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.”

The Pirates’ Sierra Schneider (12) winds up to hit with Kalamazoo Christian’s Marisa Fetterley (15) putting up a block.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.

P-W’s Dani Pohl makes contact on a kill attempt. “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).

Click for the full box score.

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. 

EGR, Hopkins Take Volleyball Match to Football Field for 'Rally on Reeds'

By Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com

August 28, 2024

EAST GRAND RAPIDS – Memorial Field in late August is typically filled with the sounds of football pads smashing against each other and raucous crowds celebrating touchdowns.

West MichiganLast week, however, a different environment engulfed East Grand Rapids’ football field.

With picturesque Reeds Lake as the backdrop, an outdoor volleyball match between the Pioneers and visiting Hopkins was played on the 50-yard line.

The first-year event was dubbed “Rally on Reeds,” and it turned out to be a special gathering of the East Grand Rapids community.

“It was electric,” first-year Pioneers coach Bruce Hungerford said. “Like a ruckus football game meets a minor league baseball-type environment. It was very cool."

More than 2,000 people attended the match, which ended with EGR sweeping the Vikings 3-0.

It was a spectacle that included a carnival area, a visit from members of the Grand Rapids Rise professional volleyball team, a band and the opportunity to showcase the sport of high school volleyball in a non-traditional setting.

A pair of Pioneers work to get their hands on a kill attempt. “It was unreal,” EGR junior captain Sadie Devlaeminck said. “It was just so great to see how much the community showed up for the volleyball team and to see the environment that we played in. It was just crazy.”

Hungerford had an idea for an event like this before being hired for the job. He was eager to implement it.

“I had it in my plan to build a community, and host a lot of home games,” Hungerford said. “EGR has an awesome football setup because there’s no track around the football field and it just sits perfectly.

“I had the idea well before the Nebraska (volleyball) game (last season) and mostly because of Grand Haven. They do the Battle of the Boardwalk, so I knew people did it outside for scrimmages and games. With this being my first game coaching, I thought this would be a cool way to try and get these little kids that I’ve coached to come and see it, and it went from there.”

Nearby Aquinas College rented EGR the court, and the nets and stanchions were supplied by Grand Rapids Community College.

While excitement built, the process of putting together the court on the football field proved to be a challenging and time-consuming task.

East Grand Rapids warms up as fans fill the stands.It took more than seven hours for the court to be constructed with the finishing touches completed at 6:48 p.m., 12 minutes before the start of the match.

“The turf provided a tougher environment because of the squares, and you can’t just slide them in,” Hungerford said. “We had to restart a few times and I thought we were absolutely dead in the water at one point. But we got the lines down, and it wasn’t going anywhere.” 

While anxiety surrounded the installation of the court, that was eased when play started.

“I was a little nervous because the court took so long to set up,” Devlaeminck said. “And I thought it was going to be harder than indoors because of all the different elements like the wind. But I knew it was going to be a lot of fun playing with my team in a football stadium.

“It was nice for the football team to come and sit in the student section and show support and cheer us on. I thought it was great.”

Hungerford said the Hopkins’ players and coaches enjoyed it as well.

“I didn’t want them to think that they were coming to our prom,” he said. “We were in constant contact with them, and their principal participated in the dunk tank. We got one of their kids to be interviewed by the media, and it was a fun community connection. They all loved it, and they said it was super cool. They were glad they came.”

East Grand Rapids and Hopkins players take a photo together wearing their “Rally on Reeds” shirts.Sophomore Kenzee Stanley-Eldred was overwhelmed by the amount of support the Pioneers received.

“We weren’t used to playing in front of very big crowds and don't usually have much of a student section, but a lot of people from our school came for this,” Stanley-Eldred said. “And also just the environment of playing outside on a sport court instead of being in a gym. Being outside feels a lot different.”

Organizers hope to make it an annual event by having different teams each year play against EGR.

For many in attendance, this was their first glimpse of high school volleyball.

“A lot of people that I knew and I talked to after the game said it was the first time ever having anything to do with the sport, so it was really cool that we let them into that,” Stanley-Eldred said. “I think it had a big impact with just how many people showed up and were willing to support one another, especially when it was doing something so new and different.”

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) An East Grand Rapids hitter puts the ball past a Hopkins block during last week’s “Rally on Reeds” game one EGR’s football field. (2) A pair of Pioneers work to get their hands on a kill attempt. (3) East Grand Rapids warms up as fans fill the stands. (4) East Grand Rapids and Hopkins players take a photo together wearing their “Rally on Reeds” shirts. (Photos by Kathy Hoffman/Michigan Sports Photo.)