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Despite Sad End, Christian Savors Run
November 16, 2017
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
GRAND RAPIDS – The Grand Rapids Christian volleyball team entered Tuesday night on the heels of an emotional high after upsetting top-ranked Rockford four days earlier in the Regional Final.
But the Eagles were unable to sustain it and saw their season come to a disappointing close with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 26-24) loss to No. 4 DeWitt in a MHSAA Class A Quarterfinal.
“We talked about how coming off such a big win on Thursday can sometimes be difficult and to stay up for the next match,” Grand Rapids Christian coach Tiffannie Gates said. “We addressed it, we talked about it, but I still feel that’s what happened. I don’t think that was the whole thing, but I think it was part of it.”
The defeat ended the Eagles’ hopes of a second trip to the MHSAA Semifinals in the last three years, while also ending the on-court mother-daughter career of Gates and her oldest daughter, Maddy.
Maddy Gates played four years on the varsity with her mother at the helm.
“We got along this season like we’ve never gotten along before, and it was definitely a bonding experience for both of us,” said Maddy Gates, who’s headed to Division I Purdue University-Fort Wayne to play volleyball next fall.
“Knowing that I will never play on a high school team again with her made it pretty hard (Tuesday) night as well, but it was good. We have a lot of memories from this season, and I really appreciate everything she did for me this year.”
Tiffannie Gates has coached her daughter off and on since Maddy was 10. That made the last match an emotional one.
“It was really hard because she really thought we were going to go all the way this year, and to see her kind of devastated was pretty heart-breaking,” Tiffannie Gates said. “But it was neat that we got as far as we did and had that extra time together in the gym – and also to experience that fun win on Thursday.
“Coaching your own daughter is hard, but it’s worth it – to have those moments together and to be able to spend so much time with her her senior year before she goes away to college soon.”
Tiffanie Gates actually had the opportunity to coach both her daughters for the first time. Jordyn Gates was a sophomore setter for an Eagles’ squad that went 43-7 and won the Ottawa-Kent Conference Gold crown with a perfect 12-0 mark.
“It was awesome to be able to coach both of them,” Tiffannie Gates said. “I was a little nervous having them both fighting, but there was minimal fighting and it was really fun to enjoy the success of the team together and to see them interact with their teammates. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.”
The trio were a part of an instant classic that helped the Eagles reach the Quarterfinals.
Grand Rapids Christian pulled out a thrilling five-set victory over top-ranked Rockford, a team the Eagles lost to twice during the regular season.
“We just came out with nothing to lose and with the mindset of playing our best volleyball,” Tiffannie Gates said. “They did that, and it was a phenomenal match. It went five (games) and it was 19-17 in the fifth.
“It was super intense and I had literally 10 people tell me that it was the best, not only volleyball match, but high school sporting event they’ve ever been to. It was so fun, and you felt bad that anybody had to lose because the girls on both sides just fought to so hard.”
Maddy Gates said the victory was the highlight of her season.
“We had a lot of good wins this season, but that was probably the best because going into it, technically, we were not supposed to win considering the rankings but we played with so much heart and passion,” she said. “We would’ve done anything to win that game, so pulling it out and winning that was huge for us.”
Maddy Gates, and fellow seniors Anna May, Elizabeth Schierbeek and Emily Seven, helped lead a relatively young team that also featured junior Maria Bos and freshman Addie VanderWeide.
The Eagles lost their District opener to East Grand Rapids in 2016, but vowed not to look past anyone this time around.
“I think our seniors were diligent in making sure our team focused on each match and one point at a time,” Tiffannie Gates said. “They learned from last year.”
The success of the season made the Eagles’ last loss that much harder to swallow.
“It was pretty difficult for me, and not just because I’m a senior, but because the team chemistry was so amazing,” Maddy Gates said. “Having to say good-bye to all the girls and knowing it was our last time playing together was really tough. I think they caught us on a bad night, and I’m still wrapping my head around what happened, but it was definitely a learning experience.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM and WOODTV. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) From left: Anna May, Olivia Nedd, Jordyn Gates, Maddy Gates and Maria Bos ready for the start of play as Addie VanderWeide serves against Rockford in the Regional Final. (Middle) Gates serves during Saturday’s match. (Photos courtesy of the Grand Rapids Christian volleyball program.)
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Nordmann Finds Place Among State's Elite
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
September 13, 2016
DEWITT – Lexi Nordmann had a hard time finding her place at first after joining DeWitt’s varsity volleyball team four seasons ago.
A rare freshman playing for one of mid-Michigan’s top programs, Nordmann played the middle, just like then-junior Abby Nakfoor – and Nakfoor figured out quickly that her younger teammate’s skill level was already far above her own.
But what Nakfoor also found about the new teammate she fondly called her “Baby Lex” no doubt has helped Nordmann turn into much more than another tall player standing in front of the net.
“She was still always open to my input, even though skill-wise she was a full head above me,” said Nakfoor, now a sophomore on the Ferris State University basketball team. “She’s so open to learning. As a freshman she’d get frustrated, and who doesn’t, but if she didn’t get something she was always texting me – ‘in practice, what would you run here; what should I do differently?’ – and that just comes from her eagerness to be a better player.”
“It sounds kinda dumb, but it’s like a mom thing. I’m so proud. I’d always call her my baby Lex, my baby freshman, and we’d always take pictures of me holding her, cradling her. But now … what she’s meant to that volleyball program, those girls look up to her so much.”
And for plenty of compelling reasons.
Nordmann is one of 10 candidates for this season’s Miss Volleyball Award sponsored by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association, and that means a little more than it might in other regions of the state. Not including Corunna’s Meredith Norris, who also is a finalist this season, the last mid-Michigan player to make the ballot was Lake Odessa Lakewood’s Chelsea Lake in 2010. Drawing closer the home, the last player from Lansing or its closest suburbs to be considered was East Lansing’s Heather Brooks in 2006.
Nordmann is 6-foot-1 with a vertical jump that allows her to touch above 10 feet. She’s powerful in the middle, no longer the “scrawny freshman” coach Christy Thelen brought up to varsity straight out of junior high. And her athleticism is drawn from a family tree that has included multiple generations of basketball stars including a grandfather who played in the NBA.
But the difference might be what sits above her ball-smashing shoulders.
Also the daughter of a former DeWitt High School teacher, Nordmann loves to learn. She especially likes math; it’s an academic discipline that fits the 4.0 student’s perfectionist personality.
If she sees something wrong, she fixes it. And despite relatively limited experience on the volleyball court heading into high school, she picked up quickly a knowledge that combined with her intellect continues to give her an edge.
“I think it’s actually contributed a lot to my being able to play at a higher level,” Nordmann said. “Because I’m used to not only multi-tasking, but being able to read the court and see other things. Being able to understand and read the other side of the net and not focusing on just you, but being able to take in everything at the same time. I think that’s very important, being able to see the court.”
Nordmann already has accomplished much. She’s listed twice in the MHSAA record book; her 239 blocks last season rank third since the rally scoring era began with the 2004-05 season, and she had 39 kills – tied for sixth-most – in last season’s Class A Regional Final loss to Mattawan. Nordmann finished the season with 511 kills and a ridiculous .460 kill efficiency in helping DeWitt to a 44-4-1 record.
The Panthers are 16-0 this fall after winning the Mount Morris Invitational over the weekend, and Nordmann has had her share of impressive performances during the opening run. She had 67 kills with only eight errors over six matches at the Alma Invitational, where DeWitt defeated among others Class B No. 1 Lakewood, and she had 12 kills Wednesday against Mason despite facing triple blocks.
As noted, she’s from a basketball family. Her late grandfather Bob Nordmann played four seasons in the National Basketball Association as a 6-foot-10 center and later served as an assistant coach at Michigan State. Her dad Matt played at Navy and then George Washington University, while her uncle Eric played professionally overseas and her aunt Andrea Nordmann played college basketball at Bowling Green State.
Lexi didn’t take up volleyball until seventh grade, and didn’t take it up seriously until eighth, when she tried out for a club team in part to get a free T-shirt. Thelen, who teaches math at the junior high, knew more about Nordmann as a student – she took the advanced math class and was selected by teachers to go to Japan as part of an annual exchange program – but Nordmann then also showed enough potential to be brought up to varsity immediately after entering high school.
“Her knowledge of volleyball and understanding of blocks and the scheme of it, she’s probably one of the smartest kids I’ve ever coached,” said Thelen, in her ninth season coaching the varsity and a former all-state setter for the Panthers. “Understanding why we’re doing such things, why she should go here on a tip, those kinds of things; a lot of times you have to coach that a lot, and she just knows.”
Nordmann has grown only two inches in height since freshman year but tremendously in other ways. Nakfoor was a natural leader and Nordmann, admittedly, is naturally quieter. In fact, Nordmann sent her mentor a video last year of a postmatch interview they gave where Nakfoor answered all the questions while Nordmann nodded and added, in essence, “Yeah, what Abby said.”
But Nordmann has taken on a leadership role since Nakfoor graduated, telling Thelen in part that on the court that she tries to do what Nakfoor would do, say what Nakfoor would say. And Nordmann has become a mentor as well for a number of younger players like sophomore middle Desiree Becker, another big-time player in the making.
“She’s grown leadership-wise, as a junior especially, and she’s just leading, showing the younger girls the ropes just how she had been shown the ropes. She has a much bigger voice now too,” Nakfoor said. “I have a cousin on the team right now (Bailey Yonkman) who looks up to Lexi a lot, and my little sister (Meredith) is in the program (and does too).”
Nordmann will play after high school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, not far from where her aunt Andrea is an associate athletic director for compliance at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
Lexi is thinking about becoming an engineer, or she might study business. Then again, she took an Advanced Placement history class last year that she loved. “I do enjoy learning all different (subjects),” Nordmann said. “I’m still looking for that one that I’m passionate about.”
She’s got time to figure out her future, of course, and will have plenty of options given her academic mastery.
But athletically, she’s found her passion – and her place as DeWitt’s leader as well.
“In junior high, obviously I used to play basketball. Coming from that family, that’s what they did,” Nordmann said. “But the team aspect of volleyball is just so much more evident. After you get a point or your teammates get a point, there’s so much more excitement and momentum and there’s more coming together. That feeling of getting a block or a kill, or when your teammate gets a sweet dig, it’s so exhilarating. It pumps you up.”
Geoff Kimmerly joined the MHSAA as its Media & Content Coordinator in Sept. 2011 after 12 years as Prep Sports Editor of the Lansing State Journal. He has served as Editor of Second Half since its creation in Jan. 2012. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Barry, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Gratiot, Isabella, Clare and Montcalm counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) DeWitt's Lexi Nordmann celebrates a point with her teammates this season. (Middle) Nordmann, a senior middle, unloads a kill attempt. (Below) Nordmann awaits an opponent's serve. (Photos by Tom Pearson/TCP-Photography.)