Preview: Several of History's Best Back to Make More, New Contenders Seek to Join Them
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 11, 2026
An impressive sampling of MHSAA girls soccer history's championship leaders will be finishing the 2026 seasons this weekend at Michigan State’s DeMartin Stadium.
The most titanic matchup of this Finals weekend may be in Division 2, where 13-time champion Hudsonville Unity Christian will face nine-time champion Bloomfield Hills Marian in the season’s final match Saturday afternoon. They rank first and third, respectively, in Finals titles in this sport.
Detroit Country Day is making its 12th trip to a championship match, Troy is making its eighth and Royal Oak Shrine Catholic will be playing in its fourth.
On the other side are Rockford, Grand Rapids West Catholic and Harbor Springs, all seeking their first championship in this sport.
Following is this weekend’s schedule at Michigan State University:
Division 1 - Friday - 4 p.m.
Troy vs. Rockford
Division 2 - Saturday - 4 p.m.
Bloomfield Hills Marian vs. Hudsonville Unity Christian
Division 3 - Saturday - 1 p.m.
Detroit Country Day vs. Grand Rapids West Catholic
Division 4 - Friday - 1 p.m.
Royal Oak Shrine Catholic vs. Harbor Springs
Tickets cost $11 and may be purchased online only at GoFan. One ticket is good for all soccer, softball and baseball games at MSU’s Old College Field that day. All four Finals will be broadcast and available with subscription from MHSAA.tv.
Below is a glance at all eight contenders, with statistics through Regionals:
Division 1
ROCKFORD
Record/rank: 21-2, No. 10
League finish: First in Ottawa-Kent Conference Red
Coach: Stu Quackenbush, sixth season (72-15-13)
Championship history: Has never played in an MHSAA Final.
Players to watch: Audrey Muterspaugh, sr. F (10 goals, 22 assists); Grace Young, sr. D (6 goals, 4 assists); Laney Carlson, sr. M (9 goals, 7 assists); Sawyer Lenon, sr. M (8 goals, 3 assists).
Outlook: Rockford has followed up its first Regional championship with its first trip to the Finals and built toward this over the last three seasons with a third-straight league title and second-straight District championship kicking off this run. Carlson, Lenon, Muterspaugh and Young all earned all-state honorable mentions last season and make up part of an overall balanced lineup. Ten players had scored between 5-10 goals entering this week, including as well seniors Reese Petack (10 goals, 7 assists) and Sydney DeKuiper (10/4). Senior keeper Kaia Slanger entered the week with nine shutouts and a 0.41 goals-against average while splitting time in net.
TROY
Record/rank: 17-3-2, No. 8
League finish: Third in Oakland Activities Association Red
Coach: Tony Casali, first season (17-3-2)
Championship history: Three MHSAA titles (most recent 2013), four runner-up finishes.
Players to watch: Olivia Jasniewicz, sr. F (13 goals, 11 assists); Sabrina Gaul, sr. F (15 goals, 7 assists); Emma Rozek, sr. D (1 goal, 3 assists); Maren Swan, sr. M (7 goals, 9 assists).
Outlook: This will be Troy’s first Final since its most recent championship season, and the Colts earned it in part with wins over No. 3 Rochester Adams and No. 13 Troy Athens along the way. Casali took over the program this year after leading Sterling Heights Stevenson to a league title in 2025, and Troy is seven wins better this spring than last. Jasniewicz made the all-state first team last season, and Rozek and Gaul earned honorable mentions. Senior Kennedy Brudenell and junior Kiera Gallihugh have combined in goal to give up fewer than one per game.
Division 2
BLOOMFIELD HILLS MARIAN
Record/rank: 21-2, No. 3
League finish: First in Catholic High School League Central
Coach: Danny Price, third season (52-9-4)
Championship history: Nine MHSAA titles (most recent 2021), five runner-up finishes.
Players to watch: Clair Dauer, sr. CM (10 goals, 4 assists), Leah Nalichowski, jr. F (28 goals, 15 assists); Nia Bordogna, jr. M (10 goals, 21 assists); Emma Wyciskalla, soph. F (20 goals, 10 assists);
Outlook: Marian has finished runner-up twice, in 2022 and 2024, since winning its most recent championship, and the Mustangs enter this decider having won its first five postseason games by a combined score of 26-2. That run has included defeating No. 5 DeWitt, No. 10 New Boston Huron and No. 13 Waterford Kettering. Bordogna and Dauer both made the all-state first team last season, while sophomore keeper Olivia Bussa (0.26 goals-against average) and Wyciskalla earned honorable mentions.
HUDSONVILLE UNITY CHRISTIAN
Record/rank: 23-0, No. 1
League finish: First in O-K Black
Coach: Randy Heethuis, 37th season (687-105-44)
Championship history: Thirteen MHSAA titles (most recent 2025), four runner-up finishes.
Players to watch: Ava Steen, sr. D (6 goals, 5 assists); Addison Pell, sr. M (7 goals, 2 assists); Kyla Kobrzycki, jr. M/F (18 goals, 23 assists); Tessa Ponstein, sr. F (21 goals, 8 assists).
Outlook: Unity Christian is pursuing a fourth-straight Finals championship – which would tie for the second-longest streak behind its record six straight from 2005-10. The Crusaders also haven’t lost a game since May 22, 2024, a run of 54 without a defeat and only three ties among them. A shutout of Marian would also give Unity a fourth-straight playoffs without giving up a goal. Steen made the all-state first team last year, Kobrzycki and Ponstein made the second and Pell earned an honorable mention. Sophomore Olivia Walters had added 11 goals and 10 assists entering the week, and senior keeper Payton Barendsen has given up only one goal all season.
Division 3
DETROIT COUNTRY DAY
Record/rank: 13-4-3, No. 3
League finish: Does not play in a conference.
Coach: Laura Hamway, 11th season (113-58-19)
Championship history: Six MHSAA titles (most recent 2021), five runner-up finishes.
Players to watch: Jenna Shaban, sr.; Megan Mateer, jr.; Charlotte Hartley, jr.; Georgia Hopkins, jr.; Julia Goetz, jr. (No positions or statistics provided.)
Outlook: Country Day defeated top-ranked Goodrich 1-0 in their Semifinal to advance to Finals weekend for the first time since 2021. The Yellowjackets have given up only one goal over five playoff games and have shutouts in seven of their last nine overall. Shaban and Mateer made the all-state first team last season, and Hartley, Hopkins and Goetz earned honorable mentions.
GRAND RAPIDS WEST CATHOLIC
Record/rank: 18-5-2, No. 7
League finish: Third in O-K Gold.
Coach: Ryan Smith, seventh season (74-44-16)
Championship history: Has not played in an MHSAA Final.
Players to watch: Katelyn Adams, sr. GK (0.72 goals-against average, 12 shutouts); Lexy Druelle, fr. M (13 goals, 14 assists); Hadley Giradot, jr. M (8 goals, 13 assists); Kenley Slanger, soph. F (34 goals, 7 assists).
Outlook: West Catholic won its first Regional title as well this spring and got here with wins over No. 2 Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian, No. 5 Grand Rapids West Michigan Aviation Academy and No. 10 Traverse City St. Francis. It’s also been a great jump off last season’s 8-9-4 finish. Slanger made the all-state second team last spring and Adams earned an honorable mention, and they’ve played major parts in the Falcons taking that big step. Junior Avery Dusseau (10 goals/3 assists) is another top scorer.
Division 4
HARBOR SPRINGS
Record/rank: 19-1-1, No. 9
League finish: First in Northern Shores Conference
Coach: Aaron Riley, 11th season (122-74-12)
Championship history: Division 4 runner-up 2001.
Players to watch: Stefi Reskevics, jr. F (25 goals, 8 assists); Fran Warren, sr. M; Maeve Riley, fr. F (16 goals, 19 assists); Lilly Barnadyn, sr. M (12 goals, 4 assists). (Limited statistics provided.)
Outlook: Harbor Springs is up to a combined 34-4-2 over the last two seasons and won its first Regional title since 2003. The Rams have defeated No. 7 Kalamazoo Christian and No. 13 Elk Rapids on the way, with their lone loss to Leland at the end of April. Reskevics made the all-state second team last season, and Warren earned an honorable mention. Warren also is one of only four senior starters.
ROYAL OAK SHRINE CATHOLIC
Record/rank: 11-8-3, No. 8
League finish: Sixth in CHSL AA
Coach: Mark Soma, 23rd season (record N/A)
Championship history: Division 4 champion 2019 and 2022, runner-up 2021.
Players to watch: Julia Kraemer, soph. F (27 goals, 9 assists); Leah Proctor, jr. M (6 goals, 12 assists): Rowan Armstrong, soph. F (7 goals, 5 assists); Jo Malcolm, jr. M (9 goals, 6 assists).
Outlook: After just a few years away, Shrine is back in East Lansing to play in its fourth championship game over the last seven seasons. Wins over No. 15 Auburn Hills Oakland Christian and No. 10 Schoolcraft were big along the way, but the best week of the run came when the Knights defeated No. 3 Bath and No. 2 Clarkston Everest Collegiate back-to-back in the Regional. Kraemer earned an all-state honorable mention last season, and senior Caitlin Wetzel is another playmaker in the midfield entering this week with one goal but 18 assists.
PHOTO Harbor Springs' Fran Warren makes a run upfield during her team's Division 4 Regional Final win over Ovid-Elsie. (Photo by Sarah Shepherd.)
No Denying Timko in Run to 100 Goals
April 9, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The grinding force of Taylor Timko's attacks on the soccer goal comes out in her coach Jim Stachura’s voice as he describes them.
It’s not so much something technical – although the Pontiac Notre Dame Prep senior has plenty of skill – but more a mix of athleticism, vision and drive that sets the all-state midfielder apart from most in Michigan this spring.
“And the more and more she gets denied something she wants,” Stachura said, “the more and more she’ll try it.”
In a word – is “relentless” the right one?
“That was our team word last year,” Timko answered, noting the irony of the question.
“Relentless” can have a negative connotation, meaning strict or harsh. But this is relentless in a good way – determined, unyielding, and at times unstoppable.
On Tuesday, Timko became the 41st player in MHSAA girls soccer history to score 100 goals, netting three in Notre Dame Prep's 6-0 win over Madison Heights Bishop Foley.
She has 13 goals in six games this season, to go with 39 goals as a junior, 29 as a sophomore and 21 as a freshman.
“The best part of soccer is definitely scoring. I think it’s cool that that’s the point of the game,” Timko said. “If you have a shot, I say definitely take it. It’s like anything; if there’s an opportunity there, take it and run with it. It’s kind of a motto, I guess.”
She’s made the most of many as she enters the heart of her final high school spring.
Timko made headlines this fall as the kicker for a Notre Dame Prep football team that finished a solid 8-3 with help from her left leg. She was named Homecoming Queen, accepting the crown in football uniform during halftime of the Fighting Irish’s Sept. 27 game against Detroit Loyola.
She’s also a decorated track standout, as a freshman taking third in the 400 meters and running on the fourth-place 1,600 relay at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final, then running on the third-place 1,600 relay as a sophomore. And she’s a nearly straight-A student, even as AP calculus is making that pursuit a little tougher of late.
But soccer certainly is her best game, and her impressive scoring totals have come against some of the toughest competition in Michigan. Last season’s schedule included the top-two ranked teams in Division 2 – Detroit Catholic League cross-division rivals Livonia Ladywood and Bloomfield Hills Marian – plus another top-10 Division 3 team in Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard and eventual Division 1 champion Troy.
But Timko and classmate Lindsey Klei keyed an offense attack that drove the Irish all the way to the Division 3 championship game – which despite a 1-0 loss to Grand Rapids South Christian made prophetic a conversation Stachura had with a coaching friend as Timko was just about to take off on her 100-goal career four years ago.
“He said, you know, when you get someone who’s going to score 20 goals for you, you’re going to play in a state final,” Stachura recalled. “Just having a goal scorer like that gives you the missing link. We've always had some good players ... but getting the girls to rally around her has been a big key.”
After the 21-goal debut, Stachura thought Timko’s total might fall some the next season because Notre Dame Prep graduated two all-staters including now-Oakland University contributor Katrina Stencel. But Timko scored eight more that spring than the one before, and then upped her total another 10 goals in 2013 – even as the schedule was toughened.
Many of those goals have come on her go-to move, a fake right and cut to a shot with her left foot. She likes headers too – admitting, a little tongue-in-cheek perhaps, that at 5-foot-7, “I've got hops,” she said.
Timko also has three assists this season and 39 for her career, and should push to end up among the MHSAA career points leaders as well before this spring is done.
“Thinking back to my freshman year, I never had specific goals of what I wanted to accomplish. Just everyday stuff on the field – at practice being the best player type of things,” Timko said. “Even for a particular season, I didn't say I want to score 20 goals this year; it’s more game to game goals.
“It’s such a blessing how far we've been able to come, and the things we've been able to accomplish. I can honestly say I never expected this.”
But she’s played a huge part in – as Stachura said earlier this year – setting a standard both on the field and in her school.
Timko will head to the University of Michigan this fall to play soccer but also because she’s an outstanding and hard-working student. Her childhood aspiration was to become a veterinarian, but she’s leaning now toward something in the medical or kinesiology fields – “somewhere I could help people,” she said.
She’s a member of the National Honor Society, Students Against Destructive Decisions and her school’s Varsity Club, and serves as a student ambassador for Notre Dame Prep and math tutor to classmates.
“She’s somebody both the boys and girls can look up to – the guys give her street cred because she played football, and the girls see a great athlete and a role model,” Notre Dame Prep assistant athletic director Dean Allen said. “Some kids maybe in general get big heads on their shoulders, as stud athletes. But she's really humble."
Football was “inspiring,” allowing Timko as the kicker to observe the intensity she works to bring to the soccer field. She also learned a valuable lesson about pressure – what it takes to come through when, as a football kicker, she had only one shot at the goal and only a few seconds to execute.
Timko is loving serving as soccer captain for a third straight season, especially as she gets to share those duties with classmates Klei, Bella Galloway and Lauren Gunterman.
And that lesson in pressure could pay off big as she and the Irish continue pursuing the one prize they were denied at the end of last season.
Remember what Stachura said about when Timko gets denied?
“Relentless is definitely a way to live,” Timko said. “Everyone faces obstacles, and there are easy solutions too. But you have to keep pushing through.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Taylor Timko moves the ball upfield during last season’s Division 3 Final. (Middle) Timko (22), with her teammates and coach Jim Stachura, pose with the congratulatory sign she received from them after scoring her 100th career goal Tuesday. (Middle photo courtesy of Pontiac Notre Dame Prep High School.)