Kingsford's Kreider Prepared for Next Level After Finishing Stellar Flivvers Career
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
June 19, 2025
KINGSFORD — After completing a successful high school volleyball career, Maddy Kreider is ready to take the next step.
The Kingsford senior is taking her talents to Michigan Tech, where she’s expected to continue primarily as a setter.
“That will be a big step for sure, but it’ll be exciting being with the girls,” she said. “The girls are taller in college. It will definitely be an adjustment, physically and mentally. We’ll be traveling longer distances, and it’ll be a matter of improving the mental part of my game.”
Kreider was selected the Upper Peninsula’s Defensive Player of the Year her final two seasons after the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association began voting for all-U.P. volleyball.
“That’s quite an accomplishment,” she said. “It’s a real honor playing with girls I grew up with. We had a great season.”
The 5-foot-8 setter was a four-year starter and two-year team captain at Kingsford, leading the Flivvers to three Division 2 District titles and back-to-back undefeated Great Northern Conference championships. She twice was named GNC Player of the Year.
She was also selected all-state first team in the fall and all-state second team in 2023, and all-region throughout her prep career. Her serving percentage also topped .900 throughout her four seasons on varsity.
Last fall, the Flivvers reached the Regional Semifinal at Manistique where they dropped a 3-2 decision to Kingsley.
“I thought we’d get through,” Kreider said. “We came out lights out in the first two sets, then it was close in the last three.”
Also among the team’s highlights this past fall was a victory at Calumet, approximately 2½ weeks after dropping a 3-1 decision to the Copper Kings on Kingsford’s home floor.
“We wanted to play them,” Kreider said. “They’re a great bunch of girls to play against. They’ve been the measuring stick up here for many years. Winning on their floor was super exciting. We knew we had to play well just to be competitive. That was a great confidence builder for our group. We were definitely on a high going into the District.”
The Flivvers opened their postseason with a 3-1 triumph over Houghton, then defeated Escanaba in straight sets in the District Final.
Kreider will join Calumet senior Maddie Torola at MTU this fall. Torola, who recorded a season-high 19 kills in the four-set victory at Kingsford, helped the Copper Kings finish 29-5 and reach the Division 3 Regional Final at Sault Ste. Marie where they dropped a 3-2 decision to Traverse City St. Francis.
“It was fun playing against her in high school,” Kreider said. “It will be even more fun playing as teammates. It’ll be exciting to be playing on the same team.”
Both will be playing under new head coach Cindy Pindral at Tech. Both of Kreider’s parents played for the Huskies, her mother (and Kingsford varsity coach) Jaclynn volleyball from 1998-2002 and her father Jason basketball from 1997-2000.
Maddy Kreider recently earned an additional honor when she was selected Female Athlete of the Year for Kingsford’s Class of 2025. She recently completed a solid track & field season for the Flivvers.
At the U.P. Division 1 Finals, Kreider placed fourth in the 100-meter dash (13.2) and anchored the Flivvers to a third-place finish in the 800 relay (1:51.57) and fourth in the 400 (53.03) on their home track.
Kreider was named one of 32 MHSAA/Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award winners this winter and plans to study exercise science and kinesiology at MTU.
John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
PHOTOS (Top) Kingsford’s Maddy Kreider sets for her teammates during a match last season. (Middle) Kreider, right, takes a photo with Kingsford’s Male Athlete of the Year Gavin Grondin. (Photos provided by the Kingsford athletic department.)
Fowler Seniors Make Childhood Dream Come True with 1st Finals Championship
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
BATTLE CREEK – The Fowler volleyball team called its shot in January, naming its group chat “State Champs.”
But the Class of 2026 has believed that was the endgame for much longer than that.
Behind the leadership of nine seniors, they made it happen Saturday, as the Eagles claimed the school’s first volleyball Finals title, sweeping Mendon 30-28, 25-19, 25-22 in the Division 4 championship match at Kellogg Arena.
“I think we’ve known the whole time that if we stick with it and we push each other, that we could do good things,” senior middle hitter Josie Simon said. “I think especially last year, we wanted to do it for those seniors, and that hurt us. We knew during that Regional Final game that it was the big game, so when we lost we knew we had to come in this year and we were ready to go. We knew what we were chasing.”
Saturday’s Finals appearance was just the second in school history for Fowler, and first since 2017. That year, Simon and her classmates were fourth graders, and several of them were at Kellogg Arena watching.
The following year, their own journey began.
“I’m super thrilled for them, and they literally have been talking about this since they were in the fifth grade when they started playing volleyball,” Fowler coach Patty Feldpausch said. “To want something so bad and know you have to stay focused, and know that mistakes don’t matter because the next ball matters, that’s a big deal. We don’t have our individual names on the back of their warm-up shirts. Their name is not on there because that’s not important. It’s what we’re doing together, that’s what’s important. They believed it, and that’s why we’re sitting at this table being the champions.”
While they’d rather not wait another eight years, the Eagles know they could have sparked that same drive and belief in a group of girls watching Saturday.
“Making history and showing little kids that it’s possible, like it’s hard, but we did it and they can do it,” senior Myah Pohl said. “For the kids that we waved at, and they supported us – they can do it, too.”
Those kids witnessed an incredible team effort that led to a title, as the Eagles had 10 players record a dig, and five add at least seven kills to the attack.
At the heart of that were a trio of seniors, as Paige Thelen had 21 kills, Rachel Wirth had 21 digs and Neelah O’Rourke had 48 assists.
Fittingly, that trio combined for the final dig, assist and kill of the game, as Thelen pounded home an O’Rourke set, which came off a Wirth pass, for match point.
O’Rourke’s 48 assists are the most in a three-set Finals match since the move to divisions in 2018.
“She’s the only player I hugged – we got rushed around,” Feldpausch said with a laugh. “She just did a great job today. Our defense was giving her good balls to feed and our hitters did a great job against their big block. Neelah just kept her composure. She was amazing, she did great.”
Skylar Fowler was a big part of that attack as well, recording 10 kills, while Pohl had nine, Elizabeth Wirth had eight and Simon had seven. Selena Stump had 13 digs for the Eagles (36-8-2), with O’Rourke adding 12 and Thelen 11.
Most of the drama in the match came during the first set, as it took 30 points to settle it. While each point was tense, the final point featured a long back and forth that ended with a block from Simon and Stump.
“It’s tough to lose an opening set like that,” Mendon coach Kenneth Herbert said. “We’ve said it all season long, that we’re never out of a match. Even though we lost that first set, we felt from that moment we could still battle. And even to the last point, I felt that we were still battling. That’s all I can ask for out of these girls.”
Cienna Nightingale led the Mendon attack with 14 kills, adding 12 digs, while Gracie Shultz had nine kills and 19 digs. Karyssa Holtz had 24 assists for the Hornets (38-7-1), while Jadyn Samson had 20 digs.
“Good for them, they found our weaknesses and found ways to shut us down,” Schultz said. “We played as well as we could. I wouldn’t have done anything different. We gave everything on the court.”
PHOTOS (Top) Fowler’s Skylar Fowler (7) powers a kill past Mendon’s Gracie Schultz (7) and Sabrina Monroy (12) during Saturday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) The Eagles’ Paige Thelen (13) connects as Karyssa Holtz (3) and Lashell Blair line up to block.