Gabriel Richard Savors Flawless Finish
December 4, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
All that the Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard volleyball team accomplished this season is still sinking in.
The Fighting Irish became the first Michigan high school team since Marysville in 1998-99 to finish as an undefeated MHSAA champion, rolling to a 42-0 record on the way to winning the Class B title. They achieved this milestone despite playing a schedule loaded with 21 teams ranked at some point in either Class A or Class B – including eventual Class A champion Novi.
And Gabriel Richard did more than just win every match – it dominated, with a set record of 102-6. The Irish won all eight of their MHSAA Tournament matches 3-0. For the season, they beat teams by an average of 9.5 points per set; during the tournament, that average margin of victory bumped up to 11 points.
The program, which last won an MHSAA title in 1991, in Class D, finished a solid 22-7-1 in making the Class B Quarterfinals in 2014. But the jump to history-making, and in this dominating fashion, was extraordinary – and in addition to other accolades, earned Gabriel Richard the honor as November's Applebee's Team of the Month.
“I’ve been thinking back to all of those matches that were really, really close, and easily could’ve gone the other way. There’s something very special about this group of ladies,” said Gabriel Richard coach Mayssa Bazzi, a former standout at Dearborn High and Wayne State who finished her third season coaching the Irish. “Every single one of them is very humble. First and foremost, they’re just good girls. And I just think that helps.”
Each month during the 2015-16 school year, Applebee’s will recognize a Michigan high school team or teams not only for performances on the field of play, but also in the classroom and community.
Over the last two weeks, Bazzi has received congratulations from coaches throughout the state, and especially Gabriel Richard’s Detroit Catholic League. An observation by one who saw her team multiple times has stuck with Bazzi most.
The Irish had plenty of star power – senior Emily Tanski and junior Jurnee Tipton made the Class B all-state first team, while seniors Sydney Burton and Rachel Dunlavy made the second. But that opposing coach noted that the Irish didn’t have one player "full of herself," but instead all of the players were “full of our team.” That selflessness was something Bazzi knew to be true, but this coach put it into words she’ll continue to cherish.
That quality showed as the Fighting Irish took the opportunity to cheer on a former opponent only hours before playing for the Class B title. After word got out that Novi’s fan bus was unable to make the trip to Battle Creek for the MHSAA Finals because of snowy weather, the Gabriel Richard players filled in parts of two rows of the Novi student section at Kellogg Arena to help root on the Wildcats during their match against Romeo.
The successes continue off the court. The Irish carry a grade point average of 3.68, which earned them academic all-state honors from the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association, and three seniors earned academic all-state individual honors as well.
A number of Gabriel Richard players also are involved in athletic director Hally Yonko’s school health club that spreads awareness and education on health-related topics. As part of those efforts, they helped raise nearly $3,000 for the school’s annual cancer scholarship fund, led the prayer service after an all-school Mass and helped with the annual walk as well as participated in an activity for the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, which encourages smokers to quit.
“Their success brought us all together … our coaches, athletes, student body, parents, staff and community members,” Yonko said. “We would always say a prayer after each game as a team, and in the playoffs the whole student section began joining in – even during the state semi and finals behind the student section bleachers. It was great to witness and see our students supporting each other and the girls play for each other, their school, their families and God.”
Past Teams of the Month:
October: Benton Harbor football – Report
September: Mason and Okemos boys soccer – Report
PHOTO: Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard celebrates last month's Class B Semifinal win over Goodrich.
Believe it: Mercy Nets 2nd Finals Title with 'Unbelievable' Comeback
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 18, 2023
BATTLE CREEK – Loretta Vogel had a single word to describe Farmington Hills Mercy’s five-set victory Saturday in the Division 1 Volleyball Final: Unbelievable.
“When we played Marian, to me, that was everything for me,” the Mercy coach said of her team’s Quarterfinal win over the 2022 Division 1 champion. “We planned, we knew what we wanted to do, and we went in there and it was three games – bing, bang, boom, here we go.
“Then it’s like, ‘We’re going to Battle Creek.’ We did our scouting reports, then to get in the Finals, to be down two games, such adversity, unbelievable. I don’t know if it’s going to hit me for six months, what we accomplished. It was unbelievable.”
After dropping the first two sets, Mercy came back to defeat Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern 13-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-12 at Kellogg Arena, adding a second championship to the program’s first won in 2019.
The Marlins finished the season with a 32-15-3 record and entered the postseason outside the top 10 in Division 1. With just two seniors on the roster, three sophomores in the starting lineup and a freshman as one of their leading hitters, one can start to see how Vogel arrived at “unbelievable.”
Of course, on Saturday, they didn’t play like a young, unranked team, especially after going down two sets.
“I think we were a little timid in the first set,” said Mercy junior setter Campbell Flynn, who is committed to Nebraska. “It was our first time actually being in the Finals, so we were all a little nervous. But I think we stayed composed later in the set, and also kept rallies alive.”
Flynn put on a masterclass in game management, finishing with 41 assists, but doing so much more than that.
“Campbell Flynn took over the match,” Northern coach Valerie Lurye said. “We put a lot of our gameplan to making sure (Flynn) couldn’t score, and forcing her to do things like setting other kids. And the other kids showed up. … We forced her to have to do something different, which is what we wanted to do. We did really well Set 2, then Set 3 and 4 she caught on. She’s going to Nebraska for a simple reason, and that’s because she’s able to be someone who takes over the match and understands, ‘Hey, I can’t dump the ball right now. I have other people I have to go to.’ Her movement of the ball is what really threw us off our gameplan.”
The biggest beneficiary of Campbell’s ball movement was freshman Kate Kalczynski, who finished the match with a game-high 25 kills. Five of those kills came during the fifth set.
“Kate, she played amazing today,” Flynn said. “I literally just had to set her the ball and she got kills. I’m so proud of her. She’s only a freshman, but she played a big role. I was just so beyond proud of her.”
Cree Hollier added 10 kills for Mercy, while Angie Butler – playing with a torn meniscus suffered over the summer – had seven kills and 22 digs. One of Butler’s kills came off a wild scramble late in the fourth set and gave her team a 20-18 lead. It was the first bit of distance Mercy was able to create in what had been a back-and-forth set – which the Marlins went on to win.
Vogel said her team started to play like it had nothing to lose after the first two sets, and that flurry certainly backed up that assertion.
The change in attitude and energy didn’t go unnoticed on the other side of the net.
“I would say they just really turned up their energy,” Northern senior Elana Erickson said. “The first two sets, they didn’t have a lot of energy and they couldn’t really serve and pass. They really turned it up though in the third, fourth and fifth set.”
Erickson, who will play at Western Michigan next year, finished with 22 kills and 27 digs to lead Northern (45-8-1). Kendall Hopewell added 16 kills, 11 digs and seven total blocks, while Lexie Stotenbur had 41 assists.
Jillian Collins had 24 digs for Mercy, while Flynn added 15.
PHOTOS (Top) Farmington Hills Mercy surrounds Campbell Flynn (28) in celebration Saturday at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) The Marlins’ Kate Kalczynski (2) connects on a kill attempt with Kendall Hopewell (9) and Riley Loehfelm (16) putting up a block. (Below) FHN’s Madalin Hersman (6) and Flynn meet at the net. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)