Notre Dame Finishes Milestone Run

November 18, 2017

By Perry A. Farrell
Special for Second Half

BATTLE CREEK – Betty Wroubel is closing in on 1,000 victories at Pontiac Notre Dame Prep.

Victory No. 990 always will be special. It gave her a third MHSAA Finals title at the school since 2007.

The win came Saturday at the Class B Final against Lake Odessa Lakewood, last year’s runner-up to North Branch, in a 25-16, 25-17, 28-26 sweep at Kellogg Arena.

It was Notre Dame’s 53rd win in a row, as the team finished the season 64-2-2.

“If you noticed, the newspapers they stopped printing how many we had won in a row because the pressure was starting to get to the girls,’’ said Wroubel. “It is very impressive. They worked hard for that. If you had been at our practices this last week, we were working as hard as we did in August. Kudos to them.

“They are great kids. They are great volleyball players and better people. My two four-year seniors, Lauren Burnick and Gabby Shilling, suffered a disappointing loss their sophomore year. It was at that point they said it’s never going to happen again. We’re going to win a state title before we graduate. They led us.’’

The game featured two longstanding coaches in Wroubel, in her 24th year at the school but fourth decade on the sideline overall, and Kellie Rowland in her 23rd season leading the Vikings and with 1,028 victories under her belt.

When top-ranked Notre Dame defeated No. 2 North Branch in the Regional Final, many thought the winner would claim the Class B title.

It worked out that way.

With an athletic front line, the Fighting Irish established themselves early, building a 21-15 lead against the Vikings that was never threatened.

The loud pops heard throughout the arena were the sounds of the Fighting Irish hitters spiking the ball against the smaller Vikings.

Notre Dame’s lineup featured Shilling, a 6-foot-1 middle hitter; 6-2 outside hitter Madeline Chinn; 6-foot outside hitter and setter Natalie Risi and 5-11 Morgan Verheyen.

That trend continued in the second game as the Fighting Irish jumped out to a 16-10 lead, using its superiority at the net to frustrate the Vikings.

Facing elimination, the Vikings (47-6-2) were more competitive in the third game.

They extended a lead to 15-9 as the Fighting Irish were reeling for the first time.

But Notre Dame quickly turned matters in its favor, scoring nine of the next 11 points to retake the lead at 18-17.

Now trailing 21-19 Rowland had to take a timeout to regroup.

Lake Odessa fought to a tie at 23-23, forcing Wroubel to call a timeout.

The score would deadlock three more times before Risi killed the final two points of the match and this Michigan high school volleyball season.

Risi had 17 kills for Notre Dame Prep, and Shilling 12. Burnick had 42 assists.

“We went into every game thinking if we trusted the process, trust the basics, we’d come out with this win,’’ said Fighting Irish junior Maria Famularo. “Our two seniors that have been on the varsity for four years have done an amazing job welcoming us.’’

Seniors Breanna Wickerink and Alivia Benedict capped strong careers for Lakewood with 10 kills apiece. Senior setter Kayla Sauers closed with 32 assists.

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS: (Top) Notre Dame Prep’s Gabrielle Schilling (9) and Maddy Chinn (16) put up a strong block as a Lakewood hitter begins her swing. (Middle) The Fighting Irish’s Morgan Verheyen prepares to connect.

With Sister Showing Way, Dood Doing Big Things to Elevate Grandville Volleyball

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

September 20, 2023

GRANDVILLE – As an incoming freshman, Zoey Dood remembers the euphoria she felt when she found out her older sister had been given the position of head coach of the Grandville volleyball program.

West Michigan“I was super excited because it was always a dream of mine to have my sister be my coach, and I never thought it would actually happen and it did,” Dood said. “I knew she could make me better right away.”

Almost four years later, that expectation has become a reality.

Now a senior, the 6-foot-2 Dood has developed into one of the top players in the state and was recently named a finalist for this season’s Miss Volleyball Award.

For Dood’s sister, Jessica Vredevoogd, the opportunity to coach her younger sibling was too much to pass up. 

“That was a big reason why I stopped playing volleyball overseas, was to come back and try and be a part of Zoey and (younger brother) Jackson’s lives more because I didn’t want to be that older sibling that didn’t exist,” Vredevoogd said. “They grew up not getting to know me as well, so to step into that role as her coach at Grandville was nice because I’ve had the chance to spend more time with her and it has built our relationship even more.”

With a 10-year age gap between them, Dood was a young child when she watched her older sister become a two-time all-state setter at Grandville before enjoying a successful career at Oakland University.

Vredevoogd, 28, who recently married, finished her final season for the Golden Grizzlies in 2016 and became the seventh player in program history to surpass 1,000 career kills.

She played overseas before returning to Grandville.

Dood, 18, saw the path her sister took to reach an elite level and wanted to follow in her footsteps.

“I would not have been as successful as I am today if I didn’t have my sister as my coach because I look up to her and I respect her and all of her accomplishments,” Dood said. “It has motivated me to want to be just like her and have the same accomplishments as she’s had.”

Dood, also a setter, received Division 1 all-state second-team accolades last year with an impressive stat line of 380 assists, 168 digs and 176 kills while leading the Bulldogs to a winning record. She posted a match-high 35 kills against East Kentwood last season during the Ottawa-Kent Conference Red Tournament.

Dood is ranked the state’s top player by Prep Dig, and committed to the University of Virginia last year.

Dood sets for the Bulldogs as a junior.

“I’m pumped for her,” Vredevoogd said. “I think she's going to do awesome things there, and I'm just happy that someone else sees her potential. While coaching her the last four years has been fun, I'm excited to see her play and be able to thrive at the college level, too.”

Dood’s vast improvement from her freshman year until now has been impressive.  

A strong worth ethic and a desire to reach the highest level have pushed her.

“My freshman year I was horrible, but I've improved exponentially and I know my sister has been a big part of that,” Dood said. “We would go into practice 30 minutes early, and I would practice my setting every single day. 

“From freshman to sophomore year was an extreme change already in my development, and from there she has helped me so much and she's helped me with my IQ as well.”

Vredevoogd has seen major changes in her sister’s game and is proud of the progress she’s made.

“It’s her ability to really be intent about what you are saying to her, and then she's able to put it into action,” she said. “She's super coachable, but she’s hard-working, too. She's going to keep trying to do what I’m telling her.

“Freshman to sophomore was a big mental growth for her, and then sophomore to junior year and now her senior year you see the physical growth in her game, too.”

The dynamic between the sisters has been one of mutual respect and navigating the boundaries of a sister/coach relationship.

“I feel it’s different from your average mom and daughter experience,” Vredevoogd said. “It's interesting because she's actually watched me play, so I think she can be coached by me because she respects me a little bit in the sense that she's like, ‘OK, she actually did do what I’m trying to accomplish,’ but we do have our sister moments where there is more sass behind the tone. It’s like, do you want a coach's opinion or do you want a sister's opinion?”

Said Dood: “There are times when she says, ’I’m your coach so you need to treat me as a coach,’ and other times when I'm playing club and she’s my sister and now I can talk to her. Points where I can talk to her about certain things and points when I’m not technically allowed to where I approach her as a coach or just act like she's my coach and not my sister.”

Dood was an accomplished basketball player in middle school, but hasn’t played in high school due to her volleyball aspirations.

“My parents kept going back and forth about it and we just didn’t know if I would have time for that,” Dood said. “I couldn't fully commit to that, and I also knew that I wanted to play Division I volleyball in a Power 5 (conference) and be one of the top volleyball players in the country – so I knew I had to give that up to be able to do that.”

Dood will graduate early to get a jump start at Virginia.

“It was a very tough decision because I didn’t know if I wanted to miss out on my senior year, and I thought I would miss out on big senior events – and then I found out I wouldn’t,” Dood said. “What really sold me on it was my major (education), and they told me that I could get my master's degree in four and a half years if I graduated early. And I’ll have that extra semester, so my coach can develop me in the way she wants me to.”

As a team, the Bulldogs are striving to gain respectability in a difficult O-K Red.

They recently finished second at the Traverse City Invitational and lost a thrilling five-set match to Division 1 honorable mention Jenison to open conference play.

“I think Grandville volleyball always gets overlooked because we’ve always been the underdogs, but their drive to work hard is going to help us get more unexpected wins than anticipated,” Vredevoogd said. “And with Zoey being an offensive threat for us in the front row and being able to get a touch on every rally because she is a setter, I think that only helps us. She is one of our top scorers, and if we’re not able to use her then we have a hard time winning.”

Dean HolzwarthDean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties. 

PHOTOS (Top) Grandville's Zoey Dood is a recently-announced Miss Volleyball Award finalist this season. (Middle) Dood sets for the Bulldogs as a junior. (Top photo by Tully Chapman; middle photo courtesy of the Grandville volleyball program.)