P-W Volleyball Adds to School's Championship Tradition with 1st Finals Win
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 19, 2022
BATTLE CREEK – The message in the Pewamo-Westphalia huddle Saturday following a dropped third set was to get back to having fun.
The Pirates had been at their best all season while playing loose, and in the Division 3 Final with Kalamazoo Christian pulling to within a set, they didn’t want to let the pressure get to them.
Then Kellogg Arena provided an assist.
“Our team has a tradition of the ‘Cupid Shuffle,’” senior outside hitter Dani Pohl said. “It’s always on our playlist, and we always drop anything to dance to it. So, before the song came on we were just like, ‘We need to play loose. We play our best when we have fun.’ Then that song came on and we were like, ‘OK. This is our song. This is our set. We’re going to win this thing in four. We’re going to play loose and have fun. I honestly think the dance break just loosened everybody up. We knew what we needed to do, and we just went out there and did it.”
Pewamo-Westphalia shuffled its way to a 25-17 win in the fourth set, closing out a 25-17, 25-23, 23-25, 25-17 victory and the program’s first Finals title.
“The feeling really hasn’t set in yet,” said Pirates junior Taylor Smith, who had the match-winning ace. “It doesn’t really feel like we just did that. I think it’s really important for all of us, because not only did we do it for ourselves, we did it for our entire community. Everybody has been looking forward to this. We did something big, and it’s going to last us forever.”
Pewamo-Westphalia has had plenty of success as an athletic department. But this trip to the Finals was the volleyball program’s first since a runner-up finish in 1994.
“The popularity of our sport right now, there’s been a lot of success over the eight years that I’ve been here, and the amount of kids we have coming out to play the sport right now is just humongous,” Pewamo-Westphalia coach Jon Thelen said. “Every time we are successful in something, more kids seem to show up out of nowhere. This is just a great way to keep the community growing and loving the sport. I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot more state titles ahead of this program.”
To get title No. 1, the Pirates had to hold off a scrappy Kalamazoo Christian team that didn’t blink when it went down two sets in its first Final since 1976.
The Comets battled through the third set, and built a 15-11 lead after a pair of kills from junior outside hitter Holland DeVries.
Pewamo-Westphalia (46-2-2) erased the deficit and eventually held a 20-18 lead before a back-and-forth finish tightened up the match at two sets to one. On Friday, Kalamazoo Christian had found itself in a similar position, going down two sets before coming all the way back to defeat Calumet in the Semifinal.
“I think I said those exact words, ‘We were right here yesterday,’” Kalamazoo Christian coach Carlie Southland said. “‘If we can come back like we did yesterday, we can come back like that today.’”
Of course, that wasn’t to be, as Pewamo-Westphalia took control of the fourth set relatively early, and built a 20-11 lead before eventually closing it out with Smith’s ace.
“I’m just proud of this group,” Thelen said. “We really battled all season, and it’s one of those things that started last year. I just kind of had this feeling going through the summer of what we were going to be able to do this year. I knew we were going to be very good, but how good, we just proved it today against a very good team.”
Saige Martin led the Pewamo-Westphalia attack with 13 kills, while adding 12 digs and three blocks. Pohl added 10 kills and 15 digs, while Smith had 36 assists and 11 digs. Sierra Schneider led the front line defensively for the Pirates with five blocks.
DeVries led Kalamazoo Christian with 17 kills and 16 digs. Marissa Fetterley added 11 kills and four blocks, while Makenna Ekkens and Hope Krichke each had 12 digs. Lola Stecker had 38 assists for the Comets (38-6-3).
PHOTOS (Top) Pewamo-Westphalia celebrates its Division 3 championship Saturday at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) The Pirates’ Sierra Schneider (12) winds up to hit with Kalamazoo Christian’s Marisa Fetterley (15) putting up a block. (Below) P-W’s Dani Pohl makes contact on a kill attempt.
Flynn Continuing to Prove Unique Among State's Best, All-Time Mercy Greats
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 3, 2024
FARMINGTON HILLS — It’s easy to roll one’s eyes when saying the Farmington Hills Mercy volleyball program has a unique talent in senior setter Campbell Flynn – because, well, Mercy is a traditional powerhouse that ALWAYS seems to have great players.
But even for an accomplished program like Mercy, it will be nearly impossible to see another player like Flynn come through its halls anytime soon, if ever.
Yes, it’s not often that a player is a member of the under-19 and under-21 U.S. national teams, committed to national powerhouse Nebraska and was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior after helping lead her to the Division 1 championship.
But several tangible and intangible attributes make her truly exceptional.
For starters, she is a 6-foot-3 setter, which isn’t common. In high school – and maybe even for many college programs – that height would definitely qualify her as an outside hitter.
“Setters are usually a little smaller,” Flynn said. “I always wanted to be a setter, even when I was little. I knew I was going to be pretty tall, but I didn’t know I’d be this tall. I thought I was going to be around 5-10. I just knew I always wanted to be a setter.”
Mercy head coach Loretta Vogel said that height is noticeable before Flynn even touches the ball.
“She’s deceptively fast,” she said. “She’s 6-4 and she just moves. She just floats over the floor.”
In addition to her height, Flynn is a rarity among setters in that she’s also left-handed.
“It helps (the team) with hitting over on two and dumping,” Flynn said. “That’s definitely an advantage.”
Being tall and left-handed probably wouldn’t matter as much by themselves. But add the IQ and feel for the game that Campbell has developed since starting to play volleyball at age 5 — and subsequently at an elite national level — and it’s easy to see why she is so acclaimed.
“She has a great touch on the ball,” Vogel said. “Sort of like a quarterback and they know how to release it and do everything with the ball. Campbell is like that version for us in comparison. She understands the game very well. She’s very capable of reading the block and being able to give the ball to individuals who are open. Just that sense of the game helps tremendously.”
In winning the Gatorade award as a junior, Flynn accumulated 533 assists, 137 digs and 124 kills even though she missed 15 matches.
For those who were surprised that Mercy won the Division 1 title last year despite entering the playoffs unranked, consider the run coincided with Flynn becoming fully healthy.
She missed a good portion of last year’s regular season with a minor illness, but once she got healthy and was her dominant self, the Marlins never looked back.
“We just got so much momentum and we played so much as a team at the end of the season,” Flynn said. “It was just carrying us through all the games. We weren’t afraid, and we were pretty confident even though we were underdogs.”
This fall, Flynn is still hungry for more despite already seemingly accomplishing it all in high school volleyball, and with that scholarship to Nebraska in tow.
There might be a Miss Volleyball Award to win now that she’s a senior, and she’s still motivated to bring more team success to Mercy.
“I love my team this year,” she said. “Obviously, we are not the underdogs this season, but I feel we have a lot to prove. I’m really excited to prove to everyone that we can win another state title.”
Whether or not that happens in November, it won’t change the fact that when this season is over, even a powerhouse like Mercy will have a nearly impossible task to replace Flynn.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Campbell Flynn (28) sets Farmington Hills Mercy’s attack during last season’s Division 1 championship win over Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern. (Middle) Flynn and her teammates enjoy a moment during their Semifinal win over Clarkston.