Lowell Follows Lone Senior to Inaugural MHSAA Boys Volleyball Championship
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
June 6, 2026
BATTLE CREEK — Drew Davidson left Kellogg Arena on Saturday with the first Division 2 Finals championship trophy awarded by the MHSAA for boys volleyball – and also with a pocket full of timeouts.
Davidson’s Lowell boys volleyball team defeated Grand Rapids South Christian in the best-of-5 final, 3-1. Despite an up-and-down, back-and-forth match with Lowell prevailing 25-23, 25-20, 23-25 and 25-18, Davidson called no timeouts during the Final.
“I like seeing them get flustered and see how they respond,” Davidson said. “You saw in the third game where we responded poorly and couldn’t side out, and then what happened in the fourth game? We responded and came back out and finished the job off.
“For a young team, it’s not always going to be perfect, but to see how they respond to getting flustered, I like to see that.”
Saturday’s historic championship marked a culmination of more than two years’ work since the May 2024 announcement of the boys volleyball tournament joining the MHSAA postseason schedule.
That fact was not lost on Davidson nor his son, Max, the lone senior on a team that had collected three consecutive state volleyball championships (awarded previously by the coaches association) entering Saturday’s Finals.
“It’s the first and the fourth for us,” Drew Davidson said. “It’s Max’s senior year so he’s won every year, so that’s kind of a cool way to send him out. With it being an MHSAA sport now, it’s just makes it even better to bring the first one home and have that on the record books.”
Max Davidson led a team of 11 total — including six freshmen — and turns the setting reins over to freshman Issac Kissinger.
“I don’t have to worry about the program after I leave,” Max Davidson said. “I know Issac can take over. He’s definitely better than when I was a freshman, so I can’t imagine how good he’s going to be as a senior. And all the other freshmen who came in and filled really big roles, they did a really good job.”
They needed to in order to defeat a talented and senior-laden South Christian team for the third time this season. The Sailors had a lead in every set and the first set knotted at 23-23 before Lowell won the last two points.
The second set was back and forth as well, with neither team holding a lead larger than two points until consecutive aces by Lowell junior Lincoln Pollema put the Red Arrows up 19-16. South Christian tied it at 19-19 before Lowell scored six of the next seven points, including the set-winning kill by Kissinger.
The third set featured just about everything from both sides — with South Christian jumping out to a 17-11 lead, a Brock Hoekwater one-armed dig finding the floor on the other side the final point of four straight.
Drew Davidson did not call timeout, and his team responded on Pollema’s serve, scoring eight in a row for a 19-17 lead. With the score tied 23-23, seniors Jack Borisch and Carson Joldersma each had kills to close the set for South Christian.
“We’ve played Lowell three times, but we stood in it with them today, and I thought we played an incredible match,” South Christian coach Mya Udell said. “I just can’t be more proud of the guys, how they worked together and how they’ve come together. They’ve been a huge support for each other, and it’s just been great to be a part of.
“We took a set off Lowell, and they’re an incredible team.”
Lowell jumped out to a 19-11 lead in the fourth set before a South Christian timeout ignited a six-point run that included three straight Joldersma kills — but did not result in a Lowell timeout.
Instead, the Red Arrows took serve on a kill by Kissinger, got two Jaeger Smith kills and with freshman Teylon Compton serving, closed it out with a Kissinger kill and block kill by junior Josh Wolfers.
“That was a crazy game. South Christian brought it,” Drew Davidson said. “They played really well, so that was fun to come against and have to overcome. The boys did eventually.”
The Sailors lose seven seniors from this year’s runner-up squad that finished 28-14-2, and Udell said the group leaves behind a lasting legacy.
“I think for them, their legacy is they can always be known for that first season, making it to a state championship and having a great record,” she said. “But they’re also great men. They love the Lord, they care about others and they’re going to do great in the real world.”
Lowell, which finished the season 27-6, likely will not be a stranger to the MHSAA Finals. Of the 11 players on the roster, four are juniors and six are freshmen — with six additional freshmen on the way.
“We’ve been playing four, five, six freshmen, so it’s super exciting to see those guys grow,” Drew Davidson said. “The opportunity they get to play with the older kids and then what that’ll do for next year, that’s exciting.”
PHOTOS (Top) Lowell players huddle on the court during their Division 2 championship win Saturday at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) The Red Arrows’ Will Selent elevates during a serve.
Cochran, Jenison Rising Among Elite of Inaugural MHSAA Boys Volleyball Season
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
May 27, 2026
JENISON – Quinn Cochran never envisioned that one day he would have the opportunity to compete for a state championship while playing volleyball.
But with boys volleyball an MHSAA-sponsored sport for the first time this spring, Cochran and his second-ranked Jenison squad will have the chance to do just that as they begin postseason play tonight as one of nearly 120 teams participating in the inaugural postseason.
“I love it,” the 6-foot-2 high-flying Cochran said. “It’s great for us, and the sport is finally getting the recognition it deserves, especially because it’s such a fun sport. It’s also a chance for kids who want to play a spring sport.
“There are some teams that just want to play for fun, and some that want to be competitive and try to win a state championship. That’s what we’ve been focusing on this year. The first few years as a club sport it was just about ‘let’s have fun and get better,’ but now that it’s an actual sanctioned sport we want to go and play and win.”
The Wildcats will play Muskegon Mona Shores tonight in a Division 1 first-round Regional matchup.
A victory would more than likely set up a highly-anticipated match against top-ranked Grand Haven, which Jenison beat recently – handing the Bucs their only loss of the season.
“We have a lot of confidence knowing that we can go in and compete against the top teams in the state,” Cochran said. “We know we can play them and beat them, so if we play like we know we can play then we can definitely win a state title.
“Our toughest battle will be Grand Haven on Friday. They were down one of their top players last time when we played them, but we still can beat them. We didn’t play as well as we could’ve against them earlier in the season, and I think if we can beat Grand Haven then we have a good chance to win it.”
Cochran, an athletic outside hitter/setter, is one of several talented players for head coach Teran Peerboom-Vanderbroek.
Jenison entered today with a sparkling 29-4-1 record.
“They’ve done a really good job all year of kind of dialing in, working hard and improving,” Peerboom-Vanderbroek said. “They’ve really concentrated on where our weaknesses are and then focused on fixing them. We had that big win against Grand Haven and played well against Hudsonville, so this is a hard-working group of guys who have a good chance of making a run if we play well this week.”
Cochran believes that the team’s versatility has been a major factor in their success.
“I think what makes us good is that we don’t have a weak spot,” he said. “Our setting and hitting have been great, as well as our passing, serving and middle blocking. We don’t have a hole in our team, and we are all super solid.”
Cochran, a two-year captain, has been the catalyst of this year’s team after a breakout junior season that garnered all-state second-team honors.
He’s been one of the top players in the state again this season and was recently named a finalist for the Mr. Volleyball Award by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association.
Grand Haven’s Caleb Cryst, Saline’s Quinn Burns, White Lake Lakeland’s Zachary Dorbin and Farmington’s Charlie Engelhardt are the other finalists.
“I think it’s very cool to be recognized like that,” Cochran said. “And being recognized as one of the best players in the state is something I’ve worked toward my whole life. Seeing that hard work pay off is definitely a good pat on the back, and helping my team be competitive has been fun.”
Cochran played basketball all four years of high school and baseball until his sophomore year.
His true passion is volleyball, and he’s gradually improved each year while playing on indoor club teams for the past seven.
“We had a beach volleyball court in our backyard, and I loved playing with my dad and his buddies,” Cochran said. “At a young age I knew I could play well against people older than me, and then I took it seriously. I started playing at a high level in club and realized I could play at that level.”
Cochran has been playing beach volleyball since he was 6, and even had the opportunity to play with AVP players Logan Webber and David Ryan in tournaments. “That was definitely fun, and I was grateful for the experiences,” Cochran said.
He will play next season at Cornerstone University.
“I didn’t think about playing in college until my junior year,” Cochran said. “I was playing pretty well, and I didn’t want to be done playing indoor volleyball. I was a little late in the recruiting process, but I narrowed it down and I wanted to be close to home.”
Peerboom-VanderBroek has high praise for Cochran’s character and leadership, but has also been impressed by his ability to adapt to a different role when called upon.
“He’s very selfless as well, and he’s been playing some middle for us, which is definitely not his preferred position,” she said. “It seals up some of our blocking issues, and he can run and pass out of the middle and take control a little bit.
“It has been really great, and I think he’s seeing the team’s success as a result of the move – so I’m really proud of him in that way. It’s not easy to go from a spot that you really shine in to something more uncomfortable, but it makes our team better.”
Dean 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) Jenison’s Quinn Cochran (1) winds up for a kill attempt against Hudsonville this season. (Middle) Cochran, far left, elevates for another kill attempt. (Below) Cochran and his teammates pose for a photo with a trophy in hand. (Photos courtesy of Quinn Cochran.)