Grand Rapids Christian Returning to Semifinals, Ready for Next Challenge
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
November 20, 2025
GRAND RAPIDS – A Regional exit from the MHSAA Tournament last year wasn’t necessarily the norm for the Grand Rapids Christian volleyball program.
The returning players aimed to change that and get the Eagles back where they are typically found during the final weekend of the season.
Grand Rapids Christian will make its return to the Semifinals in Battle Creek after defeating Tecumseh 3-2 in Tuesday’s Division 2 Quarterfinal.
It will be the Eagles’ fifth Semifinal appearance over the last seven years, but last season’s five-set loss to South Christian in a Regional Final has provided the fuel for this year’s tournament run.
“After that loss last year, it definitely wasn’t what we expected or wanted, and I think from the moment we lost that game all the returners just felt a different kind of hunger for next season,” Grand Rapids Christian junior standout Grace Goodyke said. “We were already talking about our plans and what we wanted to change and keep going forward with.
“I think we knew this was the season that we had the talent, and all the girls had a love for each other that was super special and we had the opportunity to go far. It came down to the work we were ready to put in.”
Eagles coach Amy Huisken, who returned eight players, said expectations were high coming into the season.
“This is one of the goals that our team set way back in the beginning of the season,” she said. “So this is where we expected to be and wanted to be. Every win and every loss was for this purpose.”
Goodyke, a three-year varsity player, has led the Eagles’ charge and amassed more than 500 kills.
She understood the winning tradition of the program as an incoming freshman. The Eagles won three consecutive Division 2 championships from 2018-20.
“I had to buy into the culture pretty quickly, and I think our upperclassmen did a great job of showing me about the legacy that they came into,” Goodyke said. “This season we talk a lot about playing for each other and just trusting everybody to do their roles. We are just super close, and we use that to our advantage.”
The Eagles have played this season without senior Mallory Bremer, who tore her ACL and MCL during club season. But a core of key players has stepped up to lead the way.
Junior captain Piper Cebulski has 490 assists and is nearing 1,000 for her career, while junior Taylor Frost has provided leadership on the court while reaching 1,000 assists during Districts.
Sophomore Mya McKinnon is a two-year starter in the middle and has a hitting percentage over .400.
“We obviously have talent, but if you don’t have anything to back talent then it doesn't take you too far,” Huisken said. “The girls know who they are playing for, and it's the person next to them. Everyone works so hard in their role, knowing it's what the team needs to be successful. No selfishness and everyone working for each other.”
The Eagles tied for the championship in the Ottawa-Kent Conference White, facing the likes of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern, East Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids Catholic Central.
Grand Rapids Christian also has played against the top teams from the other side of the state.
“It makes us a battle-tested team, so we’re ready for tough moments,” Huisken said. “We do that on purpose, and we understand that our end result isn't going to say we're 25-0. But the losses are part of our story and how we got here. It's important for us to have that tough schedule, and we've had it throughout the tournament, too. There’s only one team we’ve played that hasn’t been ranked.”
The Eagles (36-9) will clash with reigning champion Detroit Country Day (27-9) in Friday’s Semifinal.
“They are a very good team,” Goodyke said. “I think we expect it to be a highly-competitive match. We do know that our coach has scheduled us against top teams in the state all season long, and our conference is pretty difficult so that prepares us as well.
“Those are the types of games we like. We’ve trained for those types of games, and I think we are ready to go out and just have fun and show the work that we’ve put in.”
Two more West Michigan teams advanced to this weekend.
Byron Center is in the Semifinals for the first time in 32 years after sweeping Ann Arbor Skyline 3-0 in a Division 1 Quarterfinal.
“This team is very special and their team chemistry is as good as any team I have ever coached,” Bulldogs coach Missy Ritz-Johnson said. “They are exceptional teammates that work very hard together, and their success is largely due to who they are as people and how much they care for each other. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
The Bulldogs (37-5-2) will face Farmington Hills Mercy (40-5-3) today at 4:30 p.m., while Rockford (46-1-1) meets Bloomfield Hills (42-6-1) in the other Division 1 Semifinal.
The Rams, who lost to Northville in last year’s championship match, defeated Traverse City Central 3-0 in a Quarterfinal.
All four Finals are slated for Saturday.
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) Grand Rapids Christian takes a photo with their newly-won Regional championship trophy last week. (Middle) The Eagles’ Grace Goodyke gets up for a kill attempt against Tecumseh during Tuesday’s Quarterfinal. (Photos courtesy of the Grand Rapids Christian girls volleyball program.)
'On the Map:' Nwabueze Hitting Rising Bloomfield Hills Into Championship Mix
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 30, 2025
BLOOMFIELD HILLS – Those who have kept an eye on the Division 1 state volleyball rankings this season may have done a double take at least a few times throughout the fall.
Was that Bloomfield Hills consistently ranked among the top five and now No. 2 in the latest coaches poll? Ahead of state powers such as Farmington Hills Mercy and Bloomfield Hills Marian?
Yes, that has been the case.
“I think we’ve put ourselves on the map this year,” said senior Kayla Nwabueze.
To those more familiar with Bloomfield Hills, it’s easier to see the biggest reason why the Blackhawks have become such a force – Nwabueze’s transcendent talent.
A finalist for the Miss Volleyball Award, she just surpassed 2,000 career kills, 1,000 career digs and 1,300 career receptions, and owns the school record for kills (2,013 heading into Wednesday’s match against Rochester).
Nwabueze has excelled at multiple positions on the court throughout her high school and club careers. But this season, first-year Bloomfield Hills head coach Brian Kim decided to put Nwabueze exclusively at outside hitter, and she had delivered with 547 kills heading into that Rochester match.
“It allowed her to have a more defined role in our offense,” Kim said. “Middle is her primary position, and she is extremely strong and capable in the middle. But we moved her to the outside to help out our offense.”
Nwabueze didn’t start club volleyball until age 12. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have skills already developed. Nwabueze has an older sister, Ashlea, who played the sport, and the two would constantly do drills and have practice sessions together before Kayla got into club ball.
“We definitely were playing outside,” Kayla said. “She definitely taught me to play volleyball in the backyard and helped me grow in volleyball.”
As much of a surgeon as Nwabueze is on the court – showing exceptional precision with her hitting – she wants to be an even better one off the court one day.
Nwabueze will play college volleyball at Harvard, where she wants to study medicine and ultimately become an orthopedic surgeon.
Nwabueze carries a 4.0 grade-point average attending the prestigious International Academy in Bloomfield Hills, which doesn’t have sports programs and allows students to play sports in the Bloomfield Hills district.
While she had overtures to play for more prominent college volleyball programs, the academic side of things was more of a priority – making Harvard the fit.
“I was just thinking about more than just volleyball and what I wanted to do after the fact,” said Nwabueze, who also considered Yale. “Harvard really had a nice plan for me.”
But there is more business to be taken care of in the coming weeks before Nwabueze starts focusing on that part of her future.
First, she is a legitimate candidate to become the first player in school history to win the Miss Volleyball Award.
More importantly, she wants to help Bloomfield Hills continue what’s been a historic season.
The Black Hawks will play in a District next week at Troy Athens, where a likely District Final matchup with No. 4-ranked and neighbor Bloomfield Hills Marian awaits.
Each team has a bye into Wednesday’s semifinal round, and barring major upsets, they should get through to face each other on Nov. 7.
“It is special to know that I broke some of the records here and set that bar,” Nwabueze said. “We have done so good this year, and we are still going and are still playing hard. I hope we can go farther.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTO (Top) Bloomfield Hills’ Kayla Nwabueze (19) winds up for a kill attempt this season against Lake Orion. (Photo by Kristina Sikora/KMS Photography. Headshot by Keith Dunlap.)