D1/4 Recap: Lake Orion Rallies to Advance
November 16, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Lake Orion will play for its first MHSAA volleyball championship Saturday.
The No. 2-ranked Dragons, previously Class A runners-up in 2011, downed top-ranked Farmington Hills Mercy in five sets in their Semifinal on Friday to earn a spot in this season’s Division 1 Final at Kellogg Arena.
Senior Paige Briggs – a Miss Volleyball Award finalist this fall – had 43 kills as Lake Orion (67-6) twice fought back from one-set deficits. The 43 kills are tied for fifth-most in one match in MHSAA history.
The Dragons won the fourth set 25-20 and edged Mercy (52-3) in the final set 15-13.
Senior Wren Macaulay had 53 assists and three aces for Lake Orion. Junior Jess Mruzik led Mercy with 27 kills and three blocks, and sophomore Julia Bishop had 44 assists.
Division 1: Rockford 3, Northville 1
The No. 7 Rams won the final two sets to return to the championship match for the second time in three seasons after finishing runners-up in 2016.
Seniors Lindsay Taylor and Emmy Webb split the attack, Webb with 21 kills off a .514 kill percentage and Taylor with 20 kills. Senior Emilee Karelse had 52 assists for Rockford (47-11-1).
Northville, ranked No. 8 entering the postseason, was led by sophomore Jenna Boksha’s 11 kills plus 10 digs. Senior Gabriella Fisette had 24 assists for the Mustangs (47-7-1).
Division 4: Mendon 3, Southfield Christian 0
Mendon will play for its first championship since 2001 after a Semifinal performance that improved the No. 2 Hornets to 48-6-3.
Sophomore Anna Smith led Mendon both with 20 kills and nine digs, and senior Aubrey Crotser had 31 assists.
Junior Emily Van Dyke had 13 kills for No. 4 Southfield Christian (27-10-3), and junior Caitlin Warnshuis added 10. Senior Rachel Stiteler had 20 assists. The Semifinal was the first in Eagles program history.
Division 4: Leland 3, Carney-Nadeau 0
Leland’s powerful seniors led the way as the top-ranked Comets earned a chance to win their first championship since 2015.
Senior Ella Siddall had 34 assists and five aces, while senior Hanna Elwell had 17 kills for Leland (47-10-1).
Carney-Nadeau, also playing in its first Semifinal in this sport, got a big defensive performance from junior Alanis Harris, who had 22 digs. The No. 9 Wolves finished 26-4-1.
PHOTO: Lake Orion celebrates advancing to the Division 1 championship match after Friday’s Semifinal.
Battle Creek St. Philip Reaffirms its Place Atop Division 4
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 20, 2021
BATTLE CREEK – The state’s winningest volleyball program is back to doing what it does best – winning consecutive MHSAA Finals.
Battle Creek St. Philip won its second-straight Division 4 volleyball title Saturday, sweeping Indian River Inland Lakes 25-17, 25-12, 25-8 at Kellogg Arena.
"For me, it’s just a whole different aspect now, seeing those little girls up in the stands,” St. Philip senior Brooke Dzwik said. “That was us at one point. They’re going to be the legacy. It’s not us anymore, it’s them. To really win so that they could see means a lot.”
St. Philip now has 22 Finals titles, including a record nine straight from 2007-14. If the win a year ago in a COVID-interrupted season wasn’t enough to prove the Tigers were back, Saturday’s dominant result should more than handle that.
“Last year everyone thought that we didn’t deserve the championship,” St. Philip senior Bailey Fancher said. “This year, there was no COVID (pause), there was nothing stopping us, so we wanted to prove everyone wrong that we were made to win both last year and this year’s state championships.”
St. Philip (40-11-1) entered the postseason ranked No. 3, and defeated No. 2 Athens in the Regional Final and No. 1 Adrian Lenawee Christian in the Quarterfinal just to get to Kellogg. Getting to play the underdog was a role the Tigers relished.
“We were the underdog all last year, too,” said Dzwik, who was one of five starters who returned from last year’s team. “Part of it is the competitive nature in all of us, that we wanted to prove everyone wrong, that we shouldn’t be the underdog.”
They were not the underdog Saturday, however, playing Finals newcomer Inland Lakes, which was coming off its first Regional title since 1995.
Inland Lakes (27-11-11) didn’t seem to be fazed by the moment early on, trading blows with the reigning champions, and even responding to a 4-0 run midway through the first set with a 4-0 run of its own, tying the score at 16. But following a timeout, St. Philip rattled off eight points in a row to take control and put the first set away.
From there, it was all Tigers.
“Our hitting wasn’t as powerful today – I think they got a little nervous and frazzled as things weren’t going their way,” Inland Lakes coach Nicole Moore said. “That’s a solid team that has great hitters that we weren’t adjusting to and getting touches on. That’s been our goal the whole time, and it’s worked most of the time, but today we just weren’t able to get those touches that we needed on those big hitters.”
For the Tigers, keeping the momentum when they got it was important, as St. Philip coach Vicki Groat didn’t want Inland Lakes to build confidence during the match.
“That’s a good team, and watching them on Thursday, there was no intimidation for them,” Groat said. “They were playing relaxed, they had nothing to lose, and they were the underdogs. In this stage, if you have them down, you have to keep the momentum going, keep the pressure on until the very end. I thought we did a good job of that today.”
Dzwik led the St. Philip attack with 14 kills, but Groat was impressed with how setter Rachel Myers spread the ball around throughout the match. Maddie Hoelscher (five kills), Alexis Snyder (five kills), Alex Kersten (four kills) and Makenzee Grimm (four kills) all helped to keep Inland Lakes off balance, and not allow it to focus solely on Dzwik. Kate Doyle led the St. Philip defense with 12 digs.
Natalie Wandrie had five kills and 10 digs to lead Inland Lakes, while Ryann Clancy had 11 digs. Alyssa Byrne finished with eight assists, and Olivia Monthei had four kills.
The disappointing finish didn’t take away from the historic season for the Bulldogs, as Byrne noted, “We played volleyball as long as we could.”
“We talked about before the game, we made this visual where we have this outer ring of people – northern Michigan volleyball, we’re the only people here, right,” Moore said. “We were representing them. We were representing our conference, our region, because not a lot of northern Michigan teams make it down here. We were the smallest school and the farthest school away, and I think we had a lot of blue in the stands, so that was really cool to see.”
PHOTOS (Top) St. Philip’s Makenzee Grimm (8) gets up a block as Inland Lakes’ Olivia Monthei (6) makes a play on the ball. (Middle) The Tigers’ Brooke Dzwik (9) connects, with teammate Baily Fancher (13) nearby. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)