GR Christian Runs Finals Win Streak to 3
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
January 16, 2021
BATTLE CREEK – Grand Rapids Christian volleyball coach Tiffannie Gates said she knew Lake Odessa Lakewood wanted another crack at her team in this season’s Division 2 Final.
Lakewood earned that opportunity, but it was the Eagles who walked out of Kellogg Arena as champions.
Grand Rapids Christian defeated Lakewood 25-20, 25-20, 25-19 Saturday to claim its third-straight Finals title.
“I think each year has had its own special meaning to me as a coach with these championships,” Gates said. “This year, with this group of seniors, has a very special place in my heart – they all do – but they’ve been here, most of them, from Day 1 as freshmen. Just to see their determination to social distance and not go to parties and make sure they could get to this day, you don’t see that very often from kids this age. It really moved me.
“Our message today in the locker room was love each other above all else, and if we do that, we’re going to be fine.”
It’s the third title in as many Finals trips for the Grand Rapids Christian program – and second straight against Lakewood – and after the match, the players were sporting shirts that had been made up for the occasion, which read, “Our tweets 3-peat.”
“I can’t even really put it into words right now, I don’t think,” Grand Rapids Christian senior Lauren Peal said. “It’s still kind of setting in that that just happened, if I’m being honest. It’s just an overwhelming feeling of the love from our teammates every single year, and the support that we have for each other. How we go into this game is 100 percent loving on each other and being there for each other the whole entire time. That whole entire game, we were playing for each other. I think that over any other feeling is what comes out of this, the overwhelming feeling of love you have during this game.”
Lakewood coach Cameron Rowland said it was Grand Rapids Christian’s multi-dimensional attack that gave his team problems, specifically the contributions from middle hitters Stephanie Stewart and Kate Breems, who had nine and four kills, respectively.
Much of the credit for that goes to setter Alyssa DeVries, who had 43 assists while spreading the ball around the court.
“I think she had the best match of her season tonight,” Gates said. “She had big shoes to fill, and she came in and she worked her butt off. We did extra practice with her every day of the regular season. She transformed into a completely different player from the first day until today. I am extremely proud of her.”
Addie VanderWeide led the Eagles’ attack with 19 kills, while Evie Doezema had 16. Peal added 17 digs, while VanderWeide had 11.
It was VanderWeide and Doezema that Rowland said he was expecting to have to deal with, and while they had strong matches, the rest of the Eagles’ attack was enough to get his team off rhythm.
“When we got the ball to the net to (Lakewood setter Skylar Bump), they served really, really well so we were scrambling a little more than we were used to,” Rowland said. “We’ve been the team that’s been in system all year, and they kind of took that away from us with their ability to do what they did from the service line.”
Aubrey O’Gorman led Lakewood with 17 kills, while Maradith O’Gorman added eight kills and 15 digs. Bump had 23 assists and 14 digs, and Carley Piercefield had 14 digs.
“I’m just so incredibly honored to play in a program that is able to get to this point every single year, year after year,” Aubrey O’Gorman said. “It has been established that we will be here in November every single year – or January – and I’m just so incredibly honored to be a part of that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) A pair of Lakewood blockers defend against a Grand Rapids Christian kill attempt Saturday night at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) Maradith O’Gorman keeps a ball in play for the Vikings. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Monroe St Mary 'Lions' Roar in Repeat
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
January 16, 2021
BATTLE CREEK – The Kestrel is the official nickname of Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central.
But as sports were put on pause late this past fall, the volleyball team found another animal to represent it and get it through the break.
“We definitely adopted some new mottos over the break,” senior middle hitter Abbie Costlow said. “We got a lion – our team represents a lion. And that’s really propelled us through this last run of the state playoffs. It’s really helped us and driven our focus.”
The Kestrels were lion-like Saturday, claiming their second straight Division 3 volleyball title with a dominant 25-19, 25-16, 25-8 win against Schoolcraft. It’s the seventh title for the program, and for the second-straight year they capped it off with a win against Schoolcraft in a matchup of the division’s top two teams in the rankings.
It also was the end of a dominant run this season for St. Mary, which won its final 23 sets and didn’t drop one throughout the postseason.
While the 2019 Final was a five-set thriller, this edition was dominated by St. Mary throughout, as it charged out to a 6-0 lead in the first set and never looked back. The Kestrels trailed only once through the entire match, as Schoolcraft took a 2-1 lead in the third set. That was immediately wiped out, however.
“As we talked pregame, it really didn’t matter what they were doing on their side; it mattered what we were doing on our 30-by-30 court,” St. Mary coach Karen O’Brien said. “It was important that we just came out strong for us.”
The Kestrels’ two-headed monster of Costlow and Mikayla Haut led a dominant attack, as Haut had 17 kills and Costlow had 14. Each were above 35 percent on their attacks, and the team was at 32.1 percent overall.
“For one, our passing and our defense was extremely good,” O’Brien said. “And then, with those two things, our setter has three options. We started off, in the beginning of the first set, I think Abbie had four or five kills in a row, and I don’t know if that caught them off guard a little bit, because normally we feed Mikayla at the beginning. Abbie got the first five swings, and I just think with our passing and our defense, and a lot of that has to do with Jaydin (Nowak) playing the back row, and Ava Kuehnlein and Mikayla in the back row, that they’re so used to each other and have such great chemistry. As long as we’re passing and playing defense, we can run anything that we want to. The defense on the other side just doesn’t know who it’s coming from.”
Nowak led the defense with 23 digs, while Haut – a Miss Volleyball finalist who is headed to Fairfield University in Connecticut – added 12. The Kestrels’ two setters were also busy, as Kate Collingsworth had 28 assists, and Grace Lipford had 12.
Kelby Goldschmeding led Schoolcraft with 15 digs, while Allie Goldschmeding had 12. Kayla Onken had 15 assists for the Eagles (37-4), and Maggie Morris finished with nine kills.
“I feel like at moments we won the serve and serve-receive battle, and that was a focus, but we couldn’t control it for the whole match,” Schoolcraft coach Erin Onken said. “I think we stayed as aggressive as we could. I thought Allie and Maggie really stayed aggressive attack-wise today. Kelby made some great saves back row for us. All in all, we just got beat by a great team that had a great day.”
Schoolcraft advanced to the final without playing a Semifinal, as Saginaw Valley Lutheran was forced to withdraw from the tournament earlier in the week. Both coaches agreed that getting to play Thursday was an advantage for the Kestrels, but Onken said it didn’t affect the outcome.
“That was a disadvantage, for sure, but that’s not why we lost or why we played how we did today at all,” she said. “We should have been able to walk in here with the kids who started last year and played here last year, as many as we had starting on the floor today, we should have been able to come out with a little bit more steam. So, yeah, that stinks, but it’s not a factor for today.”
Of course, both teams had the experience of 2019 to draw from, and it was something the St. Mary players also valued.
“You never can really prepare to play in a gym this big under the lights,” Haut said. “Usually, it’s a lot louder, so that was definitely different than last year. But when you play a game in Battle Creek before, it definitely helps you.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Monroe St. Mary’s Mikayla Haut follows through on a swing during Saturday’s Division 3 Final. (Middle) Schoolcraft’s Maggie Morris winds up at the net. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)