Performance: Buchanan's Franki Strefling
September 16, 2016
Franki Strefling
Buchanan senior – Volleyball
Strefling has served as a captain of Buchanan’s volleyball team all four years of high school as the Bucks have risen to join the state’s elite. Buchanan is ranked No. 3 in Class B this week coming off a championship at the Battle Creek Lakeview Invitational, where the Bucks downed among others reigning Class C champion Bronson, annual Class A power Temperance Bedford and Class B No. 9 Harper Creek – the team that ended Buchanan’s last two seasons at MHSAA Regionals. Strefling earned the Michigan National Guard “Performance of the Week” after totaling 89 kills, eight blocks, 16 aces and 63 digs during Saturday's tournament, the second this season where she was named Most Valuable Player of the event.
The 5-foot-10 outside hitter has 350 kills, 220 digs, 30 blocks and a .520 hitting percentage this season after setting a school single-season kill record with more than 800 a year ago in making the Class B all-state third team. Buchanan is 21-1 after Wednesday’s win over Comstock, and Strefling helped the Bucks break their program record for wins during both the 2014 and then 2015 seasons. The Bucks have lost only 23 matches total during her four years.
Strefling grew up in the gym, thanks in large part to her father Vince Strefling, currently the volleyball coach at Glen Oaks Community College and previously the coach at five high schools including Niles Brandywine, Dowagiac and Coloma. Franki has committed to sign with Eastern Michigan University, where she’ll study to become a nurse practitioner – she carries a 3.57 grade-point average. Strefling also participated in track & field for a season, as a sophomore, competing in the 800, 1,600, pole vault and long jump.
Coach Lisa Holok said: “Since Franki walked into the gym freshman year, I knew she was going to be a special athlete. She has been a dominant leading force for this program for four years and is having a fantastic senior season. Without a doubt, she is one of the best players in the state and she has proved that time and time again. Franki's high level of play dominates opponents with her powerful arm swing and jumping ability; she also has the ability to pick apart a team’s defense with her court awareness. Franki is a really aggressive server and through the years has also brought her defense up to another level. Her overall ball control and knowledge on the court is bar none. Franki makes everyone around her better and raises their games by her intense play and passion for the game. She is a work horse and has spent countless hours in the gym training her whole life for a sport which she loves. We are so proud of the leader that she is on and off the court and the joy of the game and intensity she brings to our practices, our games, to this team and program. She is so deserving of all her success.”
Performance Point: “Saturday was a very long, exhausting day,” Strefling said. “Honestly, with the training we do during practice, I think we’ve gotten a lot more intense during practice. We’re doing more mental strengthening. We’re doing a lot more conditioning. That’s what helped us more. After 12 hours, teams were exhausted, but I think we were more in shape. ... Throughout the whole day, I think I played pretty consistently, and I’m proud of that being it was such a long day.”
Seasoned veteran: “I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is how to be a better leader, connect with my team. How to be more than just teammates; how to become a family. I’ve learned their strengths and weaknesses, how they like to be told what they’re doing wrong. I’ve just learned about them individually, just learned with them. We have seven seniors who have been up (on varsity) for four years now, and that helps a lot.”
Serving notice: "Our community has started to appreciate (our success) more. We’re getting more people at games, and it means more personally that the work we’re putting in is finally getting recognized. On social media, lots of people have started sharing everything. It kinda started last year … usually we’re the small school; nobody pays attention to us. But we’re making a name for ourselves and people are recognizing us. It’s awesome."
Following Dad: "My dad is really everything I’ve become. Ever since I could walk, I’ve been in the gym with his teams. Sometimes I’ll look up in the stands and he’ll be telling me what I’m doing wrong, what I need to fix. It’s a reminder constantly of what I need to be doing – (and) I always love it. When I’m struggling especially, when he’s there cheering it’s such a great feeling, that I’m making him proud."
Strefling sharp: “I think the best part of my game would be my mental stability. We can get down in games, like this weekend we were down 15-2 and came all the way back. Just being mentally strong, against a team that took from us three years now, I told (my teammates) we need to stop. We need to get back in the groove, and don’t worry about the score. Do the basics. Do what we train for.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2016-17 school year, Second Half and the Michigan National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2016-17 honorees:
Sept. 8: Noah Jacobs, Corunna cross country – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Franki Strefling and her Buchanan teammates are ranked No. 3 in Class B this week. (Middle) Strefling watches as a spike falls for a point during a recent match. (Photos courtesy of the South Bend Tribune/Michael Caterina.)
Weber Coming Up Big Again as Madison Eyes League, District Opportunities
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
October 12, 2021
ADRIAN – Abby Weber doesn’t stand out on the volleyball court during warm-ups or lineup introductions.
At about 5-foot-6, Weber doesn’t look like a dominating volleyball player – until the game starts, that is. After that, opponents better know where she’s at and how to stop her.
The Adrian Madison senior captain has been the key cog in a Trojans volleyball team that won its 33rd match of the season Monday. She’s on the varsity for the fourth straight season and, with her on the team, Madison hasn’t lost a Tri-County Conference game. The Trojans have won 49 straight TCC matches – and picked up five straight league titles along the way. They are in great shape to capture a sixth straight as they are 7-0 in the league with five matches left.
In the win over Ottawa Lake Whiteford, Weber was more than dominating, standing out for her serving, hitting, and seemingly making every dig necessary.
“It’s just her drive,” Madison coach Heather Lanning said. “She is one of those kids who has a heart of gold and the drive and the ambition. She will not let a ball drop.”
Weber started playing volleyball when she was 6, at the YMCA in Adrian. She attended volleyball camps at Madison while growing up, then joined a travel team out of Toledo, located about 35 minutes from Madison, which is in Lenawee County. She played two years on the middle school team, then was brought straight to the Trojans varsity as a freshman.
She played her way into the lineup and has stayed there since. Last year she was the only underclassmen in an otherwise all-senior lineup. Despite not being a senior, she was a captain. It is a role she relishes.
“They all depend on me because I’m a captain,” she said. “I love to help them and give them energy. When someone gets a kill or something, I want to congratulate them because it’s a big deal. They love it.”
In the win over Whiteford, Weber recorded her 1,500th career kill. Earlier this year she went over 1,000 digs. It’s kind of like a basketball player having 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds during a career.
“It just goes to show her drive and her ability on the court,” Lanning said. “That’s just Abby.”
Lanning is the second coach Weber has played for during her four-year varsity career. Lanning previously coached the Trojans JV team, so she was familiar with most of the Madison varsity when she got the head coaching job. She didn’t now Weber, but it didn’t take her long to notice what a gem she had inherited.
“She already knew everyone else,” Weber said. “I was into the mix with them.”
Lanning was looking over some statistics from the last couple of seasons when she realized the milestone her returning all-conference and all-county player was nearing.
“She told me I was coming up to 1,500 digs,” Weber said. “I know it was a pretty great accomplishment to get it. I’m happy about it.”
Weber said she couldn’t do it alone. Through Monday she has 1,508 career digs and 1,104 career kills. She had 19 kills and 17 digs in Monday’s match alone.
“My team helps me,” Weber said. “I wouldn’t be able to get a dig if it wasn’t for people helping me and telling me where everyone is, and I wouldn’t have as many kills as I do if it wasn’t for my setters and back row making the pass. It’s because of everyone.”
Driven by a high energy level on the court, Weber often serves, then makes a move to get closer to the net, and, finally, will get to the front row before the ball is back on her team’s side.
“I like to go with the faster-pace tempo,” she said.
Lanning said wherever she puts Weber, she is impressed.
“She’s very effective on the attack from the back row,” Lanning said. “She can still kill it from the back row. It doesn’t matter where she is at.”
The moves Weber made impressed her opposing coach Monday. Whiteford’s Janie Bunge saw far too much of Weber.
“She was everywhere,” Bunge said. “As soon as her rotation came up, she’d serve six or seven points in a row. We couldn’t stop her.”
Weber is interested in playing college volleyball but isn’t sure where at the moment. She’s been looking at some schools at the NAIA level.
“I love being part of a team,” Weber said. “I have made a lot of friends from volleyball and competing against other teams. It’s really fun.”
Madison keeps getting stronger as the season goes on. They are getting contributions from multiple players, including sophomores Tatum Wilson and Jillian Kendrick, four juniors and five of Weber’s fellow seniors, such as Mallory Palpant and Hannah Kendrick. All four of those players had their moments in Monday’s win.
Madison has begun getting some votes in the weekly Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association rankings. The Trojans were among the honorable mention teams in the latest Division 3 poll. The top-ranked team – Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central – is in the District that Madison will host.
“We are thinking about Districts,” Weber said. “We’re just going to try and figure out where the other teams’ holes are and what we need to do.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Adrian Madison’s Abby Weber gets high over the net on a kill attempt this season against Sand Creek. (Middle) Webber sends a volley back toward the Aggies’ side of the net. (Photos by Mike Dickie.)