Despite Challenge of New League, Adrian Madison Continuing on Title Track
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 24, 2023
ADRIAN – Shopping. Dinner. Ice Cream.
That might be the secret formula that has the Adrian Madison volleyball program on the brink of winning its eighth consecutive league championship.
“The first week of the season, we went to Houghton Lake,” said Madison senior and four-year starter Jillian Kendrick. “We stayed there three or four days in a house. As a team, we went shopping and were together all the time. That was a really good time for us. We bonded.
“Now, we all kind of hang out outside of practice. We just find little ways, here and there, go to dinner or get ice cream. We find ways to stay together.”
That trip to Houghton Lake, which included a volleyball tournament, was the springboard to another great season for Heather Lanning’s Trojans. Madison is 36-8-3 overall heading into the Lenawee County Athletic Association jamboree Tuesday. The Trojans are 11-0 in conference play and can wrap up the league title with two victories.
League titles have become the norm for Madison. The Trojans won the last seven Tri-County Conference championships – with Lanning, who took over in 2021, the program’s third coach during the run – going undefeated in league play several of those years. This fall, however, Madison moved to the LCAA, a larger conference in southeast Michigan.
“It’s a very tough volleyball league,” Lanning said. “A lot of our competition has been tough. We play Clinton, Onsted, and Dundee Tuesday, which are three of the toughest teams. They’ve taken a set from us every time we’ve played them. Clinton beat us in a tournament.
“We knew this year was going to be difficult, but we have buckled down the last few weeks. Our No. 1 goal was to win the LCAA. We are close to that.”
Lanning said the difference in the leagues is the consistent intensity.
“The intensity is high,” she said. “I thought we were going to be good with so many returning players, but I did not necessarily expect us to be 11-0. This is what we’ve been striving for.”
Lanning is a Britton graduate in Lenawee County who got the coaching bug from her dad, former Britton football coach and athletic director Randy Salisbury. She started her coaching career as a middle school coach at Britton and moved up. She became the Madison junior varsity coach while the varsity was in the middle of the streak of winning TCC titles. When the previous varsity coach, Kelsey Cortright, stepped down due to a job shift, Lanning was named the head coach.
The league championships have continued.
“She’s great,” Kendrick said. “I like a coach that is about volleyball and helps you improve in volleyball but also makes it fun. We can have a serious practice but laugh and enjoy our time. She is focused on team bonding a lot and being one as a team.”
Lanning said she’s not afraid to have a little fun at practice.
“I like to laugh,” she said. “I like to have fun. If they are not having fun, it’s not worth it to me. I want to make sure the girls are having fun.”
The Trojans can be disciplined, too.
“We have a lot of dedicated players,” Lanning said. “We work hard in the offseason and all summer long. They know what the expectations are and the goals. We start young and we have a lot of girls who play club, who just love the sport of volleyball. Most of my players on the varsity team don’t just pick up a ball once a year during the season. They play year-round.”
Madison has eight returning seniors, including Kendrick, who recently recorded assist No. 3,000 in her career.
“A lot of people get 2,000 assists in a career, but 3,000 is a pretty big deal,” Lanning said.
Kendrick is a leader on and off the court, Lanning said.
“She’s been captain on the court for two years,” she said. “She brings the team together. She boosts confidence in the team and helps the younger girls along. She has a heart of gold.”
In addition to bringing back eight seniors, Lanning also brought up freshman Lilly Pharion and sophomore Kianna McKinney to the team.
“Jillian spends time with them,” Lanning said. “All of the girls do.”
Kendrick said she wants the younger players to be comfortable on the team.
“I know when I was a freshman, I was shy and scared,” she said. “It was intimidating. I try and put more thought into making them feel welcome and more confident.”
Seniors like Veronica Flores, Courtney Gauna, Tatum Wilson, and Caylan Sower have made huge impacts on the team this year as well.
“Tatum is in the top four in kills in the county. Veronica and Caylan dominate in the back. Kianna is a defensive specialist who reads the floor well. We have weapons,” Lanning said. “I knew going into the season we had something special, but it's still tough to keep it going. We didn’t know exactly what to expect from the LCAA.”
Kendrick said the team just keeps staying together and improving.
“We definitely knew the competition was going to be good, and it would be a challenge,” she said. “We just go into every game wanting to win and maintain that mindset. We like the challenge.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Adrian Madison’s Jillian Kendrick (4) lines up to pass during a match this season. (Middle) Coach Heather Lanning took over the program in 2021 and has continued the varsity’s league title run. (Below) Kendrick celebrates her 3,000th career assist. (Top and middle photos by Deloris Clark-Osborne; below photo courtesy of the Madison athletic department.)
Oakland Standing Tall Among State's Elite
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
October 11, 2018
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep capped the first fall volleyball season in MHSAA history in 2007 with a Class B championship – the first won in any class by an Oakland County high school. Bloomfield Hills Marian in Class A and Birmingham Roeper in Class D also reached Finals that fall.
Before that season, teams from the county had reached title matches just six times since 1975-76, when the MHSAA began sponsoring a postseason tournament for the sport. (Volleyball began as a winter sport and moved to fall for the 2007-08 school year.) But since Notre Dame won its 2007 title, Oakland County teams have won seven more MHSAA championships: Notre Dame Prep two more in Class B, Marian two in Class A, and Novi – led by 2017 Miss Volleyball Award winner Erin O’Leary – won the last three Class A titles.
Which leads us to this season. Of the 10 nominees for Miss Volleyball, an unprecedented five are from Oakland County: Lake Orion’s Paige Briggs, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Maddy Chinn and Natalie Risi, Bloomfield Hills Marian’s Madison Dowd and Troy’s Jessica Robinson. Of the top four vote-getters for last season’s award, three were from Oakland County.
Chinn and Risi’s coach, Betty Wroubel, who is third on the all-time list for coaching victories (1,422 before this season), said there are a number of reasons why teams in her county are competing at a higher level recently.
“For a long time the programs on the west side were way ahead of us,” Wroubel said. “Some of it is travel (teams). But much of it is competition. In July we do a camp to get the players in the area more involved. Marian led the way for so long, and others are catching up. Also, the kids are getting taller. They’re stronger. Schools in the area offer more conditioning for the players.”
Before this season, Notre Dame Prep had three past candidates for Miss Volleyball. In the fall of 2007, Molly (Coldren) Campbell finished second in the voting to Kyndra Abron of Livonia Churchill. Four years ago, Katherine Carlson became the first and only Notre Dame Prep player to win the award.
Wroubel said both Chinn and Risi stack up well when compared to the other fine players who have come through her program.
“(Maddy) has something going,” Wroubel said. “In those big moments, when your team needs it, she thrives. When the game is on the line, she’s there. She understands the game, like a coach does. What she’s improved on is hitting a variety of shots. She can put the ball down. Even as a freshman, she had that ability.”
At 6-foot-3, Chinn, an outside hitter, is a dominant player at the net. Risi’s versatility sets her apart from the competition. At 6 foot, she also is positioned as an outside hitter – and this season she’s also become one of the team’s top setters.
“Natalie is a calming force,” Wroubel said. “She could be a setter on any team. She’s quiet. You won’t notice her on the court sometimes. When you do take notice, you can’t take your eyes off of her. She’s so smooth.
“I feel bad that they’re in the same class. I don’t know who I’m going to vote for.”
Statistically, Chinn has impressed with 446 kills and 96 blocks. Risi has 140 aces with a .430 hitting percentage. Risi’s aces already make the MHSAA single-season record book list in that category, and Chinn is on pace to make the kills list.
Mayssa Cook is in her first season as head coach at Marian and her setter, Madison Dowd, is a nominee. Cook played volleyball at Dearborn High before graduating in 2003 and playing four years in college, the last two at Wayne State. Cook began coaching the freshmen team at Dearborn a year after graduating from high school. She built the program at Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard as she guided the Irish to a District title in 2013, her first season as head coach, and the school’s first Regional title the next season – before Gabriel Richard then won the Class B title in 2015 with a perfect 42-0 record. Cook (her maiden name is Bazzi) left Gabriel Richard after 2016 and took off from coaching as she gave birth to her first child.
Cook has seen the game change dramatically since the early 2000s. She was a three-sport athlete for the Pioneers, and even though she was a fine player, she said she’s not sure she would make varsity now with the skill set she possessed then.
“Look at the 10 nominees,” she said. “All 10 play travel. You don’t get to be a top-10 player by playing three months. I played three sports (in high school). I played travel soccer. I played travel volleyball but I didn’t play 11 months of volleyball.
“Ten years ago, many schools on this side of the state would go to the west side to get competition. It’s a lot more balanced now. There are still great teams over there, but we don’t have to travel three hours to play the good teams. We can go 10 minutes.”
Dowd, a four-year varsity player and a two-year captain, typifies a well-rounded student-athlete. She has a 4.2 grade-point average, and on the court not only is she a fine player but a valuable teammate. She has 808 assists and 217 digs, and her 1,531 assists as a junior rank ninth in MHSAA history.
“A lot of it has to do with her personality,” Cook said. “She’s not the loudest person on the court. She has a calming presence. She leads by example and is that player who makes her teammates better.”
Dowd has received a number of scholarship offers for volleyball but has yet to decide where she will go after this school year is done.
Over the years Marian has had a host of players nominated for Miss Volleyball, which was created in 2003. That season Erin Poglits was the first Marian player to make the list. Alexandra Cocklin was named Miss Volleyball in 2009 and her teammate, Rachel Charles, was second in the voting. The next season Marian’s Alexandra Lovell finished second and her teammate, Alessandra Dietz, was fourth. Before this season, somewhat surprisingly, the last Marian player to make the top 10 was Jessie Kopmeyer in 2013.
Jessica Robinson (6-2) from Troy and Paige Briggs (5-10) from Lake Orion also are accomplished outside hitters.
Robinson is the first player from Troy to be a nominee and entering this season she had 1,174 kills and 588 digs for her career. She had 740 kills as a junior to rank among the most successful single-season hitters in state volleyball history.
“In college (Robinson has committed to University of Michigan), she’ll be a middle hitter,” said Troy coach Tom Vigilant. “But for us, we have her on the outside. She plays all around. If I need an attacker on the back, I can go to her. But she does what she does best, and that’s at the net.”
Lake Orion’s only other nominee, Courtney Wightman, came in 2015. Lake Orion is one of those Oakland County programs that has made significant strides in the past decade. Its 2011 team reached the Class A Final before losing to Rockford.
Briggs suffered a back injury last season, which limited her effectiveness. Lake Orion coach Tony Scavarda said she has fully recovered and helped make the Dragons one of the top teams in the county.
“She’s made a huge impact for us,” he said. “She passes from the back row, plays good defense and she’s got good leaping ability. She does everything well. At 5-10, she jumps really well and is smart with the ball. We have other players her size who can’t do what she does.”
Briggs is close behind Chinn with 444 kills and is among the leaders in digs with 340. She’s also on pace to make the single-season kills record book list.
Lake Orion lost to Clarkston in the District last season, but with a healthy Briggs the Dragons are off to a 41-4 start and looking for their first District title since 2015.
Scavarda, in his fifth season as head coach, said it is a bit surprising to have five players from the same county in the running for Miss Volleyball, but adds that it is another indication of how strong the level of play has been in Oakland County over the last decade.
“Oakland County is always pretty strong,” he said. “Clarkston is always good, and they might be a little down this season but not by much. Marian and (Farmington Hills) Mercy are always good, too.”
Tom Markowski is a contributing writer for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Oakland County’s five Miss Volleyball candidates, from left: Lake Orion’s Paige Briggs, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Maddy Chinn, Bloomfield Hills Marian’s Madison Dowd, Notre Dame Prep’s Natalie Risi and Troy’s Jessica Robinson. (Middle) Head shots: Chinn and Risi, Dowd, Robinson and Briggs. (Robinson action photo courtesy of C&G Newspapers; Briggs action photo courtesy of State Champs! Sports Network).