Story in Photos: 2024 Volleyball Division 2 & 3 Semifinals
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 22, 2024
BATTLE CREEK – Four more finalists earned opportunities Friday to play one more match on the last day of this season at Kellogg Arena.
Two Semifinals went four sets and two went all five as the Division 2 and 3 fields were reduced to just two teams apiece.
Saturday’s Finals will see the following face off at Kellogg Arena:
10 a.m. – Division 4 – Clarkston Everest Collegiate (37-0-1) vs. St. Joseph Our Lady of the Lake Catholic (33-3-1)
Noon – Division 1 – Northville (40-2) vs. Rockford (40-9)
2:30 p.m. – Division 3 – Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central (38-4-1) vs. Traverse City St. Francis (35-12-3)
4:30 p.m. – Division 2 – Detroit Country Day (35-1) vs. Tecumseh (57-2-1)
A first-time champion is guaranteed in Division 2, as neither Country Day nor Tecumseh has won a Final before and the former will be playing in its first championship match. St. Francis, Northville and Our Lady of the Lake also will be playing for first titles, while Everest will be playing for a repeat in Division 4 and Monroe St. Mary and Rockford to add to past successes.
Hockey Weekly Action Photos captured the following from Friday’s action.
Essexville Garber’s Audrey Ball connects as Tecumseh’s Lauren Kilbarger (4) and a teammate put up a block in Division 2. Tecumseh advanced with an 18-25, 24-26, 25-20, 25-19, 15-13 victory. Ball finished with 27 kills as the Dukes closed the season 43-13-2.
Detroit Country Day’s Leah Green (14) unleashes a spike toward a Battle Creek Harper Creek block during the Yellowjackets’ 25-14, 24-26, 25-17, 25-23 victory in Division 2. Green had six kills and four blocks.
Harper Creek’s Camille Robinson (10) sends a kill attempt toward the Country Day side of the court. Robinson finished with 15 kills as the Beavers ended the season 52-5.
Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central’s Felicity Mugler winds up for a kill attempt with Cass City’s Shelby Ignash putting up a block in their Division 3 Semifinal. Mugler had eight kills in the 25-12, 25-21, 23-25, 25-21 victory, and Ignash finished with 22 kills and four blocks.
Cass City’s Lexi Champagne (12) sends a ball toward the blocks of St. Mary’s Olivia Beaudrie (2) and McKenna Payne (11). Beaudrie had three blocks and Payne two for the match, and Champagne finished with four kills and 13 digs for the Red Hawks (37-10-1).
Traverse City St. Francis’ Landry Fouch winds up for a kill attempt during her team’s 26-24, 24-26, 21-25, 25-19, 15-7 win over Kalamazoo Christian. Fouch finished with 13 kills.
Reagan Zuiderveen sets for a Kalamazoo Christian teammate. She finished with 40 assists and 15 digs as the 2023 champion Comets closed this season 31-9-2.
TOP PHOTO Tecumseh’s Maddy Vanblack (2) elevates for a kill attempt during her team’s five-set win over Essexville Garber in Division 2. Vanblack finished with 11 kills and 19 digs.
Believe it: Mercy Nets 2nd Finals Title with 'Unbelievable' Comeback
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 18, 2023
BATTLE CREEK – Loretta Vogel had a single word to describe Farmington Hills Mercy’s five-set victory Saturday in the Division 1 Volleyball Final: Unbelievable.
“When we played Marian, to me, that was everything for me,” the Mercy coach said of her team’s Quarterfinal win over the 2022 Division 1 champion. “We planned, we knew what we wanted to do, and we went in there and it was three games – bing, bang, boom, here we go.
“Then it’s like, ‘We’re going to Battle Creek.’ We did our scouting reports, then to get in the Finals, to be down two games, such adversity, unbelievable. I don’t know if it’s going to hit me for six months, what we accomplished. It was unbelievable.”
After dropping the first two sets, Mercy came back to defeat Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern 13-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-12 at Kellogg Arena, adding a second championship to the program’s first won in 2019.
The Marlins finished the season with a 32-15-3 record and entered the postseason outside the top 10 in Division 1. With just two seniors on the roster, three sophomores in the starting lineup and a freshman as one of their leading hitters, one can start to see how Vogel arrived at “unbelievable.”
Of course, on Saturday, they didn’t play like a young, unranked team, especially after going down two sets.
“I think we were a little timid in the first set,” said Mercy junior setter Campbell Flynn, who is committed to Nebraska. “It was our first time actually being in the Finals, so we were all a little nervous. But I think we stayed composed later in the set, and also kept rallies alive.”
Flynn put on a masterclass in game management, finishing with 41 assists, but doing so much more than that.
“Campbell Flynn took over the match,” Northern coach Valerie Lurye said. “We put a lot of our gameplan to making sure (Flynn) couldn’t score, and forcing her to do things like setting other kids. And the other kids showed up. … We forced her to have to do something different, which is what we wanted to do. We did really well Set 2, then Set 3 and 4 she caught on. She’s going to Nebraska for a simple reason, and that’s because she’s able to be someone who takes over the match and understands, ‘Hey, I can’t dump the ball right now. I have other people I have to go to.’ Her movement of the ball is what really threw us off our gameplan.”
The biggest beneficiary of Campbell’s ball movement was freshman Kate Kalczynski, who finished the match with a game-high 25 kills. Five of those kills came during the fifth set.
“Kate, she played amazing today,” Flynn said. “I literally just had to set her the ball and she got kills. I’m so proud of her. She’s only a freshman, but she played a big role. I was just so beyond proud of her.”
Cree Hollier added 10 kills for Mercy, while Angie Butler – playing with a torn meniscus suffered over the summer – had seven kills and 22 digs. One of Butler’s kills came off a wild scramble late in the fourth set and gave her team a 20-18 lead. It was the first bit of distance Mercy was able to create in what had been a back-and-forth set – which the Marlins went on to win.
Vogel said her team started to play like it had nothing to lose after the first two sets, and that flurry certainly backed up that assertion.
The change in attitude and energy didn’t go unnoticed on the other side of the net.
“I would say they just really turned up their energy,” Northern senior Elana Erickson said. “The first two sets, they didn’t have a lot of energy and they couldn’t really serve and pass. They really turned it up though in the third, fourth and fifth set.”
Erickson, who will play at Western Michigan next year, finished with 22 kills and 27 digs to lead Northern (45-8-1). Kendall Hopewell added 16 kills, 11 digs and seven total blocks, while Lexie Stotenbur had 41 assists.
Jillian Collins had 24 digs for Mercy, while Flynn added 15.
PHOTOS (Top) Farmington Hills Mercy surrounds Campbell Flynn (28) in celebration Saturday at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) The Marlins’ Kate Kalczynski (2) connects on a kill attempt with Kendall Hopewell (9) and Riley Loehfelm (16) putting up a block. (Below) FHN’s Madalin Hersman (6) and Flynn meet at the net. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)