girls soccer season in fall and boys soccer in spring, was put into place beginning with the 2007-08 school year.
However, the different seasons for Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula soccer proved unworkable. To realize a full regular season, both boys and girls Upper Peninsula soccer teams at that time instead chose to play during the same regular seasons as their Lower Peninsula counterparts, forgoing participation in an Upper Peninsula-only MHSAA Tournament that was offered consistent with the original compliance plan.
Totals of 13,221 boys and 11,921 girls played on MHSAA member high school soccer teams statewide during the 2022-23 school year. This decision means that hundreds of Upper Peninsula girls and boys soccer players will have the opportunity to have a meaningful regular season and play in a statewide postseason soccer tournament.
“This is great news for our member schools, especially those soccer programs in our Upper Peninsula. We appreciate the partnership on this issue with Communities for Equity, in particular President Diane Madsen, working together in a spirit of cooperation and common sense in making this positive change for soccer players in our state” said MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.3 million spectators each year.