Mruzik Set for Season of Opportunities
August 15, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
FARMINGTON HILLS – Like a lot of seniors, Jess Mruzik of Farmington Hills Mercy will enjoy a lot of perks that come with the final year of high school.
The first such perk will be that she will get to miss almost three weeks from late August to mid-September.
A member of the United States Under-18 Girls Youth National volleyball team, Mruzik and the rest of the U.S. squad will be heading to Egypt from Sept. 5-14 to compete at the World Championships.
Mruzik actually will head first to Anaheim, Calif., on Aug. 28 for a couple of days of training before the team flies over to Cairo.
But don’t worry, there will still be a way for her to keep up with what’s going on in her classrooms at Mercy.
“A lot of our stuff for where we turn in our homework, that’s all online,” she said. “So it should be pretty easy for me to keep up.”
But if Mruzik has her way and achieves all that she wants, getting to represent her country and go for a gold medal won’t be the only perk she’ll enjoy over the coming months.
There are rightfully a lot of expectations for Mercy on the volleyball court, since the Marlins return nine players from last year’s team that finished 52-3 and reached the Division 1 Semifinals before falling to eventual champion Lake Orion.
Leading the way will be Mruzik, who is almost like having nine returning players all in one.
“Obviously the national team will be fun playing with girls all across the country, but I’m really excited for this high school season,” Mruzik said. “Everybody is so much better. We are all super hungry this year.”
Having the wondrously talented Mruzik already is a boon for Mercy. But add that she and the rest of the team are beyond motivated to bring home the first volleyball title in school history, and that’s a bad outlook for opponents.
A 6-foot-2 outside hitter who brings thunder from all sides of the net, Mruzik was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year last year after collecting 420 kills, a .514 kill percentage, 165 digs and 65 aces.
“Jess is just the real thing,” Mercy head coach Loretta Vogel said. “Her athleticism, she’s just a natural.”
Mruzik comes from a basketball family but found out her gifts were in volleyball after taking up the sport in fourth grade. She already has built up a diverse volleyball resume with her experiences on the world, national, club and high school stages.
Mruzik last year captained the national team that won a gold medal at the NORCECA Continental Championships in Honduras, and she was named MVP of the tournament.
“People really take volleyball serious overseas,” Mruzik said. “Playing with Team USA, you get a taste of that. It’s not the club world. These people are playing for money and will do whatever it takes to win. A lot of times in club, you play the same people over and over again. You know how one girl is going to play and how one team is going to play. Internationally, you have to make changes on the fly because they play volleyball differently than you.”
Vogel said she first saw Mruzik at one of the coach’s camps. But after seeing her perform so well at the camp, Vogel was disappointed to learn that Mruzik was still in eighth grade at the time and not an incoming freshman.
Vogel has seen Mruzik get better and better during her first three years at Mercy.
“She had a very complete package for a young lady,” Vogel said. “But I think the strength of her game each year when she comes back to me in the fall, everything she does is stronger. Her attacking is stronger and very precise on everything she wants to do.”
Mruzik will be graduating early, in December, and will attempt to enroll at University of Michigan in January.
If she can’t enroll early – the university can take only a limited number of athletes who wish to do so – she’ll take classes at a community college and start training with her future Michigan teammates.
Even with her national team opportunities, Mruzik loves the high school experience too much to not play her final season, even adding that if Mercy had won the Division 1 championship last year she still would have come back to play high school as a senior.
“High school season is a fun time of the year,” Mruzik said. “I’m super close with the girls on our team, and we all mesh really well. That’s definitely something that helps, and there’s not a lot of team drama.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Farmington Hills Mercy’s Jess Mruzik takes a big swing during her team’s Division 1 Semifinal last season against Lake Orion. (Middle) Mruzik (33) and her teammates huddle after a point at Kellogg Arena.
Covenant Christian Stands Tall in Class C
November 23, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BATTLE CREEK – Denise Uittenbogaard felt all season she had a special team. But not until Grand Rapids Covenant Christian eliminated No. 2 Morley-Stanwood in the Regional Final did the Chargers’ coach begin to understand what could be accomplished.
Next fell No. 4 Unionville-Sebewaing in the Quarterfinal. Then top-ranked Mendon took only one game before succumbing to Covenant Christian in Friday’s Semifinal.
By the time Uittenbogaard and her players reached Saturday’s championship game against No. 3 Beal City, the No. 8 Chargers were used to playing – and beating Class C’s best.
And after dispatching the rest, Covenant Christian finished Saturday standing alone with the champion’s trophy. The Chargers finished their first trip to Finals weekend with a history-making four-set win over the Aggies – 25-21, 25-16, 21-25, 25-17.
“We did it. I don’t know how. We weren’t supposed to win. And we came in and we did,” Covenant Christian senior Alyssa Scholten said. “Our coach is like, ‘They are the same age as you. They play the same game as you. What are you afraid of? Go in and take it. It’s yours to take.’
“We took it.”
Covenant Christian finished 47-9 after entering the tournament coming off a pair of late losses to Class B Finalist Grand Rapids South Christian and Class A honorable mention Grand Rapids Christian – but with an imposing front line prepared to dominate after surviving a competitive regular season slate.
The 6-foot-2 Scholten had at least three inches on every one of Beal City’s players Saturday and finished with 13 kills and eight blocks – the latter tying an MHSAA Finals rally-scoring era record.
Alongside her, 5-10 senior Shelby Lubbers also had 13 kills and 5-9 senior Cailey DeJong and 5-9 sophomore Makenzie Engelsma added eight and six, respectively.
The Aggies did lead the first set 21-18 at one point and the second set 11-10 before winning the third. And they had an all-state hitter as well in 5-10 Addie Schumacher, who finished with 15 kills and five blocks.
But together, the Chargers were just too strong at the net, with Lubbers getting four of her kills during the fourth set including the final on a cross-court smash.
“We had some crucial blocks to stop their offense; I think that was the key of the third game,” Beal City coach Kelly David said. “But they found a way around our block, and that was tough on our defense.”
“These girls have an amazing sense of determination. They encourage each other, motivate each other to play hard, practice hard, and that’s what got us here,” Uittenbogaard said. “That third game we had a little breakdown. We had to relax a little bit. ... (And) when it came down to it, they came out in that fourth game and they were not going to go home without this trophy.”
Covenant Christian took its first few minutes at Kellogg Arena this weekend to soak in the atmosphere for the first time. Beal City was in similar position only a season ago, when it made its first MHSAA Final before losing to Battle Creek St. Philip in Class D.
Whether in Class C again or back in D, the Aggies could be headed back to Battle Creek in 2014. Senior Melanie Schafer added 17 digs and six kills Saturday. But she and Schumacher are two of only four seniors on a team that finished 56-4-1.
Junior setter Jenna Theisen had 26 assists, junior hitter Jordan Schneider had seven kills and four blocks, and junior hitter Nicole Gross also had six kills.
“I just think they weren’t satisfied with last year, so they really wanted to come in this year and win the state championship,” David said. “We fell a little bit short. But they gave it all they had, and I’m proud of the way they played.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Rapids Covenant Christian players celebrate after clinching their first MHSAA championship. (Middle) Covenant Christian’s Shelby Lubbers reaches over the net to block Beal City’s Jenna Theisen (10). (Below) Theisen and Addie Schumacher (8) block a Chargers kill attempt.